Book Review: Tortured Life

Book: Tortured Life (issues #1-6) by Neil Gibson (issues #1) and Dan Watters (issues #2-6) with illustrations and cover art by Casper Wijngaard and color by Jan Wijngaard

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Description:

Richard is having a bad year. He’s lost his job, lost his girlfriend, put on weight… and developed the ability to see the deaths of everyone around him. Plagued by horrific premonitions, he decides to end it all, but there are old and powerful forces at work that have their own plans for his power. Pitched into a world of eldritch horror that lurks just beneath the surface of London’s civilized veneer, the only chance Richard has of finding peace is to unravel the mysteries of his own past. He’s having a really, really bad year.


Rating: 3 1/2 stars

Review:

Tortured Life had an interesting story but it took the goriest approach to tell it. Richard Carter is an average guy until his life is turned upside down once he started seeing the deaths of every person and animal he sees. He couldn't cope and it was too much to deal with. It didn't take long before he had become withdrawn and only staying in so as not to see death where ever he goes.

After several years of living this way, he decided to end his life by jumping off a bridge but just as he is about to do that, a young woman named Alice appears. The strange thing is, he couldn't see her death, turns out she's already dead and needs his help. But the problem started when something else appeared and was looking to get rid of Richard.

The grotesque being called the Bloodyman was soon going after Richard, who was getting help from Alice to escape from the creature. Finally able to get away from the creature, Alice asked Richard if he could check and see if her father was okay. This started a chain of events that led Richard to finding out about who he really is and why the Bloodyman was after him.

This wasn't a bad story, there were a few things that seemed predictable but the writing was good and at least the story was interesting. However, it got drowned out by the nearly nonstop gore. There were a lot of unexpected things about this story from Richard's abilities in seeing the deaths to reasons why he was having them. The backstory on the Bloodyman also turned out to be interesting.