Meschugge: Le Labyrinthe du fou by Benni Bødker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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This graphic novel reminded me of “The Alienist” TV series (based — itself — on a popular novel,) particularly the Sara Howard (Dakota Fanning) arc in which a young, upper-class woman becomes a detective in the (turn of the 20th century) world which sees women as too delicate to be subjected to such horrors.

While the lead in this book bears striking resemblance to Sara Howard and the settings are quite similar, the book also features major differences that make it its own unique story. First of all, Kabbalistic Judaism plays a central role in the crimes in this book. Secondly, this story creates the impression that the supernatural might be involved. I don’t believe it is unambiguously supernatural, one could explain things in a rational way as well, but “The Alienist” takes a clear rationalist approach.

I enjoyed the story, and it kept me reading. There were a couple points in the story that didn’t make sense to me, particularly an occurrence in which a character is being pursued and seems to be in a dire situation, and then suddenly is free. This mechanism is sometimes used with characters who’ve been established as being extremely capable individuals because it is as if to say, “I don’t even need to show you this person getting out of this spot because it’s not a big enough trouble to fuss about,” (it’s also often done in poor TV and movies for budget reasons,) but this character is not a master escape artist (being out of her depths is part of what creates such great tension throughout the story.)

An exciting premise and interesting characters, but with a few rough edges in plotting.

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