Knee Deep Book One

by Joe Flood

Overview

A 2024 Black-Eyed Susan Book Award Nominee

In the year 2223, a teenage girl must venture through underground tunnels and canals in search of her parents who disappeared while on a mining expedition.

Two hundred years in the future, refugees from an environmental cataclysm have fled underground. They survive, scrounging out a living in a twisted maze of tunnels and canals. Scavengers, mistitfs, bandits, renegades and mutants are among the citizens of this subterranean realm. They are sewerfolk, their home, the bowels of a utopian city that was never completed.

Life is hard enough, but an overzealous mining company, PERCH wants to get their claws on this new underground frontier and they don’t mind bulldozing any sewerfolk that get in their way.

Caught in the middle is a young girl, Cricket. She’s in a desperate search to find her family that fled underground. Join Cricket as she explores this savage new world, to find her parents and unlock the secrets of a past long forgotten, in the three-part graphic novel series for all ages, Knee Deep.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620109380
Publisher:	Oni Press
Publication date:	05/30/2023
Series:	Knee Deep , #1
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	419,621
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Joe Flood is a comic book author and artist whose work includes Cellies (Lion Forge Comics), Pirates of the Caribbean (written by Chris Schweizer) and two educational graphic novels for First Second Books’ "Science Comics" series—Dinosaurs (written by MK Reed) and Sharks. Joe lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with his wife and daughter.

Editorial Reviews

05/01/2023

Gr 9 Up—Sarah "Cricket" Higashi is in big trouble. The administrators of PERCH, the post-climate apocalyptic phosphorus mining town that has always been her home, are running out of patience with her refusal to work any of the array of abusive jobs they force her into. Now Mathis, her childhood teacher, has reappeared mysteriously out of the depths after years, infected with a horrifying fungus and spouting dangerous facts—including the idea that Cricket's parents, who she was always told died in a mining accident when she was a child, may in fact still be alive in a secret subterranean society. Daring and headstrong Cricket promptly sneaks her way into the mines, where she discovers the underground world Mathis told her about, populated with a surprising array of denizens, from cyborgs and gangsters to animal/human mutants called Hybrids. Luckily, Cricket falls in with a crowd who not only have heard of her notorious parents but are also willing to go to war with the powerful mining corporation on her family's behalf. Moody, angular, and dynamic illustrations help bring this rip-roaring story to life. With a diverse cast of characters, a fast-paced, action-packed plot, and an enticing cliff-hanger, this is a promising start to a series that will have readers clamoring for more. VERDICT A surefire recommendation for comics readers on the hunt for all things post-apocalypse; high adventure; and grungy, industrial sci-fi.—Darla Salva Cruz

School Library Journal

2023-03-14
Two hundred years after a worldwide eco-catastrophe, a teenager descends into the vast labyrinth of deep sewers and tunnels beneath a ruined city in search of her parents.

Flood kicks off this series opener by pitching 16-year-old Sarah “Cricket” Higashi, daughter of two long-missing scientists, deep into the sodden, rubble-strewn bowels of the earth, where she battles foes ranging from evil mining company PERCH’s armed corporate goons to (inevitably) alligators and falls in with a cast of rough, tough subterranean fugitives and mutants. These characters are reminiscent of the Star Wars and Mad Max universes, not to mention Howard the Duck, as humanoid but mallard-headed hybrid Bill takes her under his wing just in time for a rousing climactic clash. Wielding a length of iron bed frame and making good use of her kendo master’s lessons, Cricket fits readily into this wretched hive of subterranean scum and villainy as she begins her journey into darkness and danger. In addition to Cricket’s Japanese heritage, diversity in the cast is cued through names and physical appearance. The dynamic illustrations, executed in rich, vibrant colors and laid out in interestingly varied panels, are captivating and dramatic. This volume closes on a cliffhanger that will leave readers eagerly anticipating the next installment.

A strong start featuring both a memorable dystopian setting and an intrepid hero ready to take names and bash heads. (Graphic dystopian. 12-16)

Kirkus Reviews