Swamp Thing by Maggie Stiefvater and illustrated by Morgan Beem

Summary from Goodreads:

Twins Alec and Walker Holland have a reputation around town. One is quiet and the other is the life of any party, but they are inseparable. For their last summer before college, the two leave the city to live with their rural cousins, where they find that the swamp holds far darker depths than they could have imagined.

While Walker carves their names into the new social scene, Alec recedes into a summer school laboratory, because he brought something from home on their trip—it’s an experiment that will soon consume him. This season, both brothers must confront truths, ancient and familial, and as their lives diverge, tensions increase and dormant memories claw to the surface.

Review:

I had no idea this book was coming out! The only reason I found out about it is because I saw a picture of it on someone else’s Instagram! It was a special surprise by one of my favorite authors. I had no idea what it was about before starting it, and it was a lot of reading this with no knowledge of it at all. This made the somewhat dark, spooky storyline even more eerie.

For starters, the artwork in insane. The plants came to life because of the talent of the artist. And the collaboration between the bold colors and Stiefvater’s haunting words was just perfect. I hope she writes more graphic novels. Seriously, what a great medium for her.

I liked that this was a classic horror kind of story. But, also, at its heart, it’s really a family story. It’s about two twin brothers growing up and growing apart. I loved watching them trying to work together. Their relationship felt so real. Their fighting seemed like real brother fighting. And that moment at the end that I won’t mention because it would be a HUGE spoiler just melted my heart. I had the tiniest bit of a tear in my eye. What typical horror story does that?

This story will make you feel something. It will also creep you out just a little bit. And you won’t want to stop looking at the pages and pages of plants. I read it super quickly, but I kind of want to go back to it and read it again and look at things more closely. I give it an 8/10.