Sequel. I felt the same I did about the first one: cute characters, intriguing story, but often hard to tell exactly what’s going on. Felt that more so in this volume. Not only because the images are soft, hazy and indistinct- which has a very nice artistic look but often leaves this reader confused what I’m actually looking at- but because there’s very little dialog in short sentences and the story advances very slowly. It’s so atmospheric. I felt a tad frustrated to get to the end of the book and have another cliffhanger, when I was expecting it to wrap up. Nope, we’re just about to head off on another adventure to hopefully discover the answer to a lot of questions . . . but my library doesn’t have the third book, and I don’t feel keen enough about this story to request in inter-library loan.
What it is: the pig and his two friends are still outside their home village, trying to find their way back, but Pig is also determined to find some answers. What is the black fog. Is his father still out there? he keeps seeing hints- symbols on things that are very familiar, a dark figure of smoke that looks like his father – did the fog monster envelop him or change him somehow. Is he a spirit or ghost. No idea. But getting a little bored of waiting to find out. So the three friends had encountered a crazy lizard character (whose eyes fall off periodically, it’s so weird) and he leads them to a much larger walled city with lots of windmills. It’s so bustling and crowded inside the friends have trouble following their lizard guide without getting lost. They basically steal a truck (lizard said he was borrowing it from a friend but obviously that friend had not agreed to this- they get chased) and bust out of the city wall to hurry back across the wasteland to their own enclosed village. Will they be too late. They get sidetracked and delayed along the way- both by Pig’s interest in exploring other things they come across, and falling into tunnels where a kingdom of underground moles live, who worship a figure that looks awfully familiar, and their queen becomes fixated on Pig but might just sacrifice his friends. They barely escape- and then the book ends suddenly, when you don’t know if they got back or not and Pig is about to make a big discovery.
There’s some development among the friends, of Pig suddenly becoming a bit sympathetic towards Hippo, who mumbles stuff in her sleep that reveals she’s hiding a big hurt or past betrayal, and Pig wants to know more but she’s still defensive and prickly about it. Also this strange detail about fresh, flavored air in cans that are some kind of commodity. Tiresome though, in that I didn’t really care at the end to unravel the questions or have these details explained.
Borrowed from the public library. Completed on 5/5/24.
