Odio vol. 5: La Gran Evasión (Hate vol. 5: The Great Escape) Book

Lemire finishes his superb trilogy of comic books set in the fictional Canadian county of Essex County, with "The Country Nurse". The character was last seen in the last book, "Ghost Stories" as the nurse looking after Lou LeBeuf before his death, and in this book we see more about her life and her family's life.

She is a widower with an unloving son who lives with her and spends his time at work and out of the house. She talks to her dead husband at his grave once a week and visits her mother, the oldest woman in Essex County, who can't speak once a week: in short, we see the loneliness of her life as she questions whether she does any good at all.

The origins of her family and the LeBeuf family are revealed in this book with a flashback sequence with her mute mother, and the revelations tie together the first two books in the series nicely.

The artwork, as I've said of the other books, is nothing short of masterful, haunting, beautiful, and unique. Lemire's shown with this trilogy of books how gifted a comic book artist he is and having read his other excellent books I have to say I've enjoyed the Essex County books the most. They have heart, soul, wit, beauty, and ingenuity on every page. Fans of comic books will find rewarding reads with this book and the others in the series.