The Sacrifice of Darkness is a beautiful, haunting, and atmospheric graphic novel. It’s a wonderful example of visual storytelling and the adaptation of ideas to image and text.

Highly recommended as an example of the literary work and possibilities of this medium.

"The Sacrifice of Darkness" draws on the Icarus myth and oral tradition in a way I hadn't seen in a while. The art is superb and does bring forth the darkness and light in the story. Nonetheless, I do feel the story lacked body, if I may say. I haven't read the story from which it is adapted, but you can definitely feel its connection to the original text by way of its structure and language.

The narrative element of prose was present even in the dialogues, creating or giving you a sense of reading prose while reading a graphic narrative. Rebecca Kirby's art and James Fenner's colors made the story come to life and brought that textual/descriptive connection forward, which helped the mythical theme be a lingering element in the text.

This graphic novel is an adaptation of Roxanne Gay’s New York Times best-selling short story “We are the sacrifice of darkness”. The art is absolutely gorgeous. It’s not that colourful as the story is set in a world of darkness but I found the colours to be a bit vintage in a way and I loved it. I would buy this one just for the graphism by Rebecca Kirby and James Fenner. On the other hand, the story was a bit difficult to follow, at least at the beginning. I was a bit confused as to what was happening and why. However, it got better after the first thirty pages and I enjoyed the Before/After a lot. It was interesting to see the parallelism in the lives of the parents and of their children. It talked about the subject of identity, greed as well as survival and adaptation. I think it would be intriguing to analyse this book because a lot of things are said behind the lines. The romance in this graphic novel was subtle and touching, the kind you wish to experience. I would have loved to know more as to why some events occurred but overall, I really liked this book. I am going to try to find the short story in order to compare both. I recommend this graphic novel to adult who enjoyed romance and a bit of fantasy.

The Sacrifice of Darkness is unlike any of Roxanne Gay's previous books I have read. It is true, pure, science-fiction. The illustrations are beautiful, particularly the coloring. I found the story itself to be a bit hard to follow.

I got an ARC of this book.

I am going to admit something that I am ashamed of: this is my very first Roxane Ray piece. I have heard so many wonderful things and I keep saying that I am going to grab something by her every time I go to the library or her work pops up in my feed on Goodreads. Still haven’t done it.

The art is gorgeous. It took me a few pages to get used to it, but after that I really couldn’t image any changes that could be made to make it better. The light and dark, the faces, the everything is just amazing. I love how well the story and art pair together. Neither overpowers the other.

The story! So I knew I should expect something great, but this was just amazing. It wasn’t necessarily about a physical light source, but more about the greed and dehumanizing of the working class. It was about how the light went out for people that were used for profit. It was about so much more than just what was shown. It was wonderful. It is something that hit really hard. It made me think about how much of my world was destroyed by the greed of the holiday season when I worked retail. The company did not care that I had a life as long as there were bodies in the store to ring up sales. I was no longer a person. It is not as intense as mining for 16 hours, but the idea is still there. The greed of some can destroy the lives of many.

There is also the element of the poor being punished for the greed of the rich. The demand for a blood sacrifice was so infuriating. It fit so well and it made no damn sense at the same time. It was the best detail. This is very much the issue with climate change and health care wrapped up so nicely.

This story could be read just as it is, but there is so much under the surface that is not hidden at all. I am not one to go into themes and the real meaning behind books. This was just that obvious, but not heavy handed. I loved this story. I really shouldn’t have waited this long to read Roxane Gay.

*3.75
I want to start by saying that I haven't yet gotten to read the short story that this was based on, but when/if I do I'll come back to compare!

I ended up really enjoying most of this graphic novel. The story seemed full of heart from the beginning. I loved the art and coloring, especially how the artist used color to convey the time period; that was really inspired. The only comment I had is that the story itself seems a little thin near the end. I thought the synopsis on the back cover seemed to go deeper than the graphic novel ended up going, and I was searching for some more meaning near the end. Like I stated before, I think some of that would have been alleviated if I'd read the story it's based on, so I've put it on the list to read that and they revisit this one in the future!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book!

A tragic event forever bathes the world in darkness. Follow a woman and a man's powerful journey through this new landscape as they discover love, family and the true light in a world seemingly robbed of any.

As they challenge the world's notions of identity, guilt and survival, they find that no matter the darkness, there remain sources of hope that can pierce the veil.- Goodreads

It is/was hard for me to write this review.  And it was because I liked this graphic novel for the first 80% of it and then it tanked. 

You ever read a story that was creative, insightful and promises a huge twist or at least a satisfying ending and then it didn't. That is what happened with this. 

It is written as if there wasn't enough time to finish the book, so it had to just stop.  That was just disappointing. 

The book takes its time to build the characters and the town. It also takes the time to develop the evil of people and the idea of what normal is. These aspects of the novel are perfect. It is not only tense for the reader but pulls you in and hypes you up. The story is told in past and present for a while before sticking with the present. This adds so much insight into the event that changed the world. But it also leaves a lot of questions. 

Because the book stops in the way that it did, none of the questions are actually answered.  I don't want to add spoilers to this review, so please forgive me if I am being a bit vague. But there is an event that changes the world, a why is searched but it isn't discovered and when attempts to find the truth is made it stops. 

I would have to say I was extremely disappointed in this book because 1: the ending could have been written better 2: answers should have been addressed 3: it felt like a waste of time being that invested for nothing really being answered

Overall, I wanted better. 

2 Pickles

I'm normally ok with books that don't provide much explanation but this was way too vague, too little world-building, maybe I should have read the short story this is based on first.
The colour palette for the drawings we're excellent however.

This is a lovely graphic novel based on a short story I'm now very keen to read. The artwork is gorgeous and I the use of different color palettes for past and present was very effective. The premise is interesting and the relationships within the narrative are very moving.


My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received an egalley of The Sacrifice of Darkness from BOOM! Studios in exchange for an honest review.

In The Sacrifice of Darkness by Roxane Gay and Tracy Lynne Oliver, a miner who has been living in the darkness of the mines for the past five years decides to fly into the fun, and ends up swallowing all the light that the sun had to offer. The world is plunged into darkness and now needs to figure out how to adapt. But the miner’s family is left to deal with the consequences as well. And such is the interesting, dark, yet hopeful premise that begins the journey in this graphic novel. I loved the usage of colour and jumping back and forth between time to unravel the stories and characters. I thought it was actually quite thought provoking - about social responsibility and capitalism and hope in the face of darkness.

Thank you to BOOM! Studios for the copy of the book.

Thank you to the publisher for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this. I loved following the the "love story" so to say and it was so interesting. I never really thought it was predictable and I always was eager to know what might happen next which was a good thing! I did get a bit heartbroken during the ending because I thought it was gonna go different but that's how books work and I think that is also beautiful and keeps the fun in reading.
I really think this book can be loved by many different age groups, and even by people who don't enjoy comics themselves. It has a good story and a good structure as well!

I really recommend this comic a lot :D

This was based on a short story, and it showed. It was a one note story, and it just kept hitting that one note.

And although it is science fiction, there is something that bothered me, how a world could live without the sun. How there could be a full moon, without the sun, and how anything could grow. How could anyone survive?

But, lets say that somehow all that is possible, somehow. Then why did it take a generation to figure out the solution?

Other than that, the art work was good.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

It's a story about a town coping with darkness after one of its miners flew into the sun and it stopped shining. The premise reminded me a bit of 'The Last Day', but here, it felt better executed. The creators didn't get lost in technicalities and attempts to explain the phenomenon, so it's a bit more on the surreal side rather than realistic. And it's a plus, because when the science was largely omitted, the people and the society became the main focus of the book.⁠
🌄⁠
The story explores the relationship between Hiram, the miner, and Mara, a well-born girl, and slowly explains the reasons behind Hiram attack on the sun and desire for darkness. It later progresses to show kids from the next generation, Claire and Joshua, starting a similar relationship. In both cases, there are the issues of class inequalities and prejudice playing a role. ⁠
🌄⁠
The style of illustrations was just gorgeous, using hues to present different time lines and the characters' relationship to light and darkness.⁠
🌄⁠
It's a beautiful graphic novel and a little more profound than what I usually see. It explores guilt, grief, and the repercussions of greed and workplace abuse.⁠

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. Thank YOu Net Galley and Publishers.

First things first the artwork is great. I feel like the coloringing is amazing! I think it really helped with the story.

I would give it a 3.5 stars (round up tp 4 for the purpose of the current star system). Very easy quick read. Engaging right from the beginning but definitely confusing. I think this is due to the limited real estate in a graphic novel but I just did not understand the world building and the choices being made or why.

There is the Corona Council (which is trippy in and of itself) but the council made no sense . There demands and the fickleness.

There were certain times where I felt like something was missing so that I could enjoy the story more.

I recommend it just because of how weird it is.

eta
I've thought about this book overnight and while I would still give it 3.5 I will round it down to 3. This is because of one of the main characters Bear. She seemed a bit flat. She put up with a lot of abuse from being with Joshua and she never seemed to be effected by it it. It was like it was her job from the time she was a child. To be there for him.

I didn't like that aspect and I feel like there needed to be some show of resistance on her part to that task.
And

I received this as an eARC and audiobook to read for free in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to The NetGalley and BOOM! Studios for giving me access.

3.5 starts closer to the 3 mark.

The storyline was a little slow for me and I wasn't really sure what I was reading. Going back and forth between past and present was easy enough to follow though.

The art work was great but wasn't enough to keep me intrigued.

Sacrifice Of Darkness is a short story turned graphic novel. It tells the story of a young boy named Joshua Hightower whose father flew up to the sun and was never seen since. Ever since that incident, the whole town lives in darkness without the sun and Joshua Hightower and his family have to pay the price for his father’s actions.

I thought this book was beautiful, from it’s art style to it’s plot. Sacrifice Of Darkness is my first graphic novel where I can actually sympathize and relate to Joshua and his family’s problems. From loneliness to grief, the book shows these problems very subtle yet relatable. I appreciated so much how the main characters were POC and praise the authors for it. I highly recommend Sacrifice Of Darkness, it has perfect elements of sci-fi fiction with contemporary fiction (the ending made me ball so pls read it.)

Really pretty! I’d read the short story and vaguely remembered the plot, but I really enjoyed this gorgeous, fleshed out, version.

Incredibly unique in its concept. Though remnants remind me of the hunger games oddly enough. However the ending was a bit abrupt for me. I'd say just roll with this one lol

I felt that the story line was a bit confusing and hard to follow with the jumping back and forth between characters. But I did like the story and the underlying themes.
I liked the illustrations and the color palette chosen.
What I really did like was in the story there are the deep concepts of love and blame and overcoming metaphorical and literal darkness. I find myself feeling in the dark sometimes so that really stood out to me. The illustrations take on subtle changes from light to dark to mirror themes in the book in ways that enhance the story; as graphic novels should. I think teens and adults will relate to the themes in this book.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC!

The art in this graphic novelization of one of Roxane Gay's short stories is gorgeous, some of the most striking I've seen in awhile. The story itself isn't my favorite: it's set in a dystopian future but the world-building is sparse in crucial ways. This makes some of the major plot points/character motivations confusing and random-seeming, which was my main issue with the graphic novel. The character development, on the other hand, is brilliantly done, and the central relationships are very sweet, even in the midst of the hellish harassment and threats these central characters receive. All-in-all, this was a very mixed bag for me, but since the gorgeous images linger after reading, I'll round up for my rating. [This review is based on an ARC.]