This City Knows You

This City Knows You seems to be a strong debut twine-like work, posted as Tumblr entries. The linear narrative allows some choices, but more in tone and flavor than in plot-direction: you are a fairly passive presence, travelling alongside a group of dynamic, active women.

The blocky illustrations are beautiful and bring to mind Kentucky Route 0 or Sword and Sworcery. The aesthetic makes me think of the 80s, although this futuristic piece takes place in a presumably post-apocalyptic city, empty of people.

This piece raises many questions--who precisely are these people? What happened to the city? Why are we here?--and the author bravely leaves them largely unanswered. This contributes to the compelling quality of the plot and story, very engaging despite a slow start. The opening suffers from a lack of urgency and struggles with pacing issues, due to the heavy amount of new information presented. I think it'd be interesting to see the opening tightened up a little bit, and the details of the characters broken up somehow. =

After the slow start, however, pacing is excellent and compelling; I really enjoyed my time with this, and I'm hoping to see more by the author. I've given three stars because this is an exceptionally strong character-focused piece with a fresh voice, but the early pacing issues and unconventional format may be challenging. I recommend sticking with it even if it doesn't immediately grab you; it really grows and becomes something astonishing by the end.