Bayou: chilling ghost story, a graphic novel about race and haunts in the deep south

Posted by Cory Doctorow, May 27, 2009 6:20 AM | permalink

Jeremy Love's Bayou is a graphic novel ghost-story that is scary, beautiful and sad. Lee is a sharecropper's daughter in 1930s Mississippi who finds herself in trouble when her white friend, Lily, loses her necklace in the bayou and blames it on Lee, rather than facing a beating. Her problems only get worse when her father is framed for Lily's disappearance, and Lee has to go to the spirit world to rescue her father.

Creepy and sad, Bayou reminded me favorably of Robert McCammon's award winning Boy's Life, a thoughtful story about racial injustice, the spirit world, family, love, heritage and history, which never lets go of its fundamental ghostiness, even as it relentlessly pursues beauty through the gorgeous pastoral scenes in the art.

This is volume one, and having read it, I'm impatient to know how it ends, and frightened, too.

Bayou

Update:: Turns out you can read it online for free!(Thanks, Fancycwabs!)

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Discussion

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#1 posted by Daneman, May 27, 2009 6:24 AM

I was a Zuda contestant too.

yay

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#2 posted by Rotwang, May 27, 2009 7:05 AM

Oh great, another 'Magical Negro' novel - can't kids solve problems outside the 'Spirit World' anymore?

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#3 posted by the_boy, May 27, 2009 7:06 AM

I've been hunting for a need graphic novel to read for a little while - this'll be great until I go back to school in NOLA in the fall.

Also - A teacher in middle school lent me "Boy's Life", and it was perhaps the best book I'd ever been handed. Perfect for 7th grade, certainly.

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#4 posted by fancycwabs, May 27, 2009 7:12 AM

Strange to not note that you can read the whole thing (or as much of it as has been released) online.

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#5 posted by Cory Doctorow, May 27, 2009 7:22 AM

Rotwang, it may shock you to discover that in ghost stories, people often contact the spirit world. And there isn't a single magical negro in this story so far.

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#6 posted by Sekino, May 27, 2009 9:04 AM

I'm hooked! I just wanted a peak and ended up reading all 217 pages... What a great story! At first glance, I was a bit critical of the sketchy pencil but it grew on me after only a few pages. The artwork gets more and more intricate and gorgeous as you go.

Thanks for posting: I doubt I would have stumbled upon it.

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#7 posted by Tenn, May 27, 2009 9:32 AM

Cory, I'm never disappointed with your book suggestions. This is lovely.

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#8 posted by Brainspore, May 27, 2009 9:48 AM

Bruce Banner is looking uncharacteristically chipper today. Maybe because he finally found a shirt that fits?

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#9 posted by ScruffyNerfHerder, May 27, 2009 11:28 AM

Big thanks for posting this. I've been reading the "Big Book of" series, burning through 3 or 4 volumes a night and I'd be really bored without this.

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#10 posted by pjcamp, May 27, 2009 8:23 PM