Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Titled ‘Cemetery Songs‘, Volume 3 of ‘Rachel Rising‘ by Terry Moore starts off with a stark panel of Rachel taking a shower at her place, after rising from death for the nth time. I’ve lost count at this point, that’s just the deal with this eerie, darkly comedic comic series: Rachel keeps dying and keeps rising, while trying to solve her own murder mystery, because she still cannot remember how she died the first time. Although, in Volume 2 she learns (and so do we) that a witch called Lilith is behind most things, and she plans to destroy the entire town over a centuries-old grudge.
Honestly, at this point, I am mainly sticking around for the gritty, detailed artwork, because the story is almost a rehashed version of what happened earlier: Rachel getting back from the dead, Earl trying to see if Jet really is dead; little serial killer Zoey being manipulated by those more evil, while Lilith goes around town performing weird rituals. And now that there are so many women in the tale, it’s becoming a little difficult to tell some of the characters apart! It’s the constant snow and eerie settings that make it worth a read.
Volume 3 collects issues #13 to #18 of ‘Rachel Rising‘ and the only really new angle in the story is the fact that Lilith and her posse of evil witches contaminate the town’s water supply. Not just that, they also find a scapegoat to take the fall for their actions. The primary arc of course follows Rachel as she, with the help of her friends, tries to figure out what’s happening and how to stop Lilith. Meanwhile, a mildly intriguing sub-plot show how the demon Malus is now in a priest’s body, trying to use Zoey as his puppet.
I feel like if I had read ‘Rachel Rising‘ during its year of publication (2013), I might’ve been a lot more impressed by this supernatural tale of witches trying to snuff out humanity, while beautiful young dead women keep waking up from their deaths. But I’ve read so much wacky stuff over the past few years that the story doesn’t hold much excitement anymore. For instance, I loved Junji Ito’s ‘Tomie‘ (2011), which is about a gorgeous femme fatale who drives men insane. Her lovers always end up killing her, but she keeps coming back to life, even when she’s been brutally hacked to bits, only to repeat the cycle of seduction and death.
‘Rachel Rising’ also feels pretty tame in its horror elements, despite some brutal deaths and creepy twists. Hopefully the next volume will pack more punch. Also, the fact remains: Terry Moore’s artwork in this comic series is fantastic.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars. ‘Rachel Rising‘ is also on Kindle Unlimited.
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