Loving, Ohio

August 1, 2024

Gr 10 Up-The fictional town of Loving, Ohio, has always presented itself as a place where hope and love reign, mostly through the local religious organization known as The Chorus. Made up of many prominent townspeople, The Chorus has their hands in everything. When a high school senior dies by suicide, his surviving friends believe that The Chorus, who they know more as a dangerous cult, will spin their friend's death to show why people should join them. At the memorial service, things go completely off into a murderous, chaotic nightmare that has the friends running for their lives and ultimately trying to leave Ohio for good. Erman is crafting a coming-of-age story and allows his experiences growing up in Ohio to shine through. Bringing a dark, supernatural element into the narrative keeps the pacing brisk and shows again how tragedy can be skewed for the public. Beck has chosen a muted palette for most of the book, only allowing the pages to explode with color during violence and death. Fellow Ohio residents will easily pick up on specific references to the pacing of life and the culture that shows up there, but it may be missed by others. VERDICT This coming-of-age story for teens may run a bit slow at times but brings more excitement and panic when dealing with something truly haunting in the dark.-Adam Fisher

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September 6, 2024
Grades 10-12 In the fictional town of Loving, Ohio, Sloane's dad and many others have been indoctrinated into a cult called The Chorus. Something dark is preying on the town; there doesn't seem to be as much effort as there should be to discover what's behind the large number of missing and murdered teens. Tragedy strikes again and again near Sloane and her friends Elliott, Cameron, and Ana--first in the form of a close friend's suicide, followed by a deadly arson incident they narrowly escape. All too aware that leaving behind the malignant human and supernatural horrors in Loving is their only real shot at survival, Sloane and her friends must survive their monstrous hometown long enough to escape it. A gritty, trauma-filled story seeping with dread juxtaposes neatly with a muted yet intense color palette for a powerfully unsettling metaphorical effect. Some complex themes may be more fruitful for older readers or even adults, but the adults' complete disconnection from the bleak reality of life for the teens will resonate. Introspective, thoughtful, and unnerving.

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August 12, 2024
This understated horror comic by Erman (Mariko Between Worlds) and artist Beck (Verse) finds terror in teenage suburban ennui. Sloane and her friends are high schoolers in what appears to be a typical Midwestern town. It gradually becomes clear, however, that the town of Loving is run by the Chorus, a new-agey cult whose beliefs range from past-life regression to the dangers of fluoride. The kids regard their parents’ fanaticism with adolescent skepticism: “All religions are cults. Ours is just a little dumber than the rest,” Sloane says. But after her boyfriend dies by suicide, she digs deeper. The Chorus, she finds, may be behind the disappearances of local teens—and the arrival of a twisty-limbed supernatural figure called “the man in the afternoon.” The trope of surrealistic nightmares lurking under the surface of a small town brings to mind the work of Charles Burns, but Beck verges from that template with crisp art, tinted in muted palettes, that emphasizes the mundane side of Loving, into which monstrosity unpredictably erupts. The story avoids tidy answers to its mysteries, allowing fear to lurk in unresolved questions. Fans of cerebral horror should take note.