If a cottagecore setting and sentient, chivalrous mushrooms strike your fancy, I have the perfect graphic novel for you. The Mushroom Knight, a clever creation from Oliver Bly, is a fantastical tale about tiny woodland creatures, a changing forest ecosystem, and a young black girl who has lost her dog.

Goodreads / Amazon / Mad Cave

Synopsis:

An adolescent girl searches the deep dark woods for her missing dog, entangling her destiny with a chivalrous mushroom faerie on a mystical quest to protect the biome from catastrophic ruin.

The Mushroom Knight follows the adventures of Gowlitrot the Gardener, a sentient bipedal fungus created by a race of woodland gnomes called Gödels, as he investigates and unearths a deadly conspiracy that reveals the true nature of himself and the devastation humans have wrought upon the global biosystem that he has sworn to protect.

Review:

Although the synopsis of The Mushroom Knight sounds so promising, with a quest for a missing dog and a sentient fungus, this is, unfortunately, one of those times where I wish I liked the book more than I did. Things I love: Bly’s depiction of nature, his odd-ball fantasy creatures, and the general tone of the writing. The writing is somewhat ethereal and pretentious but in a nice, light-academia way. However, I spent much of the book pushing through a story that, while lyrical, also felt somewhat confusing and incongruent.

The story is divided in two, with little crossover between the two parts. There is a story of a girl mourning her missing dog, and there’s a story of magical forest creatures. While these two stories cross at points, they do not connect enough to make sense to me. I found the ending of The Mushroom Knight melancholy, though I can see where others could construe a different meaning.

Art:

While the story in The Mushroom Knight confused and frustrated me, the art did the opposite. The art is clear and beautiful. I have never seen a better version of cottagecore-meets-scientific, and I really, really loved it.

Final Thoughts:

The Mushroom Knight is beautifully illustrated, and its concept is mostly solid. I think the story would have benefitted from further review and possibly more exposition. I do hope to see more from this writer/creator in the future, as I think his depiction of nature is gorgeous, earthy, and fresh.

Review: 3/5 Stars

Thanks to Mad Cave for an advanced review copy! All thoughts are my own.