My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Forbidden Harbour was first published in Italy in 2015 and is divided into four parts. Europe Comics has finally made it possible for a lot of readers to understand it by releasing the English version of the graphic novel. It is about the story of a teen boy, Abel, who was rescued in the ocean one night after the disappearance of Captain Stevenson from the navy ship, Explorer.
When Abel was saved, he can't remember anything aside from his name. William Roberts, the first officer of the ship, took him under his care by making him a cabin boy. When they returned to England, Abel saw the so-called Forbidden Harbour. One of the crew told him that not everyone could see it and that only a few could see and enter it.
When they got in the town, William introduced Abel to the three daughters left by the missing Captain, who also owns the Albatross Inn. Abel stayed in that family lodge and look for jobs to pay to for his accommodation. The second daughter of the Captain, Heather, introduced Abel to Rebecca, the one who manages the brothel in town. Later, he does some errands for Rebecca such as buying supplies in the market and reading her poems. It is Rebecca who told Abel what is happening to him and that they are in the same situation. She slowly makes Abel aware that he has some tasks to do and it's up to him to know what he should do.
I like the story of Forbidden Harbour, however, the poems in the story is a bit hard to comprehend and that it could be much better if the penciled illustrations were colored to make them livelier. The ending of this first part is a huge cliffhanger also which is a great dismay to me. Overall, I'm giving this a 3-star rating, but I'm still hopeful that the second installment would be much better and is action-packed.
