Ouch. Wow. This actually hurt a lot.

I mean, I kind of expected it to; from the last few pages of the previous volume it was kind of clear adjusting to Janek's hometown would be trickier than traveling through the woods. But I've kind of come to expect a certain level of hurt/comfort from this comic series, and this volume was practically all hurt. There were a few moments that promised hope, but they were few and far between and really not the point of the story. Not to mention that they don't even occur between the two leads, with possibly one exception.

At the same time, I'm not sure this could have unfolded any differently. The depiction of mental struggles continues to be sensitive and realistic. Janek, once he's back under his mother's roof, clearly delves back into old habits he had been discarding during his earlier travels and can only think of earning his mother's trust... by being constantly, ridiculously overworked as a result of the decision she makes against his will, and honestly I don't know what this woman agenda is, but I'm convinced she's kind of evil. Chepi, meanwhile, agrees to stay for Janek, but he hardly ever sees Janek, the town as an environment is way wrong for him, he is plagued by PTSD-induced memories and panic attacks, and he falls into that trap people with crippling anxiety know so well: the one where everybody thinks you're stuck-up and hostile while you're afraid of everyone and barely managing to keep your shit together. Naturally, they snap, and they snap at each other for reasons that are both completely justified and really unfair, and... have I mentioned yet that this hurt?

The characterization is fantastic, the art is fabulous, and the emotional storytelling is to die for. And it's very understandable a story like this will have its dark moments. At the same time, I feel like there was slightly too much of a detour from the established vibe. Perhaps this is a structural problem and just moving a bit of the flashbacks stuff from the previous volume to this one would help. Perhaps this volume just needed a couple of softer flashbacks from the boys' travels together, reminding the reader that they *can* work really well together, when they get to actually spend time together and talk to each other, not to their exhaustion and/or trauma.

Also, I sure hope that in Volume IV they *both* get to leave this town. I get it, it's Janek's home, but sometimes where we're planted really isn't where we bloom. At the very least, I hope he's going to stand up to his mother!