Review - Strange Skies Over East Berlin (Jeff Loveness and Lisandro Estherren)

I really, really wanted to like this graphic novel more than I actually did. It touched on a number of themes I really enjoy in fiction: truth and lies, surveillance and (false) freedom, justice and mercy, idealism and disillusionment, identity and its loss. It featured a morally grey protagonist, and a setting that I tend to enjoy seeing in media. It drew subtle parallels between characters that could have been very poignant and thought-provoking. It had most of the elements that should have made me love it.

And yet somehow, it read like a summary of itself. The pacing was too fast to evoke either the poignancy or the quiet horror of which it should have been capable; the art, while evocative and well suited to the story, never felt quite atmospheric enough to capture the suspense and sense of inevitable dread that never quite manifested.

For a story that relies so much on the protagonist's sense of himself (or lack thereof) and his lies, I never felt that I knew Herring well enough to care what became of him. This may very well have been partially deliberate, as Herring might not quite know himself--but in such a short piece of fiction, it contributed to the overall sense that it could have been much more effective than it really was.

This had the potential to be a delightfully eerie, harrowing read with a striking message. It could have been an excellent example of a story about aliens that isn't really about aliens at all (but about alienation, certainly). Instead, the result is somewhat bland--not because the elements aren't there, but because the pacing and brevity of the story make it seem far too superficial.

I received an electronic copy of this book for free through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Reading Challenges for 2021

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Undirected Reading

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