Her Infernal Descent Volume 1 by Zac Thompson was amazing and I would definitely recommend it to anyone that was a fan of Dante's Inferno as it follows a mother travelling through hell to get her family back. An amazing start to the series and I can't wait to read more.

This graphic novel is a retelling of Dante's Inferno. A mother travels through Hell to rescue her husband and children. Each circle of hell has been updated with current and historical figures who guide her. There is a lot going on in this story and some of it gets lost. Some of the circles are better than others. The art was good and did fit the story. Overall it was an OK read.

Her Infernal Descent is a modern retelling of Dante's Divine Comedy. A mother journeys to the depths of the underworld in order to retrieve her family. Along the way, she comes across famous people, some who help, and others that thwart. She engaged in many, often ridiculous, trials in order to progress. I just wasn't feeling this graphic novel. There's such promise here, but it just didn't live up to the promise. Divine Comedy is a rich philosophical, alchemic tale. It makes you think. Her Infernal Descent did not. There was a lot of telling, that would have been better shown, especially since illustrations could have been so impactful. This is a light, quick read. Don't go into it expecting the emotional depth of Dante's classic.

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Diamond Book Distributors/ Aftershock for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review

Either the creators didn't read The Inferno, or read and entirely missed the point of it. Everything from the art to the doggerel-spouting William Blake set my teeth on edge. Avoid.

Her Infernal Descent, Vol. 1, written by Zac Thompson and Lonnie Nadler, with art by Kyle Charles and Dee Cunniffe, was a surprisingly nice retelling of Dante’s Inferno. I thought I would find a story loosely based on it, but it turned out to be a modern version of Hell.
Her Infernal Descent, Vol. 1 will be a good choice for both new and old Dante readers. Although it isn’t mandatory to read the original, if you already did it, you will be surprised to see how things changed in Hell since 1304.

Full review (30/03): https://tintanocturna.blogspot.com/2019/03/comic-her-infernal-descent-vol-1.html

I wanted to like this one. The description just sounds like it is right up my alley. There is really only one word I can use to describe this graphic novel - pretentious.
The story is full of twists and turns that just become boring and only seem to show the reader how much the author knows. It was fun to see all the sort of pop culture references but even those became rather annoying.
The real problem with this graphic novel is that there are just far too many words. I have no problem with reading actual words but the amount of dialogue meant long bubbles and tiny print. Reading this electronically, it was exhausting. I made it about 2/3s of the way before I started just skimming. I got to the end and didn't feel like I missed anything (I've read the graphic version of Dante's Inferno).
There was no punch to this graphic novel. It might have felt differently if the creators had decided to stretch it out more pages so there just wasn't so many tiny pictures. (Some pages were so artsy that I couldn't figure out which way you were supposed to read).

Hmmm… I've read a full graphic novel iteration of the original Dante, even with not that much interest in what it was like. This very loose version of The Divine Comedy, however, seemed a step too far. What it gains in taking a middle-aged grieving Everywoman down into hell to find her husband and children, it loses by having the rhyming verse of William Blake as company too much in contrast with the visuals, so some bits really are too unreadable, and diminishing the original by having people like Jimi Hendrix quote his own lyrics. The York Notes-styled section that closes the graphic novel version help to some extent, but still show it up as a thing of its time (ie not timeless whatsoever, like the original undoubtedly was) and not coherent enough for my tastes. I have no problem with people liking this, but I couldn't.

Billed as a reworking of Dante's Inferno, which I don't recall having a prison break plot, this sees a bereaved woman descending into Hell to rescue her husband and children, who are there for no reason that makes the least sense. The opening is promising, with the empty family home taking the place of Dante's dark wood – but it's all downhill from there, and I'm not just talking about the road into the Pit. Virgil's place as guide is taken by William Blake, who here talks in rhyme all the time, even though his charge mainly grumps and swears. You can tell when it's actual Blake poetry, both because all direct quotes are showily footnoted, and because of the massive leap in quality from the sub-Etrigan doggerel, dripping with 'thee'/'thou' mix-ups and similar lazy pseudo-Olde Englishe bullshit, which he spouts the rest of the time. The idea that he's allowed to wander Heaven and Hell because his marriage of both was so popular with the inhabitants raises a smile – except that at one stage, like Virgil, he has to hand over to a 'pure soul' for the next stage of the journey anyway, which renders it entirely meaningless. That 'pure soul' being Agatha Christie – you know, the Agatha Christie who theorised countless murders and has at least one deeply odd and shady incident in her own biography? But this sort of unsure grasp on historical characters, not to mention the whole structure of the Divine Comedy, is par for the course. Virgil and Dante met ancient poets in the first circle, so our travellers also meet writers in the first circle here – meaning that Milton and Leonard Cohen are apparently both counted among the virtuous pagans which, well, where does one begin? Also there is de Sade, who's been waiting – can you guess? – yes, 120 days for his sentence. And is appalled that he is to be the recipient of the flogging rather than dishing them out. Except that, etymology notwithstanding, the historical record shows him to have been a switch, not just a sadist. And so on, and on, and on. There are occasional nice touches, not least Kafka as a judge; it doesn't hurt that he's one of the few where you can see who he's meant to be, as elsewhere the likenesses are often so shaky that only the clunking references in the dialogue make it plain. And then we're off to the circle where the gluttons are punished, except they're all screen-faced monsters babbling txtspk because they're gluttons for attention! Like the Internet, do you see? Aaaaaah. Also, I can buy an American mixing up London Bridge and Tower Bridge, but when neither British guide sets her straight, I will assume that's just a goof. A few glints of light aside, and coming after the equally painful Betrothed and Lost City Explorers, this really does make me want to abandon all hope for Aftershock, ye lost Image rejections who enter here. And I don't even particularly like the Inferno in the first place, so imagine how much this travesty might piss off a fan!
(And if Dante megafans aren't called Stantes, they should be)


(Netgalley ARC)

There are some things I really liked about this book, others I enjoyed less.
The good: the art is creepy, a lot of the ways it updates things seen in The Inferno (especially the more recent historical figures) worked quite well.
The bad: the protagonist lacks personality outside of her determination, which is a shame because this is a place where it could build even further on The Inferno, because Dante as a character was pretty blank-slate, as is the protagonist here. The ending was too easy and I really thought it kind of boring for Lucifer to just be like "I was cheering for you! Here's your family!" It felt like a cop-out since it wasn't going to be followed by two more books of climbing through the afterlife.
Also, I'm a bit confused by this just being listed as volume 1. How can there possibly more volumes to follow?

There was a lot of quirkiness to this title that was enjoyable, but it sometimes lost itself in too much dialogue. This is a book that takes a long time to get anywhere, then rushes through an entire circle of Hell in one Family Circus-style full-page splash. Lots of thought went into this volume, and there was plenty of potential, but overall it didn’t live up to the opportunity. Also, despite being labelled as a first volume, this is a complete, stand-alone story. Curious.

This review will appear in the Quick Hits! section of Graphic Novel Weekly, where shorter blurbs on less well received titles are provided. It will be available at the provided link on April 4, 2019.

I really liked the concept for this. A middle-aged woman, mother of three, descents into Hell in order to find her lost family in this modern take on Dante's inferno.

What I liked was the main character, she was a real person and not a likely main character. I also liked the concept, as I said, but I felt that in the execution is was sometimes a bit too crowded, and I felt less would have been more in this case. Virgil has been changed for William Blake, possibly because he wrote some works on heaven and hell, that I haven't read. Also, Agatha Christie alters as the guide. There are a lot of quotes from the works of people they encounter, but once again it was a bit too much.

Also, the artwork was not really my style. While I appreciate the desperateness that is clear from it, it was a bit too sketchy for me.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This had so much potential to be awesome. I mean, a retelling of Dante's Inferno in which an older woman makes the trip down through the circles of Hell in hopes of finding the souls of her lost husband and kids? 1) Talk about a sad agenda, and 2) how cool is that plot? Unfortunately, the graphic novel's execution lacked a lot for me. I didn't enjoy the artwork, the layout, the dialogue, any of it. I was way more bored than I had any right to be with a premise this cool, and I ended up just skimming the final third or so.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

'Her Infernal Descent Vol. 1: Contrapasso' by Zac Thompson and Lonnie Nadler with art by Eoin Marron is an ambitious graphic novel that attempts to modernize Dante's Inferno.

A middle-aged woman is alone in her home. Her husband and children are gone. She decides to look for them and finds herself looking in the circles of hell. Like Dante's Inferno, she has a guide. This time around it's William Blake, and sometimes Agatha Christie. Throughout her journey are numerous "guest stars" that speak in their own voice. The circles of hell have been updated to reflect more modern takes on sin. Along the way, we learn what actually happened to her family. How far will a mother go to reunite with her family?

Conceptually, I loved this. It's a good idea and it's executed fairly well. Unfortunately, it left me a bit cold. The art and story couldn't keep my attention, and I kept finding other things to read. You may find your journey through this mother's hell different than I did, and it's clever enough that I'm glad I got to read it.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Aftershock Comics, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

actual rating: 2.5

This was an okay read, but I just couldn't get into it for some reason. The art is pretty good, although the style is a bit more sketchy than I would prefer. I like that it's a Dante's Inferno retelling with an older mom as the protagonist because that's just something you don't see a lot as far as protagonists go. There were definitely parts of this that were interesting and I liked they way they set it up and kind of modernized everything, although honestly at times it felt kind of like they were just trying to satirize every little thing and it got a bit muddled. Overall I think maybe it was just a bit too dense of a read for a graphic novel, although I can definitely see how other people would enjoy it more than I did.

I tried to read this and managed about 75% before I gave up. The premise was cool and the art style interesting, I just felt a bit bored when reading this and ultimately, there wasn't much point me forcing myself to finish it.

An interesting adaptation of Dante's Inferno. The art is great and the story is solid, but the main character loses me sometimes with her references.

Her Infernal Descent follows the path of Dante’s Inferno in a staggering and emotionally raw way, creating a new layer to an age-old story that lives up to its predecessor. We see a mother whose family is long gone, who blames herself for their deaths and who hasn’t been living ever since. She’s lost within herself and this chance to see them renews her. Her journey is heroic, heartbreaking, frustrating and, ultimately, inspiring. The story moved me deeply, giving me insight into the grief one feels at the loss of a loved one and the impossibility of dealing with that grief.

The creation of Hell itself was epically, epically brilliant. This was like the comic book version of The Player, chock full of every literary celebrity cameo you could imagine. It was exciting to identify them, reminiscent of a twisted version of Where’s Waldo. You’ll find dozens of cameos, from Ovid to Aristotle to Kafka to Hunter S. Thompson. The celebrity list grows and grows as our protagonist gains access to new levels of Hell. The choice to include William Blake and Agatha Christie as guides was ingenious. Blake provides constant poetics, bordering between frustrating and whimsical. Christie provides the voice of reason, acting as the benevolent protector. They make quite the group trudging through the rings of Hell.

I can’t say enough about the art style. Depicting Hell requires a level of grotesque that doesn’t stray too far into the indigestible realm, and they nailed it. The artists depicted everything with a pristine level of detail, etching sin and horror into the frames. The variation of panels provided a welcome scenery change and their embodiment of the cast of celebrities was spot on. Save one or two, I knew immediately who was standing before the protagonist, waiting to become a part of her story.

In the end, Her Infernal Descent is that rare piece of art that emulates its inspiration. It’s an artistic journey that embodies the grieving process, ultimately showing us that acceptance and forgiveness are the keys to rejoining the living.