Karina Pena Reviews *The Good Neighbors Book One: Kin*

Title: The Good Neighbors: Book One: Kin

Author: Holly Black

Artist/s: Ted Neifeh

Publisher: Graphix

Publication Date: 2008

The Graphic Novel The Good Neighbors Book One: Kin is an introduction to the story of Rue Silver, which brings two different realms together. The realm of faeries is starting to slowly take over the human realm and Rue Silver may be the only one who can stop it. Furthermore, Rue’s father is accused of murdering a college student named Sarasa Narayan.

Luckily, Rue finds out that the real killer is the brother of Sarasa. After Rue’s mother goes missing she begins to get glimpses of the faerie realm. Rue knows she must find her mother, who was sent back to the faerie realm because of a promise her father broke. Rue finds out that she is a faerie and that her grandfather is the faerie king that she probably shouldn’t trust. In this book her journey has just begun.

She has to find a way to deal with her family, her boyfriend, and the two different realms. It is a well written graphic novel that people can read and enjoy. The illustration themselves do a great job on showing the depth of Rue’s emotions in her struggles.

The graphic novel has some characteristics of the best young adult literature but it doesn’t mean it is one of the best. It is written in Rue’s point of view, which makes it more relatable and understanding to young adults. One of her accomplishments in the book is that she finds out that Sarasa’s brother is the one who killed her and not her father. She can take credit for her accomplishments because she almost seems to be on her own. In the end of the book it does leave the reader hanging and makes the reader wonder what is going to happen next. Even so, it does leave the reader with an optimistic ending that Rue will find her mom and defeat whichever of the evil fairies is trying to take over the human realm.

The graphic novel slightly answers the question for Rue, “who am I and what am I going to do about it?” At the end she does find out that she is a faerie, and she knows she has to look for her mom and help the human realm. It has some emotions that are important and relatable to young adults like isolation and sadness.

The graphic novel is missing some character development on Rue and her friends; the novel doesn’t give any insight on her. Her emotions are seen in the illustrations but there is no way to relate to her in this book because of the lack of knowledge of her relationship with her parents or friends. Since it is the first graphic novel of the series and it has less emotional and character development, it may be that after reading the series the reader may be able to relate to Rue.
This book is great for young adults that are interested in mysteries and fantasy. It would keep young adult entertained and wanting to finish the series to see what happens and how it will end for Rue.

The reader will probably try to find a way to relate to Rue and what she is going through. The book does meet the criteria to be considered a young adults literature. Since it is the first graphic novel of the series the readers just get a slight introduction to what the story is about. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to use the book for education purposes. There isn’t much you can teach with this book.