Blood’s Haven, Maryland, post-Civil War. The oyster trade makes for booming business, and watermen all across Chesapeake Bay are keen on cashing in on this lucrative business. Regulations have been drawn with regards to oyster harvests, but oyster pirates, a small but vicious group led by the nefarious Treacher Fink, have not only been harvesting oysters without a license; they’ve also been using destructive oyster dredges that would render the bay barren within a few years.
To curtail the pirates’ activity, the governor and town mayor establish an Oyster Army (with Commander Davidson Bulloch and his motley crew aboard the Layla) to deal with the pirates once and for all.
From the time the Cybils finalists were announced, I was immediately drawn to Ben Towles’ “Oyster War” because of its cover art – it seemed to promise a great maritime adventure, and I must say it did not disappoint. I thoroughly enjoyed this graphic novel.
The storyline was quite interesting – I had already expected an adventure story, but I was also pleasantly surprised to find that it had been layered with speculative elements, from the watermen folklore to the selkie, the legend of John Clark Monk, Davy Jones, and even a sea monster! I got so caught up in this book that I couldn’t resist doing a little research (note: I am not American and I live on the other side of the world) and discovered there’s some factual basis to the story — the Oyster Wars marked a major chapter in the history of Chesapeake Bay — and I like how it neatly slots into that time period.
I also appreciated the characters in Oyster War. Bulloch is long-winded (which makes for some very funny moments in the book) but well-meaning and steadfast in his mission (with plenty of tricks up his sleeves, too), and the Layla crew is quite the cast of characters: first mate Haynie Holsapple is a bare-knuckle boxer; deck hands are the (formerly) alcoholic Philip Tickbourne, the Portuguese netmaker Lourdes Sousa (note: women are considered bad luck by watermen), and naturalist Josiah Von Leibing; there’s Polynesian navigator Tevia; the Chinese cook Ju-long; and mechanic (also watchmaker) Joost Le Roy. While the crew seems comically ragtag at first, their combined skills all come into play at all throughout the story. The pirates are equally fascinating, as they bring most of the fantasy into the story.
Finally, the art is exceptional. The visual narrative is solid and compelling, with plenty of action depicted in dynamic lines and sound effects (a lot of sound effects), in a vintage-y, sort of stylized ligne claire that gives the art such personality. The twilight scenes are just beautiful, with a harmony of purples and blues and greens and some really lovely silhouettes; the detail in the various vessels employed by the characters out on the Bay; and there’s such imagination at work in the selkie transformation, the Summoning, Chessie (haha like Nessie, but on the Chesapeake Bay).
Oyster War is a memorable and beautiful book — I read it a couple of times more afterwards because I was so in love with it and it was hard to move on to the next Cybils finalist. Even though it didn’t win the Cybils, this will definitely be a mainstay on my shelf!
***
Oyster War, oversized hardcover (yay they sent a copy!), 4.5/5 stars