A young boy is sent to stay with his grandparents while his mother is waiting for her new baby to arrive. While there, he meets a strange Punch and Judy “professor” and a mermaid in his grandfather’s derelict seaside arcade. All of these characters, including his grandfather, seem to have hidden secrets that the boy will inadvertently be confronted with and find difficult to understand. This period of his life will remain a blur. Punch and Judy is a frightening story anyway, but this graphic version adds a new dimension of darkness to it, making it quite spooky and saddening for the little boy. I didn’t really connect with the illustrations, despite the interesting artistic techniques employed. It’s really uncanny.
“Only my grandfather was there, now. He was sitting on the floor, and he was crying, in deep, gasping sobs. His nose was running, and huge wet hot tears ran down his unshaven cheeks. Tha upset me more than anything else could have done. Adult helplessness destroys children, or it forces them to become tiny adults in their turn.”
