Book Review: Nocturnos by Laura Pérez

In Laura Pérez’s ethereal third U.S. graphic novel, characters and colors swirl through a nighttime setting with no clear dividing line between dreams and reality. We meet multiple unnamed characters, dropping in on brief vignettes as they move through nocturnal encounters that quickly give way to subsequent scenes. Nocturnos is delightfully peculiar and wide open to interpretation, rendered in lush illustrations that invite readers to explore the night with an inquisitive mind. 

The overall story structure is perhaps best summarized by one character’s musing to another: “You know how it goes in dreams, when you find yourself in the middle of a scene but have no idea how you got there?” Among the most memorable moments, we see a couple involved in a car collision with a deer, we witness a young woman wandering through dream woods populated with fantastical creatures, and later join an elderly couple in bed wondering if they’ll find each other after death. In each scene, Pérez eschews tangible character or plot development in favor of maintaining the mysterious nature of the inescapable darkness humans will never fully conquer.

Pérez comes from an illustration background and utilizes her skills here for some striking images, with dozens of wordless splash pages evoking mood rather than defining plot. Her minimalist text on other paneled pages gives just the bare minimum of narrative form, keeping focus on her visual exploration of the night. Her art style is recognizably similar to her Emmy-nominated title design for Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, but with much more somber colors primarily favoring shades of blue. Largely set against black backgrounds, Pérez’s cartooning is suitably dreamy and surreal, breaking down the boundaries of reality as her characters drift through their nighttime scenarios.

With publication perfectly timed for the longer fall nights and early onset of the dark, the book offers the comfort of a shared experience facing the now seemingly never-ending night. Pérez provides little explanation about what it all means, other than the book’s unifying exploration of dreams and darkness. However, her evocative images speak volumes, creating a fascinating nocturnal wonderland populated with dreamers making their way through the inexplicable mysteries of the night.