Oh My Gods!: 01/26/20

Oh My Gods! by Stephanie Cooke, Insha Fitzpatrick, and Juliana Moon (Illustrations) is middle grade graphic novel about a girl going to live with her father while her mother takes on a new job. For Karen her mother's news means moving from New Jersey to Mount Olympus. And while it may be obvious to the reader what's going on, it takes Karen a good long while to sort things out.

The conceit here is that the gods and goddesses of Olympus get bored with immortality and reinvent themselves from time to time. Their current incarnation is as middle schoolers. Karen's father, Zed, is the principal and mayor of the town.

In the second half of the graphic novel there's an introduced mystery. Someone is changing people and animals to stone. The book takes on a police procedural / amateur detective feel with Karen and her new classmates investigating.

While the set up is goofy, the characters are self aware enough to lampshade their situation. What could be cringeworthy comes off as lighthearted and fun.

Karen's journey is also on the road narrative spectrum. As she's traveling to her father at her mother's behest, she is part of a family of travelers (33). The destination is utopia (FF), although this version of Mount Olympus is mapped both in terms of where it is relative to the rest of the world, and where things are in the town. The route is an offroad one (66), via airplane. To summarize, Oh My Gods! is a family traveling to and through utopia via an offroad route (33FF66).

The second volume The Forgotten Maze is scheduled for release on January 4, 2022.

Five stars

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