3 out of 5

The second book in the Shame trilogy, ‘Pursuit’ smartly jumps the timeline forward a few years and quickly establishes the same fairy tale-ish tone of the first volume, John Bolton’s colorful, voluminous art complimenting the prose to set up (or remind the reader of) the unique and exciting premise: Mother Virtue made a selfish wish and birthed Shame, who, nudged along by the demon Slur, escapes her imprisonment (as her evil was known from the get-go… maybe ’cause of that name), slays her mother and re-births her as her own child, then, natch, locks her away in that same prison.  Virtue has grown, now, to seeming teenage age, clothed like a jungle girl in the infested containment of Cradle, now plotting her own escape.  The narration has the same antiquated touch as the first book, but again, treating it like an unearthed tale by the Grimm Brothers or Andersen, it works.  Bolton, between books, also seems to have gotten a much better handle on how to depict the world of Shame: the notable white space look of the book seems better balanced – one could suggest this is a purposeful ‘evolvement’ of the Shame world – and our two leads feel like much more fully realized characters (though admittedly he doesn’t have to age them in this volume, and that mystical 20-30 age range in which all comic females reside is maybe more comfortable to depict).  Cradle feels a bit more grounded as well, for all of its fantastic elements, while the costume designs for Shame – very Maleficent – are insanely wicked fetish nightmares; indulgent, but creatively designed.  However, the build-up (or descent) into surprising depravity that balanced out the sing-song narrative in book one is absent here, and a clumsy amount of reality seeps in via Shame’s “plotting” to take over the world.  It just seems out of place.  Her desire for spreading filth is in character, but for all of her power, to suddenly drop this blanket of maneuvering onto her plans feels too forced.  Similarly, Lovern shoves the simple-minded “Merritt” into events, prophesied by his moms to save Virtue from Cradle, which he does.  This tips into the whole “guy has to save the day” problem, despite Virtue doing most of the hard work, and though the character’s whole-heartedness is appealing, his out-loud explanation of his motivations is a dull thud next to the more whimsical dialogue of the other characters.

So the trilogy remains hard to pin down in terms of yea or nay.  The overall concept is still fascinating, but it’s definitely propped up by Bolton’s art moreso in this volume.  Hopefully Merritt’s arc will have… m.. erit… in the third book’s resolution, and ‘Pursuit’ will function as the slightly sloggy middle that sets up a rewarding conclusion.