I discovered this comic book when volume 2 was released. The cover intrigued me so I started reading this first volume.
The author explains from the beginning the parallel between this comic and the book Animal Farm by George Orwell and why the author chose to revisit this classic. Personally, I haven't read it but I must admit that I'm very interested in it now. So we find ourselves in a castle where the law of the strongest is exercised. The dogs are the law and the others are slaves. But the arrival of a storytelling rat will change things, starting with the behaviour of Miss Bangalore. I really liked her character, her desire to change things and her determination. I also liked Caesar the rabbit and both of them made me laugh. Seeing all those animals go through so much suffering made my heart ache. I was totally captivated by this story, full of emotion and reflection. Graphically, it was beautiful too.
I recommend it to anyone looking for a thought-provoking read
5/5

Not really my cup of tea unfortunately. Really wish I had been able to get into it. Sorry. I'll still promote as it might be someone else's.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really like Animal Farm, so I was excited to read this (very heavily) Orwell-inspired graphic novel. The art is superb - The character designs, the expressions, and the colors are all flawless.
The graphic novel is very gory. There are many scenes that make your heart ache for the characters - but also heartwarming ones.
The volume closes with a shocking reality-check for our main character.

Gorgeously illustrated, but with a very dark and bleak storyline that made it difficult for me to want to keep reading at some points. Remember Animal Farm? This is next-level cruelty and misery, far beyond Animal Farm. If you get deeply attached to main characters and suffer emotional anguish when they are mistreated, then buckle up, because this will be a very rough read for you.

Let me start by saying again that the illustration of this book is some of the most beautiful, expressive, and compelling artwork of animals that I've ever seen in a graphic novel. Perhaps that's why I was so frustrated with how much the story didn't resonate for me. The story itself is beyond bleak, beyond despairing; it starts with misery and just goes down from there with more unmitigated misery at every single turn. I wanted so, so much to love this book (in addition to the artwork, the general concept of animals living together in a castle, forming a community, sounded like something I would love), but I just could not. There's no ebb and flow to the characters' suffering, just an overwhelming and unending despair as the despots in charge enact cruel punishment after punishment on innocent animals and their families. Physical brutality, maulings by dogs, shaming and public humiliation, females being murdered for being female, forced shearing, starvation of children, urination as a way of showing power, violent deaths, and gruesome attacks all occur repeatedly throughout the story. The book ends with the unexpected murder of a random character and the phrase "Victory was further away than ever." So even at the end, there's not even a suggestion that things will improve for these poor animals.

Let's get real for a minute. This book is tremendously accurate to some of the real-world horrors that humans have perpetrated on other humans, whether the Khmer Rouge or the Nazis or the "ethnic cleansing" (genocide) that has occurred in far too many countries around the world. So from that perspective, this book's unceasing tone of despair and helplessness is a truthful portrayal of what can actually happen, and could be an impactful read for someone who has not reflected deeply on just how terrible beings can be to one another (whether human or animal). But it was hard for me past a certain point to enjoy this book because it was so hard to keep watching the characters I cared for go through more and more suffering with no glimmer of hope.

As always, your mileage may vary. This book will certainly be five stars for some readers. And did I mention that the art is incredible? I'm hoping that the illustrator does some books on other topics because I absolutely loved their style.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this review copy.

This graphic novel revisits the setting of Orwell's Animal Farm where a new ruler, President Silvio, a bull, has control of the farm. An elite caste of animals serve the president and live lives of luxury and privilege while the rest of the animals toil endlessly hauling stone to expand the castle walls and collecting wood to heat the manor. Though most of the animals cannot envision any other future, their bleak conditions set the stage for a resistance that is sparked when a rat arrives, preaching the gospel of nonviolent resistance. Filled with stunning and bloody visuals, volume one charts the animals' torturous struggle against the powerful establishment as they fight to regain their dignity and the rightful rewards of their labor. Recommend to fans of Blacksad by Juan Díaz Canales.

Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley

The introduction to his graphic novel notes that Orwell’s classic Animal Fiction is the point of departure.

But it isn’t really Orwell. It seems to use Orwell’s point to make the same classic points about government and how to resist government (and how such resistance can fail or be subverted), but it does so to heighten the violence, and there is so much violence.

Additionally, the animal divisions don’t quite make sense - predator animals are enforcers except for our heroine which is a cat, so her exclusion from the power structure doesn’t quite make sense. She is the voice of reason.

While the book does try to make comments about certain political climates or movements – Silvo for instance could be several different political leaders - the whole thing feels empty without any real depth or point, outside of violence. The lesson or moral if you prefer of Orwell’s book is absent here (as the lesson in the second half of Watership Down even). If anything, this graphic novel just makes you want to read Animal Farm again.

Also this is nothing really like Beasts of Burden or Stray Dogs – unless you count the violence, and this is far more graphic then those.

Uninteresting, unedifying and uncalled-for furtherance of Animal Farm. Being unable to get into this at all, I have to give it one and a half stars.

I really enjoyed the creative design and appealing direction of Animal Castle — always nice to see a unique story told in comics form.

Animal Castle is a powerful, beautiful saga, filled with complex relationships and fully developed characters. At first glance, the animals seem to be chars stuffed of differing factions of human society, but as the story flows, the deep layers of humanity come to the surface, pulling all the familiar human emotions to the surface of the reader’s mind so much so that the reader will forget that these characters are animals and will see through the piggy/ducky/furry/toothy exterior and feel the universal truths from the first page. Enough cannot be said about how the artwork and color palette bring the feelings and emotion alive. The joyful and familiar colloquial scenes are warm, yet the frequently occurring gruesome scenes pull the heartstrings and do not hold back on showing the evil underbelly that, really, only exists among the species Homo sapiens. Just because these are animals, does not mean the horror does not hit as hard. Adult read only, in my opinion. I anxiously await the next volume.

The artwork is excellent and evocative. It’s a very much the classic comic art style without looking dated.

The story is an amazing treatment of not just Animal Farm, but the story of Gandhi. Themes of corrupt power, abuse by those that are supposed to protect, and the common people uniting for a better life are strong throughout the story.

While working on a framework of classics, there are parts of the story that are original and pleasantly surprising.

I'm going to right out and say it this book is not for everyone. This book is slow and extremely gory but if you enjoy books with a deeper meaning and a message to share then you will probably enjoy reading this.
This book is very much in the same area as Animal Farm, Watership Down, and Plague Dogs where the author is using animals to make a difficult message easier to swallow. This book is definitely something I think more people should read because it does make a ton of great points.
I would say if you read things like animal farm, Watership Down and so on this book is for you.

This reads like how the bastard child of George Orwell's "Animal Farm" and Art Spiegelman's "Maus" would be like. I mean, look at the introductory quote:

<i>On the Farm, all animals are equal.
In the Castle, some animals are more equal than others.</I>

It has fantastic art, and a premise that sounds promising. In the end, though, it's more like a darker, bloodier, and less rich regurgitation of Orwell's classic. As if Dorison wanted to do a Grimdark remake of "Animal Farm," and borrowed the imagery of oppressive animal hierarchy from "Maus" so it would be easily visualised in good and evil terms (only that here it's dogs bad and cats good instead of cats bad and rats good like in Spiegelman's comics), and then threw every misery and abuse imaginable at the poor animals. Honestly, the metaphors are murdered here, and subtlety and nuance are thrown out the window, because everything is so on-the-nose, you're whacked over the head with the obviousness of it all and there's no pausing in awe to think for yourself on the subtleties.

It's a pity, because the concept is really wonderful, but heaping all kinds of abuse on every animal isn't going to make the symbolism in Orwell and Spiegelman any better; it only makes this story more gory as if following the whims of an author that wished Orwell were more brutal. Also, the fact that there's no background for the Castle, and it's stated straight in the beginning that it isn't known how it came to be what it became, does not help with understanding the world. It shouldn't exist in a vacuum and be so vague.

There are few things I appreciate more than a book where characters behave intelligently. Who knew a book about animals would top the list? Both sides act extremely logically given their goals. Even the conflicts within each group make perfect sense. This book is a beautiful illustration of tyranny and resistance told using charming cartoon animals in really distressing situations. While reading, there is a fantastic mingling of both dread and hope at the same time. The characters are interesting and very believable. The art feels almost like a cozy Disney movie which makes the violent moments twice as impactful. This book takes its influence, Animal Farm and presents it in a way that is both refreshing and deeply emotional. Readers unfamiliar with Animal Farm will still find the story appealing and those who know the work will enjoy the references.

This story follows a castle abandoned by humans where an empire of animals takes naissance. A hierarchy is established between physically stronger animals and the one who aren't. This system is very much a corrupt one that takes advantage of the peasant class, abuse them mentally and physically for the benefit of those in power, until one day a rebellion breaks out.

The art in this first volume was gorgeous, the color pallette really brought me the reader into the eerie atmosphere and ragged living conditions inside the story. I think Miss B and her kittens were my favorite character in this entire novel. I only stuck it out for them. This is not an easy read but definitely one that reflects the situation that we are in now but also back then when George Orwell first wrote Animal Farm which is what inspired this graphic novel.

In this story, no one is safe, no one. I may pick up the second volume once it is out to see how the gruesome climate continue to unfold. Very gorgeous art, did i say that already?

This is a solid 3.5 stars

4.6/𝟱

𝗧𝗪: Images of dead animals, carcasses & carnage.

“It’s a common mistake to think what we have & how we got it, are related.”

🌱THE EXCELLENT
~ Intense storyline
~ Art was very bucolic, yet raw
~ Found family, friends, alliances
~ 3 step lying classes
~ Importance of understanding where your strengths lie & how to use them

Things are not well at Animal Castle - the cows are having lewd sex, the dogs are barking and chomping people up, ducks and chickens are being sacrificed willy-nilly and the only cat (widowed single mom of two) is doing her best and failing and paying her button bills. There is death, hunger and lots of fear - all so the bigger animals, more powerful and vicious animals, can benefit - but a little visiting actor rat is out to change all that. He will help organise the weak animals, help them seek humour and freedom, teach them to fight battles of the mind, and when it’s finally time to face the big bad sell-out cow, they may finally have a chance- Or will it all go to hell?


✨𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱.

🌱THE MEH
~ I’m sick of helpless females, so even in a cat it was eye-roll worthy

♡🌱 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗲 ;)

Animal Castle is a well thought out 'world' with interesting characters (and villains!- who knew I could hate a bull and dogs that much!) with a very strong willed mother alley cat as the main protagonist.

The artwork throughout is stunning, I can't even begin to fathom the time spent creating this piece.
The story and art often takes dark turns, some that I found quite striking but follows a very thought out construct with many layers.
This is not a simple story, this is something that captivates and draws you in leaving you a bit disorientated when you are forced to return to your normal world.

I hope to never join a world such as that displayed in this book although I fear a lot of the social constructs and systems have been borrowed from our human world.

I look forward to Animal Castle Volume 2

Be sure to check the back of the book for the most sensational art works and glimpses into the creative process.

I was gifted a digital copy of Animal Castle Volume 1 in exchange for a fair and honest review

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Animal Castle, Volume 1 by Xavier Dorison and Felix Delep is an animal allegory that is sure to become a classic. The story revolves around the Castle, an area where some animals are more equal than others. The animals are led by a bull and a dog militia, while the rest of the animals work exhaustively. One day, a mysterious rat named Azelard comes to the Castle and stirs up trouble. Will this fable have a happy ending?

Overall, Animal Castle, Volume 1 is a fable that will appeal to fans of George Orwell's Animal Farm. One highlight of this book is how, like Animal Farm, it speaks to current events and politics in the format of an allegory. I did take off 1 star, because one scene in particular was a bit too gory for me. The "victim" was an animal, so it wasn't too bad though. Also, I didn't like where the book ended. It felt like a cliffhanger. If you're intrigued by the description, I recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in August.