Gideon Falls #4 Review

Writer: Jeff Lemire / Artist: Andrea Sorrentino / Image Comics

Twin Shadows

In many horror stories, there is a sequence where the protagonist still doubts that there is something supernatural occurring. Despite all the evidence pointing to the impossible there is a part of them desperately clinging on to the idea that everything is perfectly normal, and they are just having an off day. Gideon Falls #4 is that sequence.

Father Wilfrid is resisting a growing pile of evidence that proves the existence of the Black Barn. Dr. Angie Xu still clings onto the idea of a shared delusion with Norton Sinclair. These moments of doubt and fear are utterly human. These are familiar reactions to people presented to extraordinary circumstances and Lemire captures the hesitation to commit to the preternatural. The believers trying to court non-believers to their cause. The shakiness of the slippery slope of “if this true, what else could be.” Dialog and plot continues the suspense, but it is Sorrentino’s visuals that absolutely steal the show this issue. The artwork has remained top-notch, but the paneling and borders are unsettling and unnerving. How we as readers are presented the pages capture the exact unevenness the characters are experiencing.

Gideon Falls #4

Gideon Falls is a story told in fragments. The two central narratives intertwine marvelously and the story has a strong internal pacing. Lemire and Sorrentino are essentially conducting two different symphonies; with a crisis of faith playing mixed with a murder mystery half the time, and a supernatural, psychological conspiracy the other half. The closer the two through lines get to converging, the more anxious the world and the readers become. There is a sense of dread and fear that exist within the pages that I haven’t experienced in some while and that anxiety only makes me more excited for the next year.

9.3 “Challenges to Your Perception” out of 10

Reading Gideon Falls? Find BNP’s other reviews of the series here.

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  • Mikkel Snyder is a technical writer by day and pop culture curator and critic all other times.

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