167. Photo Booth by Lewis Helfand

Photo Booth by Lewis Helfand. Illustrated by Sachin Nagar (Canada) - (US)
Campfire Originals

Pages: 79
Ages: 15+
Finished: Jul. 26, 2011
First Published: Jun. 21, 2011
Publisher: Campfire
Genre: graphic novel, YA, crime, thriller, romance, magical realism
Rating: 5/5



First sentence:  Acquired: Received a review copy from Steerforth Press.

There have been thirteen murders in the last two weeks, and all of them are related to a new drug on the streets.

Reason for Reading:  This sounded intriguing and was something completely different from what I've read from the publisher so far.

Photo Booth is what might be classified as a romantic thriller and is for a slightly higher age group than all the previous books I've read by this publisher so far.  Though no age is given on the books, this is just a more mature story that I think older teens and adults are going to be the most interested audience.  New York City Interpol agent Praveer Rajani is part of a team investigating a drug ring.  They take down a major deal one night and Praveer is reminded of some clues he and his siblings received from a mysterious photo booth when they were younger.  They solved the clues at that time but Praveer has one remaining clue that he now thinks points to the person who killed his parents in a car crash 20 years ago.

The modern day plot is done in black and white line drawings and then when Praveer goes back to remembering the mysterious photo booth and the strange photos it gave him, his sister and older brother the art is in full colour.  In this part they put all there clues together to help Jayendra, the eldest and legal guardian of his siblings, find the girl who got away.  Praveer never tells anyone but he has a clue which is similar to the others only somewhat different and it never fits in; this is the clue that he uses 20 years later.

An exciting, unique story involving a story within a story.  The flashback story is the main focus of the book but is sandwiched between the crime story which relates to the other and closes the past for a troubled young man who has never gotten over the sudden death of his parents.  Altogether a good book, and I think probably my favourite of the Originals series so far, that I have read.