Review of House of Clay by Naomi Nowak

This is a truly beautiful graphic novel. The story, on the other hand, is not so beautiful. Josephine, whose family used to be wealthy, must go to work in a sweatshop, House of Cotton, to earn enough money to go to nursing school. How she plans to be a nurse when she faints at the sight of blood, is unclear. A feeling of sadness and loneliness pervades the book, mostly through the watercolor, Art Nouveau-ish artwork. Josephine makes friends with a mute girl, who is in an abusive relationship with their boss. She makes another friend when she follows a little dog to the house of a fortuneteller, who, when she was younger, looked remarkably like Josephine. Beyond that, the story is pretty unclear. I enjoyed looking at each picture, even though I often had no idea what relevance it had to the story. Review by Stacy