Abstract
Reviewed by: Victor and Nora: A Gotham Love Story by Lauren Myracle Alaine Martaus Myracle, Lauren Victor and Nora: A Gotham Love Story; illus. by Isaac Goodhart. DC Comics, 2020 [200p] Paper ed. ISBN 9781401296391 $16.99 Reviewed from digital galleys Ad Gr. 9-12 Sixteen-year-old Nora Faria and seventeen-year-old Victor Fries are polar opposites. He's the brooding science genius, lost in grief over his brother's death; she's the beautiful out-of-towner, determined to live life to its fullest. In an unexpected romance, Nora's vivacity soon draws Victor out of his shell, until Nora's worsening terminal illness casts an inescapable shadow. She's also hiding the fact that she plans to end her life come summer's end. Unwilling to lose another loved one, Victor becomes convinced that his cryogenics work has the power to save her, but his manic determination may just doom them both. Readers familiar with DC Comics' roster of villains will know Victor Fries as Batman's adversary Mr. Freeze, and this story offers glimpses of the obsession and despair that ultimately embitter him. The madness of passion and the brevity of the text allows the intensity of the relationship to build swiftly to its heartbreaking climax. Beautifully rendered panels in blue and pink set up a contrast between Victor's ice and Nora's fire, with the encroaching blackness of Nora's illness. For a novel expressly intended as backstory, though, the characters remain disappointedly one-note, and Nora in particular never escapes the limits of being a manic pixie plot device. Final scenes involving Nora's suicide-turned-freezing, meanwhile, raise problematic issues around despair and consent. Still, as a story of a love to turn villain for, this graphic novel won't leave readers out in the cold. Copyright © 2021 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
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