Sophie Goldstein

The oven

Maggie Gordon

The Oven by Sophie Goldstein fell solidly in the "it's okay" category. The art is clear with an emotive colour palette. Unfortunately, the story doesn't live up the the graphics. Our two main characters leave what seems to be a hyper modern society to rough it out among a small community because they want to have children together. The woman starts finding her place, but her male partner ends up leaving, deciding that the life is not for him. This isn't a particularly innovative narrative, even with the dystopic bits. To be more impactful, I would have liked to see more of what happened after the partner left, or at least gotten into the character's heads a bit more. I don't regret reading The Oven, and the art makes me want to seek out more of Goldstein's work, but it just wasn't a very strong book.

The oven

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