Today I’m reviewing Book One for my Summerween Book Club where we’re reading one graphic novel a week for the month of June. This week’s book is In Utero by Chris Gooch. Warning: since this review is intended for those who’ve read the book, there will be spoilers.
There are graphic novels and then there are graphic novels. One type is the kind that takes you on some kind of journey where there are rules or worlds or planets and aliens or people or creatures playing characters and even though it may not be anything you’ve seen before, there is a sense that things are grounded in some sort of basic shared understanding of the universe. Others take you on a journey as well but don’t seem to care whether or not you completely understand what’s going on. Those books just hope you’re there for the vibes. I find In Utero landing somewhere in between, leaning towards the vibes as much as it can.
In Utero opens up with a huge explosion that takes out 20 city blocks leaving a crater in its wake. 12 years later, several highways have been built over the crater connecting the cities roadways again. The crater remains as a sort of reminder of the incident.
Enter Hailey, our 12 year old protagonist who’s mother is intent on dropping her off at a summer break daycare center located in an abandoned mall that was near the blast. Hailey thinks she is too old for day care and begs her mom not to go. But her mother, steadfast and resilient doesn’t relent.
Hailey arrives at the day care to find a stressed out, overwhelmed care-taker having trouble keeping track of the kids. In fact Hailey brings her a child she found crawling near the elevator. The care-taker instructs Hailey to go look and make sure no one else is roaming the mall’s halls. When she does she runs into Jen, another 12 year old-though she doesn’t look it-who’s also been abandoned at the mall. And that’s when things get weird.
Appropriately so though, right? I mean, that’s what we’re here for—a creepy graphic novel about monsters. Oh but wait a minute…is this one of those stories that’s more allegory than story? Almost. So let’s get into it.
Since the book doesn’t define any of the monster/alien/creature stuff, I’ll be flying solo when it comes to…explaining things. Jen, it turns out, is a giant egg that was laid 12 years prior by her monster/alien/creature mother who in the midst of a battle—wait the battle that caused the big explosion? That’s the one—desperately laid an egg in the lower level of this abandoned mall to protect her. Jen is some sort of metaphysical manifestation of the soul or spirit of what’s un-born in the egg. Jen can also choose to appear as anyone and takes the form of Hailey to prove it. She can teleport through space, walk on air, pass through walls, and chooses who can see or hear her. She takes Hailey to a sort of mindscape where Jen spends a lot of her time. The skeletal remains of her mother is there and also some creepy shadow monster approaching in the distance. If this all sounds very weird it’s because it is and none of it is ever explained. It just is. Which begs the question: Do I need an explanation?
I feel like this is at the heart of this book review.
Several other reviews of In Utero sort of wash their hands of the un-reality of the book choosing to point instead to Hailey’s journey. Richard Bruton writes on Comiccon.com that the book “goes deep into a coming-of-age narrative, albeit a widely unconventional one…”
…when we see Hailey as a young girl, we are witnessing her coming-of age as she visits the site of this explosion: Hailey is on the cusp of maturing. In other words, she is about to be born into another stage of life, guided by an older girl who stands in for the absent mother, because Hailey’s mother has abandoned her to irresponsible adults. -Brad Hawley via Fantasyliterature.com
…it seems to be a “man versus monster” tale, it’s really a story about how one friendly conversation is enough to forge a strong bond between two beings from vastly different worlds. -Sneha Jaiswal of Abstractaf.in
On its face, In Utero is a story about monsters, but at heart, it’s a story about friendship, belonging, and finding the people in life who lift you to achieve your full potential. -Thayer Preece via CBR.com
Of course, this is more about Hailey and Jen than the actual monster fight. —Greg Burgas via atomicjunkshop.com
Okay, since this is more of a story about friendship or mothers and daughters, or coming-of-age, then I guess it’s okay to just shirk the alien stuff and roll with it?
Hoping to answer this question for myself I thought about other stories I enjoy and whether or not the supernatural elements are explained. Stranger Things has the “Upside Down” which they’ve not really explained what it is or how it came to be, but that doesn’t take away from the story. I’m currently reading Absolute Wonder Woman, which is set in an alternate universe and deals heavily with Greek mythology and lore, something I know little about. Does that detract from the story? Not enough to keep me from reading subsequent issues. So I return to my original question: Do I need an explanation?
I guess not because, I really enjoyed this. Even though Gooch and my fellow comic reviewers are trying hard to make this book about everything but the monster fight, I really dug the monster fight! I haven’t mentioned the other monster eggs that are laid throughout other parts of the mall, but they were really creepy! And when things start to happen as they morph together and start to form teeth, man was I in!
To Gooch’s credit, In Utero is also a nicely paced read. He switches back and forth between storylines seamlessly and does so in a way that helps ratchet up the tension in the storylines. His use of color is minimal but intentional. His pages have few panels-in my own comics I tend to use a ton of panels, 7-10 per page at times-but Gooch keeps that number around 2-4 on average and I think the story reads better because of it. It also feels like each panel is essential to telling the story-there are no wasted frames.
And that brings me back to the heart of this graphic novel. The publisher’s synopsis of the book reads:
Chris Gooch expertly crafts a taut and intimate thriller about mothers and daughters, the monstrous and the mundane, and the power of friendship in the midst of catastrophe.
I bring this back up because I feel like if Gooch wanted this story to be about monsters fighting, then he would have written more world building into it. The fact that it’s missing (and that the title In Utero means “happening before birth”) is a giant arrow pointing towards drawing the conclusion that this is indeed a book more about allegory than story. And y’know…I didn’t hate it.
7/10
written and illustrated by Chris Gooch
Published by Top Shelf Productions in 2024
Next week: Skeeters by Bob Frantz, Kevin Cuffe, et al. Feel free to read along with us and tune in at the end of the week for my review. You can also join us on a zoom call where we’ll discuss the graphic novel. Keep up with all things Bag and Board by subscribing below.