Saturday, March 2, 2024

Confetti Realms

Confetti Realms
By Nadia Shammas
Maverick, 2023. 196 pages. Young Adult Comic.

On Halloween night, when the moon is full, teenagers get up to mischief. But when an encounter with a giant, sentient puppet in a graveyard sends four teens to a mysterious dimension called the Confetti Realms, they must overcome obstacles in their own friendships and collect the debted teeth owed to the puppet in order to make their way home. But the allure of staying in a fantasy world is a hard one to beat, and going home to their normal lives is starting to sound less and less appealing for some. Will these friends return home?

I know what you're thinking.  A Halloween book at this time of year?  But to anyone looking for something mildly spooky to make their spring a little bit more interesting, I'd definitely recommend giving Confetti Realms a try!  As the characters complete their quests for teeth they find out more about themselves, each other, and the weird and whimsical Confetti Realms they've been transported to.  The book has a color scheme and creatures that reminded me of Studio Ghibli movies, and many of the questions asked are left for the reader to answer, giving the book a generally eerie vibe without being so Halloween-y that readers can't enjoy it outside the month of October.  It has a fast plot and an open ending that leaves the reader wondering about the characters' true fate. All-in-all, a somewhat spooky and very interesting read!

If you liked Confetti Realms, you may also like: 
 
Spirited Away
By Hayao Miyazaki
Viz, 2002. 171 pages. Young Adult Comic.
 
Ten-year-old Chihiro and her family are on their way to their new home. Dad takes a wrong turn, though, and they become lost in a forest. Eventually they find their way to a strange abandoned amusement park. Chihiro wanders off. As night falls, Chihiro finds out she's in a world of ghosts, demons, and strange gods. A mysterious boy, Haku, tells her that to survive Chihiro must find work. She must go down to the boiler room and seek out an old man named Kamaji.

The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor
By Shaenon Garrity
Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2021. 224 pages. Young Adult Comics.
 
After she saves a man from drowning, Haley wakes up in a pocket universe that appears as a gothic estate and helps three brothers whose job it is to protect her world against a penultimate evil.

ERB

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