graphic fiction - Good luck physically manifests as delicate stones in river water; its discovery changes the path of a gold rush prospector and, later, a hat salesman in San Francisco.

I'll admit I saw the Golden Gate bridge on the cover illustration and hoped there would be some diversity in this story, but it turned out to be more of a noir setting (rendered gritless in its graphic format, but not without the requisite unsavory characters) rather than a portrait of the modern city. The imaginative plot moves quickly, flipping back and forth between characters, the connection between them becoming clearer as the book progresses. The illustrations are relatively stiff compared to other graphic formats--I am reminded of LEGO minifigurines--but it doesn't detract from the story and the artwork is still fine. The book is created by sibling duo, Peter and Maria Hoey.

**Disclaimer: I received a free early access copy of The Bend of Luck by Peter Hoey through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this opportunity.

The Bend of Luck by Peter Hoey is a fantasy graphic novel about a physical manifestation of luck and how it changed the course of a family's life.   It is was published on August 2nd, 2022.  I rated it 4 stars on Goodreads.


Here's the summary from Goodreads:

Some guys have all the luck… but not all luck is good. The award-winning duo behind Coin-Op Comics return with a mind-bending tale of fortune and family.
Imagine a world where Luck, the most ephemeral of ideas, has a physical form. Precious stones of luck, mined like gold, are worn as bringers of fortune. But luck breaks both ways. While the blue gems may grant advantage to those who wear them, their blessing is fickle and unpredictable. In the blink of an eye, good luck can turn to bad. We follow the life of a man who comes into possession of some powerful stones — but the success enjoyed by the father goes awry when he tries to pass this luck onto his son. In alternating scenes between the two generations, The Bend of Luck follows felicity's course, like an arrow, through a family's destiny.

This story was really well structured.  It gave you snippets of various seemingly unconnected stories, and then slowly tied them all together and by the end you were easily able to see how all of the pieces of the puzzle fit together.   It was well done in that sense.  The plot was pretty fantastical, but I liked the idea of luck being a physical concept.  There would definitely be serious repercussions for a hot commodity like that.  It made logical sense.

I really liked the art style.   The characters were fairly generic in their design, but it worked for the story.  It was a really clean art style.  The panels had good flow to them, and they worked well with each other. It was, overall, very nice in how it was done.  I liked how it was paced, and how I was able to keep trying to put all the pieces together.

The characters weren't the most well developed, but it made sense for the context of this story.  It was pulling together a lot of threads into one complete picture.  It did a pretty decent job giving you a good idea who the characters were at a solid surface level.

It was a fun read, and it really kept me interested as I read all the way through.  If you're at all intrigued by the premise, I definitely suggest that you check it out.

A interesting concept of Luck as a physical entity. Luck that can be found, kept, sold, and even passed on like an inheritance. While the premise was interesting, the characters were bland and the writing style clunky. The framing was very cool, but the character design was off-putting. I wanted to like this more, but the execution of what could have been a wonderful story left me dissatisfied. The concept seemed better suited to a short story than a graphic novel, but it was interesting enough to keep my attention til the last page.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publishers IDW Publishing, Top Shelf Productions for an advanced copy to this graphic novel story about luck, life and love.

Luck is not something that a person is born with. No, luck is created in the furnace under the Earth's crust, ejected out under pressure as tiny blue stones that disapper when exposed to air, sometimes found in small streams, or encased in amber under a hat band. This kind of luck can help two people find each other and fall in love, or tell a person to duck when riding atop a train heading into a tunnel. Luck is something that can be held, and something that can be lost, or taken away. The Bend of Luck is a graphic novel written and illustrated by the brother and sister team of Maria and Peter Hoey, about family, fathers and sons, adventure, loss and moving on, if they are lucky.

Two prospectors are looking for gold together in the wilderness, when one finds a vein of luck in a small stream. They make plans for their new found luck, but in the morning only one prospector remains, the other taking off in the night with both the horse and the luck. In the future a young man finds love and the courage to open up his dream store, a haberdashery that sells only hats that he designs. With the love of his wife and her support, with a little help from his father, the business does quite well, selling out his stock, and the future looks bright. Till he goes missing, his favorite hat found one day out at sea in a fishing net, by a young sailor who hopes to return the hat to its owner. Soon the lives of all these characters intersect in many different, advantageous ways.

The book is beautiful. I enjoyed the art, the way the panels look so simple, and yet tell so much. The writing, especially for the wife I thought was really good, I felt more for her than I have for a lot of characters in larger prose books. The story is not simple, I omitted a bit in my summary, but is really quite interesting and where they might be a few questions at the end, I really enjoyed it. I can't imagine how two people, especially siblings can work together so well.

Recommended for fans of quirky graphic novels. I would like to see more stories set in this world, see how luck plays out for others, or how a lack of luck effects people. Actually I just want to read more by both the Hoeys. I've read most of their Coin-Op Comics and Animal Stories, but this just seemed like a bigger broader story. And again the art really is wonderful.

I received an ARC of this ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Initially I was interested in the premise of the book: a world where luck is tangible and precious like gold. But I was disappointed in the graphic novel itself. The story was disjointed and it was hard to keep track of. The art style kinda made all the characters look the same so it was hard to keep track of which character was which. I'm sure someone will like this book but unfortunately, that audience is not me.