Book Review: Ashes — Byron Donaldson

I recently got back into reading graphic novels and comic books to not only improve my storytelling but also to reduce staring at a screen every day. I figured since I’m going to be doing so much reading, it’d also be nice to write up a quick review as a kind of writing exercise.

This isn’t going to be a deep analysis or breakdown, just me giving my opinion on what I liked and didn’t like about whatever I read. If I ever get into spoiler territory, I’ll make sure to provide a warning.

With that out of the way, let’s start with:

I started with this graphic novel because it was a recommended read for 2023. It was actually originally published in Spanish in 2012 and was translated to English this year.

I think a good road trip story is one where I feel like I’m some spectator in the backseat who is trying to figure out why this trip is so important to everyone else. But as the backstory and relationships of the characters unfold, I reach a point where I become just as invested as the characters to reach their destination; where it goes from “THEY need to get there” to “WE need to get there”. But I feel like the story didn’t reveal enough of the characters for me which resulted in the payout at the end not being as rewarding as I hoped.

Spoiler Warning:

The story is about 3 estranged friends (Polly, Moho, and Piter) who go on a road trip together to take the ashes of their friend. In the beginning of the story, we’re given a crash course on the backstory of each character so I was given the impression that all 3 characters will equally carry the story along. But most of the events (both good and bad) are caused by Moho which results in only his backstory really being explored. I probably would have liked this story a tiny bit more if it presented itself as one about Moho as the main character and the other 2 as supporting characters. I say a “tiny bit” because he was actually my least favorite character. I wanted to know more about Polly and Piter’s lives since they all became estranged. Heck, I actually was more intrigued by the 2 cowboys that were hired to break Moho’s legs than Moho himself.

Another thing that bothered me was Moho’s pet monkey, Andres. It seemed like he was included in the story for the sake of adding a bit of silliness to it. But most of his involvement was just unnecessary filler that had little to no impact.

Now that I’m thinking about how I wish the other characters got more backstory reveal, there wasn’t a whole lot said about their deceased friend. The whole reason these estranged friends reluctantly reunited for and very little is even said about him. The most prominent times he’s mentioned in the story is when each character imagine seeing his ghost whenever they’re alone. I can only remember a few times they reminisced about him and it was just one or two lines.

When the characters reach their destination, they discover their friend wanted them to take this journey in order to inherit a bed and breakfast on a small island. The ending seemed nice but I can’t help but think it could have had a stronger impact if the main characters had equal attention, showed more examples on why their deceased friend mattered to them (both individually and as a group), and didn’t have a monkey.