Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jan 2024
248 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Paperback Original.
Publication Information
Akira meets Aliens, and Annihilation meets Evangelion, in this coming-of-age monster tale from award-winning graphic novelist Chris Gooch.
Twelve years after a disastrous explosion, young Hailey is dropped off by her mum at a holiday camp in a dilapidated shopping mall. Alienated from the other kids, she connects with an eerie older teen named Jen… but soon dark horrors awaken, and the two new friends are caught up in a cataclysmic battle between two terrifying creatures who have been lying dormant all this time.
One of Australia's most acclaimed young graphic novelists, Chris Gooch expertly crafts a taut and intimate thriller about mothers and daughters, the monstrous and the mundane, and the power of friendship in the midst of catastrophe.
"Gooch's distinctive cinematic style of visual storytelling is both sweeping enough to convey the incomprehensible scale of the skin-crawling horrors the characters face and also intimate enough to deliver poignant moments with impact...Coming-of-age meets cosmic horror; unforgettably striking, both visually and emotionally." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[A] tightly plotted creature feature...an eerie and introspective graphic novel." —Publishers Weekly
"Gooch is a powerhouse storyteller, flawlessly joining dread and whimsy in this tale that will delight anyone who has ever wanted to face danger with a friend. In Utero has all the elements of a blockbuster film and will likely fly off shelves." —School Library Journal
"In Utero is everything I love about comics. Gripping, heartfelt storytelling and wonderful characters set in a haunting sci-fi world. Chris Gooch might be my new favorite cartoonist!" —Jeff Lemire, author of Sweet Tooth and Descender
This information about In Utero was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Chris Gooch is a cartoonist based in Melbourne, Australia. His first graphic novel, Bottled, was published by Top Shelf in 2017, followed by a short story collection, Deep Breaths (2019), and a second graphic novel, Under-Earth (2020). All three books received a Ledger award for excellence in Australian comics, while Under-Earth additionally received the Aurealis Award for Best Graphic Novel and was named one of the American Library Association's Best Graphic Novels for Adults.
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