Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Book Review: Jenny Finn by M. Mignola et al.

Jenny Finn story by Mike Mignola and Troy Nixey, art by Troy Nixey and Farel Dalrymple, and colors by Dave Stewart


In Victorian London, a murderer is going around killing women. A woman is going around infecting men with a plague that causes them to have scales and tentacles and fish growing out of their skin. Joe from the country is sure he's pegged the murderer and eggs a mob on to lynch him. The guy he thinks is the murderer was harassing a young girl named Jenny Finn, who was in a brothel and seems to have infected one of the customers with the fish plague. She's not such an innocent little girl after all. Joe winds up at an occult society that summons the spirit of the lynched man, only to find out he's innocent and Jenny has a very sinister past which will probably lead to a very sinister future (as if the present wasn't sinister enough).

The story has a squalid Victorian setting with heavy Lovecraftian elements. Readers see mostly the filthy and noxious parts of the city. Joe keeps thinking he should head back to the country but something always holds him back. He isn't quite smart enough to figure out what's going on till the horrifying end--the reader is always a step or two ahead of him.

The images are graphic and bizarre, so this book is definitely not kid-friendly. It is a horror story. I found it interesting but didn't enjoy it that much.

Mildly recommended--more for Mignola completists or Lovecraft fans.


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