Rivers
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Three ordinary weirdos, one recurring dream. The acclaimed minds behind The Three Rooms in Valerie’s Head return with a whimsical and ambitious portrait of human connection in the age of digital fragmentation. You meet the strangest people on the internet. Gideon is a lonely I.T. developer, obsessed by a comic book from childhood called Revenge of the Ghoulors, and secretly in love with his co-worker Lisa. Heidi works at home in her pyjamas, makes a lot of soup, and wishes she had time for friends. Peter is a 56-year-old divorcee who delivers classic cars, has a built-in toaster, and thinks a lot about the past. These three people seem unconnected, yet they share something—they each have the same recurring dream. And when a new web service is introduced that helps people share their dreams, what will happen when the three of them find out about each other? Just what is it that links these three lonely souls? Nimbly weaving together multiple storylines (including extracts from Gideon’s comic book, Revenge of the Ghoulors), Dan Berry and David Gaffney present Rivers: a quirky examination of how events from the past can bind people together forever, and a surprising reunion between people who’ve never met.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A cluster of lovelorn, self-isolating souls are drawn together through their dreams in this fateful graphic novel from Gaffney and Berry (The Three Rooms in Valerie's Head). Set in a modern England heavy with technology, anxiety, and disconnection, the script is appropriately skittery, with flashbacks to the 1990s as well as a futuristic comic-book-within-the-comic. The present-day narrative follows a trio who appear to have lost the capacity for interpersonal interaction but are linked via an app that connects those with similar dreams. Heidi is an editor and burgeoning agoraphobic who has a dream about a "friend consolidation service." Gideon is a moony techie at a company far too hip for him, and is haplessly infatuated with his cubicle neighbor, Lisa. He and Heidi are haunted by episodes from their past: his a seemingly innocuous memory of reading a goofy revenge comic with his buddy, hers a string of increasingly melancholy moments with her fun but childish father. Peter, meanwhile, is a talkative older man covering up regrets with needling jabber. The art is appealingly rudimentary—the loose, noodle-like characters sport a wide-eyed raggedy charm that recalls Jeffrey Brown. While the conclusion may be too rom-com neat, it's an overall surprisingly soulful ensemble piece.
