Clara & the Devil: Volume 1
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
He’s tall, dark and infernal. She’s ready to be corrupted . . .
Clara thought she had the rest of her life figured out. But when an unusual tourist – tall, dark, and satanic – comes to town, Clara’s careful plans start to unravel fast. She thought she’d graduate college with the support of her best friend, Jonah. Then she’d marry her adoring boyfriend, work at her local library and settle down in her small seaside hometown. But now things seem far from simple.
And even while the stranger, who openly calls himself the devil, strikes up a situationship with Jonah, he continues to tempt Clara with reckless talk of power, ambition, and lust. Over the course of one sultry summer, tensions between Clara, Jonah and the devil mount to an intolerable degree. Clara is forced to confront the desires she’s kept secret her whole life, even from herself.
This is a deliciously dark tale of Faustian bargains and seduction from Sunday Times bestselling author Olivie Blake and fan-favourite artist Little Chmura. This graphic novel kicks off a sultry series that explores artistry and power through the temptation of the seven deadly sins.
‘A masterpiece of mystery, sensuality, and anticipation, with the kind of atmospheric, haunting artwork that simply won’t allow you to look away’
—Ali Hazelwood, bestselling author of Bride and The Love Hypothesis
‘Clara & the Devil is an artistic seduction of the highest order, an invitation to sin itself. I can’t recommend it highly enough’
—Alix E. Harrow, Sunday Times bestselling author of Starling House
‘A striking, sensual beauty, Clara & the Devil turns sin to dreamy splendour’
– Chloe Gong, bestselling author of Immortal Longings
‘Sumptuously illustrated and sinfully tempting, Clara & the Devil is a bittersweet fairy’
M. L. Rio, USA Today bestselling author of If We Were Villains
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Seductive, vivid art can't save a plodding pace in the uneven first volume collecting Blake (The Atlas Six) and Little Chmura's dark romance webtoon. Clara, a college student studying literature, lives a quaint life in a coastal town where she works part-time in a library. Her staid relationship with her high school sweetheart, Andrew, is headed for marriage, until the Devil saunters up to the membership desk. He's classic Mephistopheles: "extremely handsome," versed in doublespeak, and swaggering. He introduces himself as Nick, "as in Old Scratch," and requests a library card. Nick becomes curious about Jonah, Clara's flirtatious but closeted bisexual best friend, and later seduces him at a beach bonfire. Clara's insecurity-driven obsession over Nick and Jonah's relationship comprises the bulk of the plot, which unfolds in her wandering, expository thoughts. Chmura's alluring watercolors and inks—bleeding sexual tension and violent desire across the page—carry the predictable narrative. The provocative red coloring—outlining flames and framing the damned—heightens the tension, as Nick inevitably proposes a devil's bargain to Clara. Unfortunately, the script never quite matches the level of the art. It amounts to an unsatisfying temptation.
