Four Women
Two voices, those of some kind of counselor and a client, begin the worst-nightmare story of Kieth's graphic-novel chiller. The counselor is helping the client fill in the blanks in her memory of the harrowing night she, Donna, and three other women-- Donna's Christian friend Marion; Bev, a dykie-looking lawyer; and college student Cindy--spent in a stalled car as two men in a pick-up truck harassed them, nearly raped Cindy, and did rape Marion. The women eventually counterattacked with horrifying effectiveness, but they have avoided one another since. Donna is now trying to overcome her avoidance, especially of Marion. She succeeds in a realistically happy ending that contains a low-key endorsement of Christianity. Kieth makes the grim tale gripping throughout, not least by rendering the womens' faces sometimes almost photorealistically and sometimes more cartoonishly than usual to bring out aspects of their characters and subtly foreshadow future developments. That technique and Kieth's flare for dramatic composition help make this the graphic-novel equivalent of an outstandingTwilight Zoneepisode.Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved