Crave

A new app called Crave has just debuted for testing in a historic university campus.  These old walls are now home to an app that promises to deliver whatever its users crave, and just about everyone is using it to try and hook up with the partner they desire.  This includes top student David who has just broken up with longtime girlfriend Charlotte, and is fixated on the one-who-got-away, Alexandra.  Crave could be his way into this new relationship, until it becomes clear that there are no safeguards for the app.  Which means that an app promising horny students their wildest fantasies may just blow up in everyone’s face – and not in a fun way.

“Crave” comes to us from Maria Llovet, best known around here for illustrating three volumes of “Faithless.”  This is her first major project as a writer and artist and it shows in the generally predictable nature of the main story.  We’re dealing with a standard “technology gone wrong” story and it plays out more or less how you’d expect.  Some people may also be turned off by how quickly things get out of hand at the university and wonder why outside intervention wasn’t called in.  Others may also be turned off by how much sex is featured between characters of different and the same genders.

I’m not one of them, though, and “Crave” stands as one of the rare stories I’ve read that makes sex an integral part of its story.  Take it out of this tale and you’d be left with something that’s far less interesting, assuming it’d work at all.  Also, even if the action does escalate quickly and implausibly, I’m willing to forgive it because it makes for a more entertaining story as a result and gives things real stakes at the end.  Then there’s Llovet’s art which is deliciously sexy throughout and very effective in conveying the characters’ desire on the page.  So even if this isn’t a perfect debut for her as a writer, it’s still one that makes me want to follow her to other projects to see what she does next.