Soul Machine by Jordana Globerman is an interesting graphic novel for teens from Annick Press. I don’t read graphic novels but after loving Astronautical, I read most of Soul Machine and it was pretty interesting. It’s for the 12+ crowd but I didn’t see violence, swearing or mature concepts so younger *could* read it.
Disclosure: I received this book for review. This post contains affiliate links.
Summary: Chloe, 14, and her 16-year-old sister, Lacey, make souls by hand in an empty old house in the countryside. When their supply of breth—the raw material needed to make souls—runs dry, the evil MCorp tries to force them to franchise and make synthetic souls instead. Chloe sets out to the big city in hopes of finding a new source. And maybe a way to modernize their business that Lacey is so determined to keep in the past.
On a journey to find a real breth crop, untouched by MCorp’s greedy hands, Chloe uncovers long-buried family secrets—and starts to question whom to trust and what reality even is.
A beautifully rendered debut, Soul Machine is at once a metaphysical science-fiction story and a nuanced exploration of big ideas: spirituality, family, consciousness, and connection, but also unscrupulous consumption, megacorporations, and how egomaniac entrepreneurs impact our lives.
On their website they have a thorough look inside and printable activities. The illustrations are dark with mostly black and purples. It fits the story I think perfectly. I did want to note that since the book is for teens, there were at least two uses of modern slang such as obvs (obviously) and IRL (in real life.) So if an older person choses to read it they might be confused. But one can always google it.
Besides being an interesting science fiction story the book does explore the big ideas mentioned in the summary “ spirituality, family, consciousness, and connection, but also unscrupulous consumption, megacorporations, and how egomaniac entrepreneurs impact our lives.”
In our world we deal with all of these as well in one way or another. This could provoke some good discussions with your teen after they read the book.
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