Petit: The Ogre Gods (2014), Book One

October 1, 2018
Despite the art’s fairy tale appearance, this bloody saga of dynastic savagery is very much for adult readers, as it follows the gruesome disruption caused when the queen of a royal family of human-eating giants gives birth to a human-sized son. The aptly named Petit barely escapes being eaten by his cannibalistic clan and is secreted away in the castle by his mother, Emione. Petit grows into a dashingly handsome and adventurous prince under the tutelage of his aunt Desdee, a gentle noncannibal spurned by the rest of the family. Their clan of inbreds is growing ever smaller and more degenerate. “You will mate with humans and you will birth giants,” prophecies Emione to the wide-eyed Petit. “You will save us.” The drama of this first installment is built around the push-pull of Desdee’s compassion for the tiny humans enslaved by the kingdom of giants and the wanton royal cruelty of Emione, who thinks nothing of killing and eating a servant over the slightest annoyance. (Petit himself remains something of a blank.) The richly brocaded backstories, swirling lines, and pinpoint detail of the art, along with the dark narrative sweep of this tragic and violent world, will leave readers eager for the sequel.