I can't say I was blown away by Marjane Satrapi's latest graphic novel, but I was entertained by it. The art is rather lovely and stylish, and the story rather intriguing, even if some of the elements were problematic (like the ugly sister and the issue of slavery being dealt with so flippantly - oh, and the awkward icky behavior of Rose's main love interest). Rose was a very strong, capable heroine whom I loved reading about. I hope Satrapi's next novel is also in his style, it really fits her prose.

Although let's be fair: will anything ever measure up to Persepolis? Well, it's true. You can't really get more powerful a story than Satrapi's own life in Iran. ( )

From the author of Persepolis, comes a rich, lovely fable/fairytale reminiscent of East of the Sun and West of the Moon. ( )

This review and others posted over at my blog

The Sigh is a fairy tale and, as the back of the book proclaims, “contains content suitable for readers of all ages” so you could even read it to a child as a bedtime story. The general outline is a familiar one – a father has three daughters, each of whom asks for a gift when he returns from his journey. Unable to procure the gift his youngest, Rose, wishes for, she sighs and thus, The Sigh is called. He gives her the gift she wanted and in exchange the father promises The Sigh a favor to be granted in the future. The Sigh returns for his favor, to take Rose away, and though the father argues, he has to keep his word. Rose is taken to a grand palace and treated like a queen. She later discovers that a prince has kept her there and was too shy to come forward and profess his love. Their feelings are mutual, but Rose ruins everything by accidentally plucking a single feather from the prince’s armpit (yes) and killing him. So she journeys far and wide, helping others, in a search for the feather so she can bring her prince back to life.

Maybe you haven’t read a lot of fairy tales, but to me, this is all a bit familiar. However, Marjane’s illustrations are colorful and beautiful – they make the book a pleasure to read. Though the story isn’t detailed in the way a novel is, Rose is nicely developed. She realizes her mistake and wants to fix it, but on her journey to bring her prince back to life, she selflessly helps three other families. In a nice twist, she’s offered a man’s hand in marriage as payment for two of the families she’s helped. I’m used to reading about princesses being offered up, so it was nice to see a female heroine. The moral of the story is that life is fleeting and we never know when it might end, so we must cherish what we have, while we have it. ( )

A retelling of East of Sun, West of the Moon somewhat with some other elements woven through. A wonderful folk tale retelling. ( )

A lyrical and attractive fairy tale featuring familair archetypes and themes for all ages. More an illustrated story than a graphic novel. ( )