Publisher: Europe Comics
Author: Tonino Benacquista
Released: February 14th 2018
Received: NetGalley
Rating: 
I received a copy of Guinea Pigs through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Guinea Pigs is a graphic novel focused on the world of pharmaceutical drugs. I’ll be honest with you; it never once occurred to me to expect to see a graphic novel come from this particular branch of science. Maybe that was silly of me, I don’t know.
The main characters are…well they’re guinea pigs, if you want to put it bluntly. They’re the people that pharmaceutical companies test their new drugs on, to prove they’re safe for human consumption (and to correct the dosage as needed). It’s not the most comfortable thing to think about; especially when you considered all the unknown side effects that could arise. Ever notice those warning labels on your medications? Those are there because somebody testing the medication had that reaction. A little depressing, isn’t it?
Knowing this, I went into this book not exactly expecting a happy tale or a happy ending. I expected the series to be bleak, but maybe have a quirk or two. I got some of what I was expecting, but on the whole Guinea Pigs successfully managed to surprise me.
The twists and turns that this story took were completely unexpected. The way everything got flipped on its head…I never could have seen it coming. And yet they still managed to tell some of the story I was expecting, talk about the harsh reality behind testing. Admittedly it wasn’t as much as I expected, but this way was certainly more unique, and it felt less preachy too. So I’d consider that a success.
I’m glad I took the time to read Guinea Pigs, and honestly I sort of hope to see more from this creative team in the future. I think they have a lot of potential for surprising tales.
