The New York Four
Grade 10 Up–Riley enters into a standardized test beta with three NYU classmates in order to make some money to get an apartment together. A good student with limited social skills due to her controlling, academic parents, the teen relies heavily on online interactions. As she begins to get to know her classmates and to reconnect with her outcast older sister, a secret virtual relationship threatens to destabilize everything. Wood is known for incorporating a strong sense of place into his comic work, and, while this is a story about growing up and learning to communicate, the classic bohemian fixtures of clubs and brownstones, and the inclusion of New York City landmarks, help make the book feel grounded. Kelly's energetic artwork conveys a sense of activity and movement. His portrayal of one character, Merissa, tends toward caricature more than the others, and panels are occasionally too busy to find the focus of the scene easily, but the detailed settings are nicely evocative. Wood tries to do too much, resulting in a scattered set-up of Riley's classmates' individual stories–glimpses of what are surely the main focuses of future volumes–leaving readers with what is disappointingly not quite an entire story, but one that is superbly told.–Benjamin Russell, Belmont High School, NHCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.