Serial vol. 1: The Glass Tomb

Zoe has been ten years old for most of her life.  That’s because she was possessed by a demon that kept her young and warped her personality to the point where, now that she’s free of it, she’s still a serial killer.  This should all be familiar to people who have read Terry Moore’s “Rachel Rising,” and he’s come back to write and illustrate this series about that title’s most memorable character.  As for what kind of story is appropriate for a 10-year-old serial killer, the answer is one which pits her against another serial killer.  Jenni is one who mostly preys on bad, predatory men.  The “mostly” part turns out to be trouble for her when, because she just can’t help herself, she kills one of Zoe’s friends to cover her tracks.  Which means that Jenni now has a fellow killer on her trail.  One with decades more experience at this kind of stuff than she does.

“Fun” isn’t exactly the kind of word you’d expect to be associated with a story about serial killers, but that actually describes a good deal of “The Glass Tomb.”  Most of that is due to how Zoe is able to stay on top of any situation through cunning, planning, or sheer guile.  Seeing  her connive her way through the defenses of ordinary people as she tracks down Jenni is never anything less than entertaining.  Granted, there are some parts where we see that Zoe isn’t quite as remorseless as she initially appears and they’re handled well enough.  It’s just that she’s always most interesting whenever she’s showing off her “A” game.

Jenni, on the other hand, is a bit of a blank slate at this point.  While her general motivation for killing is made clear, and even renders her sympathetic to a certain degree, a visit with her mother midway through the volume makes it clear that there’s more going on with her than we know.  I’d expect that we’ll get these answers in vol. 2, though it does feel that Moore is taking his time with this.  The digressions from the main plot (read:  other murders) are fun enough, but “Serial” doesn’t have the same depth that “Echo” or “Rachel Rising” did in their first volumes.  Zoe vs. Jenni is something I can see sustaining another volume (or maybe two), but it feels right now like a story that will be better served the sooner it’s wrapped up.