Lost Girls, Vols. 1-3 by Alan Moore Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Lost Girls, Vols. 1-3
Book Review: Moore proves that anything that can be done can be done well.
Summary: 4 Stars
Just about the oddest preconceived notion in literature is that sex--generally a positive experience in real life--is widely considered dirty, low brow, and smutty (to list very few adjectives), whereas violence--generally a negative experience in real life--is considered exciting, entertaining, and, in some form or another, a remarkably suitable metaphor for the human condition.
I'm sure this puzzles lots of us, but thankfully Alan Moore was puzzled enough to write something about it. Melinda Gebbie nudged the grizzly author into just the right position, and together they got down to business. After sixteen years in production, the world is presented with the fruits of their efforts: Lost Girls.
Lost Girls, you've no doubt heard, is a 240-page, 3 volume story about Lewis Carroll's Alice, L. Frank Baum's Dorothy, and J.M. Barrie's Wendy meeting in 1913 in a curious hotel in Austria near the borders of Switzerland, Germany, and France. To any interested student in European history, this time and place should ring a bell as a geographical ground zero for World War I. Not coincidentally, Moore works with the relationship between sex and violence throughout Lost Girls, arguing beautifully that sex is just a reliable a tool in fiction as anything else.
As always, Moore's writing is beautiful and new. He's one of the great formalists of our time. Lost Girls is told in 30 chapters of eight pages apiece, with intelligent panel work that Moore fans have come to expect. Gebbie's art is gorgeous and colored without computers--you won't see coloring like this in any other comic. To be fair though, there are a few instances in the story where it's noticeable that Gebbie was drawing in overtop of older drawings: in chapter 30 specifically you can see the outline of Alice's mirror through all foreground objects, making the foreground look translucent and ghostlike.
Overlooking that, the art is warm and colorful like a children's book, which gives the narrative a unique (and I mean unique--not better or worse) personality among its graphic novel peers. This book isn't comparable to other comics because it's unlike other comics. Nobody tries to compare Citizen Kane and Eraserhead, after all. It's not even comparable to Moore's other work, because the literary merits of a pornography and of an occult look at the Jack the Ripper story, or a Cold War-era superhero murder mystery, are completely different. At any rate, I like the book.
As a last bit of reviewer's advice: this book is (again, as you know) an unabashed pornography, not a story with some nudity in it. Moore and Gebbie delivered on their promise in every way they could. Men with men, women with women, men with women, masturbation, anal sex, oral sex, pedophilic sex, bestiality, orgies, and more besides. Even if you're ready for this, as I thought I was, be prepared. It's quite a ride. And it's quite a step for Moore, who has enough mainstream popularity to send his idea of free sexual expression in literature straight on til morning.
Book Review: Not bad, but he's written better
Summary: 4 Stars
The presentation of this kind of story was very appropriate, given the subject matter- sort of a bedtime stories little Golden Book for adults. The outside of the cover doesn't give away the graphic contents inside, which will mean it would be okay for you to display on the top shelf if you have kids, or any shelf if you live in Europe.
The story itself was sort of what would happen if someone ran a narrative current through the Kama Sutra, and combined it with something familiar from childhood. Not Alan Moore's best work, (Watchmen was) but a very scandalously informative read which gives you scenes that are unforgetable, touching, and erotic at the same time. Not sure what the creators of these characters would think, but honestly, who cares?
Book Review: Not for the kids!
Summary: 5 Stars
Three women meet at an Austrian hotel before the outbreak of WWI, and share their deepest, most secret stories - and each other. The women in question just happen to be Wendy Darling from Peter Pan, Alice Fairchild from Alice in Wonderland, and one Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz. And you have never heard their stories told quite like this.
Much like he did with the fantastic League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (pick up the books; the movie was beyond atrocious), Moore brings together heroes of popular literature and then reworks their mythologies to elucidate, educate and here, shock. Lost Girls is essentially pornography, of the lush and secretive kind written in the late 19th century. And it's not shy about it, either. If you are easily offended or embarrassed, this book is not for you.
In many ways, though, it's worth a look regardless of your sensitivities. It's a gorgeous piece of work - beautifully painted and cloth-bound like a set of children's books. Moore's working with his entire bag of tricks: visual and verbal double entrendres; multilayered structures; erudite, hyper-literate presentation; and a sly sense of humor. And his treatment of three very familiar, much beloved stories is wickedly clever - he transforms the womens' tales into revelations of sexual awakening, of feverish fantasies and unfettered appetites. Believe me, you will never think of the Scarecrow, the Tin Man or the Lion in the same way ever again.
Lost Girls seemingly knows no bounds, crossing often, and effortlessly, from sapphic lust into full-blown incest. If the book were a commentary on the subjective nature of pornography - one man's filth is another man's fancy - that's where it lost me. It may be more successful in comparing these taboos to the carnage and destruction of World War I - one is certainly more unnatural and ungodly than the other, but only barely.
No matter how you take it, Lost Girls is an imaginative revisionist piece of literature, a bold achievement in graphic novels and another outstanding addition to Moore's oeuvre. 4.5/5.
Book Review: Not that great
Summary: 2 Stars
The idea behind the books is great, however, the books themselves are not great.Book Review: Not what I hoped
Summary: 2 Stars
I thought it was boring and a bit pointless. The illustrations were childish but the story line was interesting if a little disjointed. I wouldn't recommend these books unless you're somewhat innocent and looking for a thrill.