Oh, I dearly wanted to love this. The writer, Andi Watson, is a friend (and let me just say, the person who says he "should be shot" in her review is lucky she's not saying that around me--god, I hate the kind of unthinking hyperbole the Internet has created) and I'm eic at a publisher that has published many of his comics. And I have to say, I really did enjoy the writing in the beginning of the book. I thought it was going to be the story of a goth girl from London getting into some trouble and then getting "sent down" (as they called it in Regency England) to gain some perspective in the country and, hey what do you know, solving a local mystery while she's there. In so doing, she would learn that not everyone has to conform to her code of cool to be worth knowing, and she would return to London a more broad-minded girl. No one but Andi could write a story like this and make it work well, I thought about halfway through the book.

And then it took this bizarre supernatural turn at the end (Lottie's friend being named Howard Philips should have been a clue to me), and a horrible truth is revealed with equally horrible and depressing consequences! Holy crap, I thought. If I found out [horrifying truth about much-loved member of family not to be specified here], I would be devastated!

And then Lottie kind of shrugs if off and says, "Oh hey, I'm going to Japan where things are really cool!" and I'm sitting in the bathtub with the book in my hands kind of stunned and "What the hell?" feeling.

Well. I love Andi and his work, but I guess we can't love everything about everyone. But, really, I can feel what kind of book this could have been, and my heart aches for it. That version of the book would have had to be drawn by Andi, too, because, as much as I wanted to give Josh Howard a chance, I really did not like his art. Lottie looks like a Bratz doll, over-sexualized and in ridiculous clothes, even for a "city goth"--tiny, tiny skirts and stripper boots. Howard made a name for himself by drawing cute girls for a young male audience, and he doesn't seem to understand that is not the audience for this book. Plus, his draftsmanship is questionable. He seems to have only one "cute chick" head--only the hair is different. And Lottie's head seems to keep changing size and her mouth moves around on her face a lot.

Plus, what's with that top photo on the cover? Who are these blond girls in jeans? They have nothing to do with anything as far as I can tell. If they had shown some goth girls in what appears to be in a goth club, that would have worked. But they must have had only one picture of a club in the stock photo site Minx uses, and who needs a cover photo that has anything to do with the book, right?

Gosh, this has gotten kind of silly on my part. It's just that--well, you know how it is when you really look forward to something and want to love it and you're let down.... Fortunately, Andi has a library of other books that I do love, so my heart's not broken.