What's scarier: fighting demons or letting your kids down? That's what a group of parents will find out as their plans to solve the school's longstanding mystery lead to one parenting nightmare after another!
TO-DO LIST: Drop kids at preschool; Grab coffee with other parents; Go ghost-hunting in woods; Fight demonic entity; Collect kids; Naptime.
With the kids away on a field trip, a group of parents disturbs an ancient evil buried beneath the old Church Hall, unearthing a decades-old mystery about a missing child, and inviting something... hungry into their lives. Suddenly, their mornings go from playdates and peanut allergies, to a battle for the souls of one broken family--and one child in particular, in this original story that combines the highs of parenthood with horror movie scares.
Four bored parents gets sucked into a ghost story when their goofing off at their kids' school inadvertently destroys a ward that was places there 40 years ago. It's an OK story. The pacing is off in places and the story disjointed at times, keeping this from being great instead of just OK.
I loved this! It was the perfect mixture of seriousness but also bright colors and a little bit of silliness to go with the fact that these characters all have a preschool children in common.
It was only 4 issues but due to the fact that it was a wordier comic it felt longer and more fleshed out. As my first love is prose I’m almost always ok with a comic with a lot of dialogue, I have only met one comic that I thought was too wordy so far (looking at you Preacher) so that is a good thing to me.
When I got to the ending I was like huh…? But turns out this wasn’t meant to be a 4 issue, 1 volume miniseries, this is meant to go on and I REALLY hope it does as I would love to see what happens next with these characters and their kiddos. This released in collected edition in August 2021 and as of right now, September 2023 nothing more has been published so I’m going to have to just keep my fingers crossed.
This is one of my favorite series that came out of 2020. Roche's writing expertly balances charm, scares, and mood, leading to a story that feels like a weird mixture of Fargo and Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House with the visual flair of an animated movie, thanks to Chris O'Halloran's stellar coloring.
The story has tangible stakes, thanks to plenty of appropriately unsettling horror-elements. But the best thing the series has going for it is the interpersonal relationships. Each character feels like a lived-in personality with their own baggage and backstories that organically make their way into the story. Roche juggles a lot of content in these four issues, and it's a testament to his pacing that his core cast and their dynamic feel as distinct as they do. And focusing the story on a grown-up Scooby-Doo gang of exasperated, depression-adjacent parents is so great and never comes off as a gimmick.
Roche's writing is admittedly dense, and he packs a lot of text on each page, which may be a turn-off for some people. But since he draws the comic, too, I never felt bogged down by his script. The layouts make great use of the page, with each panel practically bursting with character. I wish the ending felt more conclusive, though, especially since the series isn't guaranteed to return. The final issue resolves the major plot points, but it feels a little rushed, and some of the emotional beats that had been so effectively set up were left somewhat underserved. Still, I haven't read anything quite like Scarenthood, and it juggles many of the themes and genres I crave from a good story. I desperately hope we get another volume.
A graphic novel in which four bored parents looking for something to keep them busy while their kids are in daycare get themselves into serious supernatural trouble.
The four parents remind me vaguely of the crew from Scooby Doo as they battle the creepy evil demon-thing they're inadvertently set loose from where it was trapped. Beneath the stage. In the auditorium. Of their kids' daycare building.
Enter a hard-boiled old priest and a woman in contact with the fae (this is set in Ireland, after all), and the team is ready to fight evil...while conveniently neglecting their children.
This one has highs and lows for me. Supernatural evil that must be fought: awesome. Kids that don't speak or behave like any three/four year olds I know: makes me wonder if the author actually has kids. Bit of folk horror mixed in: awesome. Completely irresponsible parents: meh.
But in the end I enjoyed this and it seems there is more to come so I'm curious to see what other trouble these guys can get into.
The reason I logged on to goodreads to rate a few other comics today. The art work is serviceable in the more mundane parts and quite enchanting for more fantastical sequences. The shifts in tone all work well, and the last really good, memorable page-turn in terms of clever page layout before reading this was in Locke & Key. Maybe I need to read more comics. The library tag makes it look a bit like a standalone thing ("vol. 1" is not printed on it as it is on three other comics sitting here after a recent visit to the library, simply "GN Roche"), so I was expecting everything to wrap up by the end of the book. Finishing it and searching the title here, it's pretty clear there's more. Can't wait.
4.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️! In honor of Halloween weekend, I picked up Scarenthood on Hoopla and am glad I did!
Charming, funny and witty, this one follows a quartet of Irish neighbors -and unlikely friends-who meet up while dropping their kids off at preschool. They get themselves wrapped up in a scary mystery, searching the local library, woods, and old church bulletins for clues.
Betcha didn’t think an exorcism could be funny, but these authors pull it off. 👹👈👉
Well drawn art in a classic comic Marvel-y way; diverse cast; brilliantly colored panels. Annd not to be spoilery, but I think it’s safe to assume that it’s just the beginning of a fab series! Bring ‘em on! #flynnowasright 👍
A bunch of parents whose kids all attend a Montessori school get themselves into a bit of a supernatural bind after discovering that a child, many years ago, disappeared under the auditorium stage and never came out.
After investigating, and unwittingly seeing free this evil entity responsible for the disappearance, weird things start happening.
Loss of time, frigid temperature indoors, seeing creepy creatures, a child's sudden imaginary friend- it's all very spoopy.
The parents have to work together, in the short time their kids are at school, to figure out WTF they unleashed and how to stop it.
It's quite a pretty series and, at times, a fun one but good god is it talky. There's just paragraphs on text being dropped on the reader at all times, taking up visual space and slowing down the story to a glacial pace despite the fact that it's only four issues long (well, the first volume, apparently this will continue, which is the bane of my existence - stories continuing instead of being a one-and-done.)
I'm surprised I liked this so much! The mystery is interesting, the characters are all fleshed out and dynamic, and the atmosphere is on point. Perfect for October!
I hated the plot point with Jen at the end though - it was building through the whole book but I feel like it was just annoying. I tend not to like that type of plot point in general though so that's more personal taste than anything.
Combining parenthood and horror in a humorous way, fighting demonic entities and solving mysteries between preschool and playdates, it's trying to achieve a certain tone and it does so, it's just not incredibly interesting. It's a bit unmemorable.
A jumbled mess of a book that wasn’t scary enough to hold my attention. The plot is paper thin and needlessly convoluted, and it’s hard to discern what’s there as actual plot points and what’s just there as a joke/aside. Hard pass on this.
I don’t even know how, but this comic manages to hit you right in the parenting feels while being a deeply intelligent horror piece that requires a lot of your close attention. It scratches the supernatural itch, as well.
This story is very Irish ☘️. I’m sure I’ve missed some cultural references in the reading 📖. It’s entertaining enough. The writing could be more mature, though. The constant use of obscenities belies the creative ability of the storytelling team.
Far creepier than expected but deeply engaging and it pulled me in and wouldn’t let go. Despite little taste for horror in graphic novel form, I’m impressed with the story and will look for the next volume.
Mehhh.... It just didn't hold my attention very much. I ended up skimming through it just to see what happened, and then learned that this is just the start of the series.
A compelling concept, if not quite as successful as it could be. It felt a little draggy at times, but the art is good and I'd probably check out the next installment.
3 and a half. This was fun. I like the angst created by parenting trials, and the offhanded humor tossed in. Some fun ideas and creepiness. Might not continue the series, but glad I read this
An emotional story of parenthood woven together with a healthy dose of folk horror and strong Irish storytelling sensibilities. Apparently part 1 of an ongoing series.
Intriguing but sometimes felt like there were gaps in the plotline. Once or twice I checked to make sure there wasn't actually a previous installment to the story.