City of Secrets by Victoria Ying

Summary from Goodreads:

Ever Barnes is a shy orphan guarding a secret in an amazing puzzle box of a building.

Most of the young women who work at the building’s Switchboard Operating Facility, which connects the whole city of Oskar, look the other way as Ever roams around in the shadows. But one of them, Lisa, keeps an eye on the boy. So does the head of the Switchboard, Madame Alexander . . . a rather sharp eye.

Enter Hannah, the spunky daughter of the building’s owner. She thinks Ever needs a friend, even if he doesn’t know it yet.

Good thing she does!

Lisa and Madame Alexander are each clearly up to something.

Ever is beset by a menacing band of rogues looking to unlock the secret he holds–at any cost.

And whatever is hidden deep in the Switchboard building will determine all of their futures.

On a journey that twists and turns as much as the mechanical building Ever Barnes calls home, he and his new friend Hannah have to ­find out what’s really going on in this mysterious city of secrets . . . or else!

Review:

This was a treat. It’s one of those adventure graphic novels you sit down with for a few minutes, thinking you’re just going to get a taste for it before you go do some chores or other things you have to do, but you actually end up reading the whole thing in one sitting. The story is super fast paced, and full of adventure. There’s never really a good moment to put it down…

Also the artwork is beautiful! There’s not a lot of Steampunk out there any more, so it was fun to read about an orphan boy and his friend saving the city from within a clockwork building. The characters and setting were drawn very much like the people and background of a Studio Ghibli film. I literally couldn’t take my eyes away. I would watch this movie.

There were a few points where I don’t think the art adequately explained what the  author/artist wanted. I’m not sure I fully saw what I was meant to in the building mechanisms or some of the action shots. I know with graphic novels you have to let your mind fill in some of the gaps, and the panels can’t capture it all. But, the panels aren’t supposed to make you step back and scratch your head, wondering what you’re looking at either. This did that a few times. Where the artist excelled though was in the characters and the backgrounds/backdrops. Again, they looked like they belonged in motion pictures; they were just stunning.

I loved all the bits of the story that dealt with spies, secret societies, and secret codes. I can see kids eating this book up! The book does have a lot of violence in it, for such a short, otherwise cute graphic novel. But, I guess a lot of the fantasy/adventure ones do now. I was intrigued by the world, the politics, and the characters. I loved following along for the mystery and secrets. And the art was gorgeous. All in all, I give this one an 8/10.