Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
‘Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees’ is a graphic novel that looks bright and cute, but is actually a dark, twisted, bloody ride about a serial killer! Creator Patrick Horvath uses anthropomorphism and sets this tale in a town where all sorts of animals co-exist peacefully, at least on the surface.
Protagonist Samantha Strong is a bear and a serial killer, who loves her sleepy little hometown Woodbrooks. So her one rule for murder? Never target the townsfolk. Else it would disturb the cozy, comfortable life she has built for herself. Instead, she hunts and kills in the big city, quietly, without catching anybody’s attention. However, her carefully built community life in Woodbrooks is threatened when a grisly daylight murder takes place in her town. Sam rightly believes: two murderers cannot co-exist in one small town.
The standout element of Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees is its deceptively gentle artwork. Patrick Horvath’s pastel-toned, sketch-like illustrations look like they belong in a sweet children’s story about adorable animals. That deliberate contrast of cute, charming creatures used to tell the story of a serial killer who brutally dismembers her victims and buries them, the book both numbs the reader to the violence and draws them into the mind of a cold-blooded predator.
For Samantha, murder is like a weekend hobby, some people go camping in their free time or shopping, but she prefers to hunt for her next body in the big city, where one missing person is merely another statistic and not cause for much concern. She brilliantly compartmentalizes her life, in Woodbrooks she is the friendly bear living next door, running a hardware store that helps everybody in town with their home needs; but once out of town, she is a sinister, homicidal maniac.
There’s a single panel in ‘Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees’ that neatly captures this transformation. In the illustration below, Samantha is shown driving from Woodbrooks to the city for her “hunt”, her friendly smile intact while she’s still on home turf, only to harden into a hostile expression the moment the town sign is behind her.
‘Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees’ doesn’t really present Samantha as the kind of protagonist you’d root for. She blends into Woodbrooks as the invisible, boringly friendly face next door, with no real friends or interests, but just enough community ties to avoid seeming suspiciously asocial. The only truly defining events in her life are the murders themselves, and while the book never offers clear explanations, it’s easy to read them as an expression of her predatory instincts. Killing is the only space where Samantha feels power or control; without it, she’s just another forgettable small-town presence no one would remember once she’s gone.
Can Samantha keep getting away with her crimes? ‘Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees’ delivers a few unexpected twists toward the end, even if the resolution to Sam’s serial-killer run feels a bit convenient. That said, it’s an immensely entertaining read, and one I’d easily recommend to horror and thriller fans who enjoy graphic novels with striking, colourful artwork.
Rating: 4 on 5 stars. Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees is also on Kindle Unlimited.
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