Vanessa De La Mora and Edgar St. Claire are the most popular students at their school, but their relationship with one another is in a rut. Both of them are looking for a fresh start, but feel in their souls that this can only happen if the other is dead. Cue the fireworks.
With Blood Honey, writer/artist Sean Peacock drops readers into a fully realized world, where the students at Manderlay Preparatory High School are just as concerned with keeping their blades sharpened and their deadly potions mixed and they are their grades and social status. A mix of modern dialogue and clever design elements make this world feel all at once fresh and familiar. There’s an almost Shakespearean battle playing out here, but the characters still largely talk like young adults that we’d recognize. The jokes are acerbic and clever, but the emotional scenes still feel genuine — which is an impressive feat to accomplish in a book that also includes a bloody sword duel atop a burning building.
IDW
Peacock loads the book with fun visuals, from the Elizabethan-meets-Riverdale chic of the costuming to the over-the-top action in the climax. Every page turn brings a new and exciting revelation, even as the characters themselves are locked in their silent feud to the point of tunnel vision.
The final pages offer a hint that there’s more of this story yet to be told, and I certainly hope that Peacock has an opportunity to revisit this world. As much as I enjoyed reading Blood Honey, I couldn’t help but feel like there were so many threads that could have been explored further. What exactly caused Vanessa and Edgar’s love to turn so sour? Does Vanessa share her best friend’s feelings, or is she really as oblivious as she comes across in their final scene together? What is the world like outside the blood-spattered halls of Manderlay Prep? These unanswered questions don’t quite hamper the experience of this one-shot, but I’m still left wanting more! If you’re a fan of Heathers, Wednesday, or YA stories with a particularly mean edge, you owe it to yourself to check out this one-and-done tale.
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