Olivia Twist: Honor Among Thieves by Darin StraussMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
An Interesting Story With Amazing Art
Oliver Twist is one of my favourite stories in the canon that is classical British lit and, as such, I'm always interested to check out re-tellings and reinterpretations of the characters I know well and love. I had previously read a YA book of the same name written by Lorie Langdon and it became one of my top books of 2018. I'm only mentioning this because despite the connection in names, I want to make it clear I didn't start to read this graphic novel with any real expectations beyond good art work that the cover had displayed to me. With all this in mind, how did Olivia Twist: Honor Among Thieves hold up to me?
First things first, I feel that it should be noted that despite Olivia being the title and main character, the story features many gender-swapped versions of other characters' from the Dickens' canon and the little snippets of their stories that we get are certainly intriguing - I would love to see how they all came to be a part of The Esters, and have the skills that they have. This adds to the fun of the story, seeing how these characters have been reimagined from this new setting, which throws science fiction dystopia at us, but not without a small dash of that new element that has been labelled hope-punk.
You see, these girls are not willing to just sit back and passively take what the new world has given them. They're going to fight back, and try to make things better. Even if better just is causing minor disruptions to the system that rules them all. Sometimes a small win is still a win, and needs to be acknowledged as such when it feels like you're fighting against something you have no hope against. But they do have hope, especially when Olivia shows up.
The art work is also beautiful, with so many body types and sizes represented. Dodger has one of my favourite character designs of the entire cast, and I love her stocky and solid build mixed with her cocky yet endearing personality. The diverse nature of the cast help to make it stand out, especially with the setting echoing some real life sentiments that I would rather not think on but... Let's just say having the lead character - the gorgeous and lovely Olivia - be a strong character of colour who's defining element is kindness (with some ability to kick arse) in a world that thinks kindness is extinct? This is something that is very much a good thing.
Definitely one of those comics I wouldn't mind more of. Especially if more is prequels to show how everyone joined the team.
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