God Save the Queen by Mike Carey and John Bolton


god save the queen
This is the untold story of crazy Queen Mab; her regal rival Queen Titania, their battle for the throne of Fairie and the changeling teen who gets caught in the middle. Rebellious British teenager Linda likes living life on the edge, especially when it includes hanging out with slick elfin motorcycle boy Verian, who has taught her how to shoot up “red horse,” a hallucinogenic combination of heroin mixed with her own blood. The potent mixture not only gets her high, but also gives her frightening visions from the land of Fairie. Linda can see the tortured souls trapped in the dark heart of evil Queen Mab, who has stolen her rival Titania’s throne and forced Titania herself out into the human world to search for help. From Titania, Linda learns that her mother is a fairy, which makes Linda herself half fey. It is Linda’s dual-nature blood that makes “red horse” so powerful, allowing her to see into Mab’s heart. Now Titania is forced to call on her former friend and her teenaged daughter to help her destroy Mab. Because only Linda, who is both fairy AND human, can expose Mab’s black heart…with her unique, intoxicating blood. This darkly compelling graphic novel, richly illustrated in John Bolton’s photo-realistic style, is not for the faint of heart. It’s just as much horror as fantasy, more Stephen King than J.K. Rowling. But those who enjoy Holly Black’s Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale and its sequels will find this bizarre “Midsummer’s Night Dream” meets “Nightmare on Elm Street” completely captivating. As scary as she was, I couldn’t turn my eyes away from Bolton’s Mab, a pulp-fiction nightmare in black and purple bat-wing taffeta and dirty white cotton candy hair. Depictions of drug use and some gratuitous thong scenes make this one strictly for the high school set. But trust me tweeners, you wouldn’t want to flip this one open anyway–just one panel of Bolton’s murderous skeletal fairies on demonic black horses was enough to give me the heebie jeebies–and I’m thirty-something!

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