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Reviewed by Brigid Alverson Tory Blake doesn’t just pay attention to the world around him. He takes notes. He jots down the most trivial everyday events–people’s comings and goings, conversations, odd things he notices on the street, each labeled with a place and exact time–and files them away for future reference. So when strangers move into the building next door in the dead of night, Tory is not just curious, he is ready to apply all his investigative tools to find out who they are and why they are there. The new neighbors are secretive; they get no mail, have an unlisted phone, and keep their blinds closed. The police come for a visit in the middle of the night. But Tory has caught glimpses of a boy about his own age, and he wants to know more. Colin, the new neighbor, goes to a private school on Long Island, a two-hour commute from their Queens street. Tory persuades his mother to send him to the same school, and the game is on. Author Jen Lee Quick tosses out clues about Colin and his guardian at just the right pace to keep the reader interested. As in any good mystery, the first few clues serve only raise more questions. Colin’s guardian, Dr. Garrett, is mixed up with something called the Gaia Project, and Colin seems to be ill. With his almost photographic memory and his notebooks filled with facts and figures, Tory is a good detective, but his obsession with Colin seems creepy at times, as his upstairs neighbor Paul likes to point out. The cast is rounded out with several likeable secondary characters. Paul, who lives upstairs from Tory, is a college student and a graphic designer who drops in frequently to mooch some of Tory’s mom’s cooking. Paul’s computer skills complement Tory’s observations to keep the clues coming. Blonde and perky Mandy, Tory and Colin’s classmate, breaks the popular-girl stereotype a bit with her attraction to loners and misfits. Tory’s mom is overworked but affectionate, but, in typical teenage fashion, he brushes her away. If there is a weakness to this book, it’s Quick’s rendering of faces, which all have the same snub-nosed profile. On the other hand, her figures are never stiff but gesture in a natural manner, and the settings are well drawn without being overwhelming. As an American book, Off*Beat is designed to be read left to right, like most books in English. It’s a sign of how much manga I read that this seemed weird at first. Off*Beat is an intriguing mystery that taps into the universal curiosity we have about the people around us. I’m looking forward to volume 2. Comment on this review of Off*Beat v1 on the Manga Life Forums. |
1 July 2009
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