Something is Killing the Children Vol. 1 by James Tynion IV

Something is Killing the Children Vol. 1

by James Tynion IV

When children begin to go missing in the town of Archer’s Peak, all hope seems lost until a mysterious woman arrives to reveal that terrifying creatures are behind the chaos - and that she alone will destroy them, no matter the cost.

IT’S THE MONSTERS WHO SHOULD BE AFRAID.

When the children of Archer's Peak—a sleepy town in the heart of America—begin to go missing, everything seems hopeless. Most children never return, but the ones that do have terrible stories—impossible details of terrifying creatures that live in the shadows. Their only hope of finding and eliminating the threat is the arrival of a mysterious stranger, one who believes the children and claims to be the only one who sees what they can see. 

Her name is Erica Slaughter. She kills monsters. That is all she does, and she bears the cost because it must be done.

GLAAD Award-winning writer James Tynion IV (The Woods, Batman: Detective Comics) teams with artist Werther Dell’Edera (Briggs Land) for an all-new story about staring into the abyss.

Collects Something is Killing the Children #1-5.

Reviewed by bookstagramofmine on

4 of 5 stars

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Believing is a different thing than knowing. You’re old enough to know that there aren’t monsters in this world. But you don’t believe that. Not really. You hear a noise in the woods, or see a shadow shaped wrong and you’re still afraid.

When the children of a small town in America (it's always a small town in the states) start disappearing or are butchered, Erica arrives on the scene trying to figure out what it is before more children fall prey to the monster. While she has a vague idea of what it could be, we find out that she’s up against something much scarier by the end of the first book.

Something is Killing the Children may not be the most beautiful comic book I’ve ever seen, but the plot was pretty great and I loved that our main had her clothes on. I loved the way the writers depicted the reactions of the townspeople; they were angry and grieving, drinking to excess and falling apart. Some were attempting to regain control by lashing out at the one child who survived and the new woman in town. Erica also makes a great main because while she’s angry at the person she’s working with (who we never really see), she doesn’t get mad at the people around her in the town; she’s seen these reactions before and is used to dealing with them. She apologizes to the boy when she snaps because she recognizes how messed up all this is for him and is gentler than expected. She’s a great contrast to those heroes we see who demolish things in their way and act injured when no one loves them.

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Reading updates

  • 1 January, 2022: Started reading
  • 4 January, 2022: Finished reading
  • 3 January, 2022: Reviewed