1st Impression: THE DREAMER (Vol 3.): The Battle of Harlem Heights

THE DREAMER (Vol 3.)
Written by Lora Innes
Art by Lora Innes & Julie Wright
IDW Publishing

FLIPPING THROUGH:

                We open to Alan, seemingly in his death bed, writes to Beatrice. As the letter goes on, we see the American Revolution take full hold. Meanwhile, Beatrice’s lives in both the American Revolution and in her real life. Beatrice gets “betrayed” by friends in the real world while her life in the American Revolution goes from bad to worse as she decides to help spy for the Colonists, much to the Warren’s dismay.  As her actions in the real world ended up affecting her in the Revolution, Beatrice is finding her self backed into a corner.

ART:

                Innes does a beautiful job giving us the American Revolution. She has a great sense of proportion and does a good job giving us some strong, classic panel work. Innes captures emotion very well while also providing some striking backgrounds.  Innes does well with angles with Wright giving some very vivid colors with great shading.  One of the best things that Innes does is that she is not afraid to give us the horrors of war without being too gory. Visually, Innes and Wright go all in with great angles, striking backgrounds and strong emotion that it captivates readers. Really great job.

WRITING:

                Innes writes a very passionate and emotional volume, full of intrigue and personal development. Our heroine might be going too far as we see Beatrice’s “fall” in the real world in order to help do her best for the Warrens in the American Revolution. Innes makes sure from the beginning of the trade to the end, there is nothing but a good amount of impact for each chapter.  There is solid dialogue that reflects both eras that really help bring readers in.

                The pacing of the third graphic novel was really good. Each chapter, Innes continues to build and build upon the events of before and raising the stakes in a very natural way. Everything escalates at a near perfect pace. While we got great characterizations from Beatrice, Alan and Joseph, this book gets some strong characterizations from Beatrice’s friends and family. The amount of emotion in this volume was palpable from the moment it began and Innes sucks readers in with it and its multi-layered story.  Innes mixes history so well with her story that you would almost feel that it was fact.  Kudos to her writing skill.

OVERALL IMPRESSION:

                Innes and Wright deliver a heart-felt, powerful story full of good visuals, strong emotion and wonderful story. The book reads well and it definitely took me by surprise. A great job by Innes and Wright.

RATING:
                I give The Dreamer Vol 3.  a solid 8.5 out of 10.