Ever since I started writing my own stories, one piece of advice has always stuck with me. To be a better author, one must read books written by their fellow authors. It’s something many young authors have been told and it’s the best advice I’ve heard for it. I’ve taken this approach with other things as well such as art, looking and studying art and timelapse videos to learn how other artists do it. Something I’ve been planning for a while is to create my own comic series. Something cute and silly but also endearing and having heartfelt moments. It was one of the main reasons I decided to read Hooky Hooky by Míriam Bonastre Tur that my friend had lent to me a while back. It’s a very cute looking series that surprised me quite a bit with how well written it turned out to be.
Character Development
9/10
In a world of magic where witches and non-magical people are constantly on the verge of war once more, the twin sheltered protagonists Dani and Dorian find themselves lost between worlds. The two kids are quite adorable and endearing without being annoying which is hard to do with young, inexperienced and rather silly characters. But while they are often fun loving and silly, they have moments of serious reflection about their place in the world. Witches want vengeance for what non-humans have done to them, killing their kind for years. Dorian and Dani are two kind and compassionate kids, just wanting to learn and live in peace with everyone but torn between their loyalties. It’s further complicated as they struggle to figure out who they are as they learn about the world from a new perspective, changing them on a fundamental level.
The supporting cast of characters have also, surprisingly, turned out to be fantastically written. Monica started out like a stereotypical princess and I expected to find her annoying but she turned out to be incredibly endearing and sweet while also playing the role of arrogant princess in a way that felt fun. Nico also turned out to have a bit more depth as the story progressed though arguably not as well handled as the others, he was still a loveable character like the others.
Plot
8/10
While the characters are sweet and endearing, the story itself has some strong dark undertones that peek through the fun and silly moments. A lot of that didn’t feel inappropriate with the easy and fun story that Hooky starts out as while it slowly becomes more serious. There were quite a few twists and turns that, while some felt kind of random and a bit convenient, most felt well thought out and made for some very difficult situations and exciting moments. It’s not perfectly character driven as some things felt rather demanded by the plot. Most of the time, however, the characters are making decisions that feel appropriate for how immature and unsure they are about the situation while also showing courage to help their friends when the time comes.
Worldbuilding
6/10
If there’s one aspect of this story that feels rather weak, it would be the setting in which the story takes place. There’s not exactly a lot shared about the world as all of the characters act and talk as though the audience is already aware of their world. The magic system is nebulous at best as it’s never really explained how it works. It’s not necessary for an indepth explanation for a magic system to be believable, but there does need to be some explanation provided to make things feel grounded. When it comes to magic, there’s always a risk of wondering pulling out something that feels too convenient to save the day without proper set up. Despite that though, there’s only a few times that it felt very convenient that certain spells were available when needed.
The main issue, however, is the underlying conflict that permeates the story. The tensions between witches and non-magical humans is mostly told rather than shown. Outside of one moment, it felt more like only a small number of non-magical people actually hate witches while most witches hate the non-magical humans. Whether or not this is the case is actually kind of difficult to discern with the story but felt like it needed to be a bit more shown as the climax hinges on that reality.
Visual Storytelling
8/10
This is a bit of a different approach to discussing how the story is told as it’s a comic rather than a novel. In a comic, the story is often more visually told through expressions and how the scene is drawn rather than directly told to the reader. It’s something I recognize I will need to learn and study if I want to write and draw my own series to tell a cohesive story. In a novel, the expressions and emotions are conveyed in written language but in a comic, the characters, colours and the setting must convey that information instead. Hooky, while having a cartoonish art style, conveys a lot of the characters emotions quite well through the use of facial expressions and especially dramatic lighting and colours. The tense and dark moments are often desaturated and heavy with black while the bright and cheerful colours are used for when they can just be kids and have fun. The fun and silly expressions also help to make the characters feel more endearing and loveable. Not everything translates super well as certain parts felt a bit confusing, but those were far and few inbetween.
Score
7.75/10
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