REVIEW || Sweet Tooth: Volumes One and Two

I read these at my local library, taking roughly half an hour for them both. These were my first ever graphic novel reads, and I went in with high expectations. I don't know why, maybe because it's such a big craze at the moment in the BookTube community, but sadly, I was a little disappointed. I do believe though that this was down to my own personal extremely high expectations rather than anything else!

Sweet Tooth Volume One: Out of the Deep Woods

In this initial volume, we find ourselves following the story of Gus, who lives in the woods with his father. Gus' father tells him he must only stay in the woods, and never stray, as there are fires and very dangerous men on the other side of the fence. Oh, did I mention, Gus has deer ears and horns?

Before Gus was born, there was an illness epidemic that wiped out quite a high proportion of the population. Those that were left, and were lucky enough to go on to have children, did so. However, after this epidemic, every child that was born, was some sort of animal hybrid. Now, 8 or so years later, we find Gus living in the woods with his father, as his mother died giving birth to him, and there is a heavy bounty for those that manage to capture these hybrids. 

However, when Gus' father dies, he dares to brave the new world outside of the woods, where he comes across Jeppard. We first meet Jeppard as he saves Gus' life, and convinces him to go with him to a safe haven. With Gus looking up to Jeppard as a new form of father figure, what could go wrong?

*

I didn't enjoy this as much as I was expecting too. The premise sounded amazing, and I had such high hopes, what with this being the first graphic novel of mine, that I think the expectations became too much of me. The story was good, and did set us up for the rest of the series, but I felt it lacked somewhat, somewhere along the line. I'm just not too sure where. 

I did feel for Gus though. He'd had such a sheltered life and didn't know where to begin after his fathers death, thus he just jumped on the first 'kind' person he met. Which ultimately led to his downfall. Overall I gave this graphic novel 3 stars.

***

Sweet Tooth Volume Two: In Captivity

The second installment picks up where the first left off. Good old reliable Jeppard is actually a bounty hunter, and hands over Gus in exchange for a duffell bag which we later find out to be the remains of his wife.

I much preferred this installment to the first one. We get to see more of Jeppard and his backstory, which was something I felt I actually needed to know in order to continue. The revelations that follow upon discovery of the other hybrids are also quite shocking, and well, Gus is actually quite naive, which is to be expected considering his upbringing.

Overall, I gave this installment four stars out of five, and reviewed both on my goodreads too.