Lumberjanes

Sucre’s deceptively simple art style is an ingenious complement to Daniels’ storytelling. Her spare linework and greyscale palette — punctuated by touches of gold — thematically visualizes the stifling Florida heat as well as the racial tension simmering between the residents of Asurupa County.

Although the narrative is steeped in twists and turns reminiscent of a slasher film, the dialogue and plot maintain a tone that should be appealing to young adult readers, evoking the spirit of beloved YA comics like Lumberjanes. Kirah’s tension with her chief rival Noni and her strained relationship with her father Steve ground the story in the kind of emotional conflicts that resonate with younger readers. Noni’s heroic story arc in particular stands out, and leaves you wishing Daniels had leaned further into those triumphant moments throughout.

Too Good To Be Truth

Daniels constructs a near-perfect narrative — almost to a fault. While the story is steeped in the harsh realities of generational racism, the main characters are ultimately spared any significant loss, softening the full weight of the subject matter. It’s a deliberate choice that makes the book broadly accessible, but may leave others feeling that the narrative stops short of fully reckoning with the brutal legacy it so carefully sets up. In a story about trauma this deep, the absence of real consequence can itself feel like a consequence.

Bedtime Stories

For readers young and old, Mama Came Callin’ is a haunting, hopeful, and ultimately redemptive work — and a necessary addition to Daniels’ catalog. It reads much like a bedtime fable; a charming, heroic tale that teaches the young and reminds the old.  And while Daniels’ disarming narrative occasionally softens the brutality of this history, it never diminishes the importance of what he and Sucre have achieved here — a modern parable that tackles America’s most painful legacy with intelligence, heart, and a visual language entirely its own.

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