Comic Book Review: MOTHER – Book 1

Comic Book Review: MOTHER – Book 1

Some comics creep under your skin. Others stay there long after you’ve closed the last page whispering in the back of your mind, making you question every shadow in your house. MOTHER: Book 1 is that kind of story. It’s not just horror. It’s emotional horror, the kind that feeds on loneliness, guilt, and the quiet ache of wanting to be loved.

From the first page, you know this isn’t your typical monster in the closet tale. The real terror here isn’t something that jumps out. it’s what lingers when you’re left alone with your thoughts.

We follow Jaya, a woman who’s been searching for connection all her life. The story begins after she’s finally “settled down” a husband, a new home, a promise of stability. But the coldness in her marriage is almost physical; it seeps through the panels. There’s an emptiness that the book captures so well. The silence of a house that doesn’t feel like home, the way love can curdle into something unrecognizable.

When Jaya discovers she’s pregnant, there’s this fragile spark of hope. The narration softens. For a moment, you believe things might turn around, that this child might be the light she’s been waiting for. But that’s when the story begins to rot from the inside out. The writing is masterful in how it balances tenderness with dread. Every tender moment has a crack running through it. Every flicker of light comes with a darker shadow behind it.

The horror in MOTHER isn’t about ghosts or demons (though, to be clear, there are some genuinely skin crawling sequences). It’s about the psychological unraveling that fragile boundary between love and obsession, between protection and fear. The story knows exactly when to whisper and when to scream.

Let’s talk about the art, because this is where the book truly shines. The visuals are suffocating in the best way. The grey color palette shifts almost imperceptibly like the life is being drained from the world as Jaya’s hope fades. There’s a brilliant use of negative space; shadows seem to breathe, and the walls of her home almost pulse with menace. The artist uses texture, cracks in the walls, the grain of the wood, the folds in Jaya’s clothes to build a world that feels too real.

Every panel feels like a slow inhale before a scream.

What’s fascinating is how much of the horror comes from Jaya’s perception. The book never tells you exactly what’s real. You’re left questioning her sanity right alongside her. And that’s where it becomes truly disturbing. One page, you’re sure you’re seeing something supernatural. The next, you realize it could all be in her mind. That ambiguity is what keeps you turning pages and dreading what comes next.

The pacing is deliberate slow, creeping, methodical. It mirrors pregnancy itself: a gradual transformation that starts as something beautiful and becomes something monstrous. The writer clearly understands the rhythm of fear and how to build it, how to release it, and when to let it sit and fester.

And yet, MOTHER: Book 1 isn’t hopeless. There’s a painful beauty in it, an honesty about how isolation can twist love, and how the longing to be needed can drive us to the edge of darkness. You feel Jaya’s desperation. You feel her confusion. By the time you reach the final pages, you’re not sure whether you’re watching a haunting or a breakdown and that’s the brilliance of it.

But let’s be clear. This is Book 1. The story doesn’t end here. It leaves you on the edge of a revelation, dangling between horror and heartbreak. And it works because when you close the book, you won’t feel done. You’ll feel haunted. You’ll need Book 2.

If you love psychological horror that digs into the raw, uncomfortable corners of motherhood, identity, and sanity then MOTHER is a must read. It’s for fans of Junji Ito’s Tomie or Miraslav Petrov’s The Red Mother, but with a quieter, more emotional pulse.

It’s a book that doesn’t just scare you it gets inside you.

And when it’s over, you’ll want to turn on a light, sit in silence, and wonder what’s really growing inside you.

Verdict: ★★★★★ – unsettling, beautifully written, and impossible to shake off. MOTHER: Book 1 isn’t just horror it’s a masterpiece of emotional dread.

- The Comic Reviewer (India)