Review of The Compelled by Adam Roberts

For those paying attention, this site does not review graphic novels. The reason is simple. I don't read them. I'm dimly aware that graphic novels have evolved beyond their comic book roots the past several decades, and if I did the research, would likely find material the adult mind can grapple with. But one can only have so much on their plate. I did notice, however, Adam Roberts' pairing with artist Francois Schuiten in 2020 for the “graphic novel” The Compelled (more on the quotation marks later), and decided to have a gander.

The Compelled is a novella featuring multiple point-of-view characters that has a definitive artsy nature to its premise and mode. It's set in the present day after a small percentage of the population suddenly becomes 'compelled', that is, they pick up random objects, bring them to different places, and hodge-podge them into improvised structures and compositions. There is no explanation. Feeling compelled is a subconscious thing. A person just gets the feeling they need to go to their neighbor's house, take a lawn chair, and bring it to the town square where a giant sphere of objects is slowly taking shape. As a result, the urban landscape is evolving. New constructions and artifacts are taking shape while existing buildings, homes, and places are being slowly cannibalized.

But not every person is compelled. The majority of people have had to adapt to deal with the situation. Laws have been introduced protecting the compelled. Social workers have appeared specializing in the phenomenon. And in general, the public has had to take a tolerant approach to someone stealing their belongings. This has had consequences of its own. The number of people claiming they are compelled in the act of taking things from others has risen, and without any means of testing or checking whether or not a person truly is compelled, chaos begins to set in—chaos that spins the lives of the main characters (a social worker, sailboat pilot, comedian, senator, policeman) in wild directions.

The Compelled is not what I think of as a 'graphic novel'. To me it's an illustrated novel. 90% of the pages are just text. Each chapter and interlude are introduced by a beautiful illustration by Schuiten, and there is a portrait arcade of the main characters to start things off. But other than this, it's a story as in any novel, the illustrations/graphics minimal. But I whinge. What about the actual story?

The story is thought-provoking. The plots of the individual characters will appeal (or not) to different readers. But it's the substance of their plight—dealing with an unknown, undefinable aspect in human behavior—that rings the bell of reader rumination. My stupid brain kept going back to the contemporary sex vs gender debate. A person who is physically male says they are a woman without any means of proving it. We are supposed to take their word for it, exactly the same as a compelled person in the novel picks up objects (steals things) and brings them to another place—why? Reasons. That's how I feel.

The more intelligent side of my brain, however, picked up on this: the unquantifiable nature of emotion, feeling. We are attracted to person X, why? We decide on a new haircut, why? We decide our genitalia don't match our gender, why? There are, of course, answers to those questions. The individual will have them. But at the same time, those answers will not be objective, repeatable, systemic to the human species. Where to draw the line? Thought provoking, yes.

In the end, The Compelled is a thoughtful story about an episode of mass psychosis ,generally accepted and sometimes exploited by the public, with objets d'art becoming the accidental result. It features space for rumination in the way the relatively simple character stories transcend by the broader situation. Be aware—I should say this in big letters. BE AWARE this is only Part I. The Compelled ends on multiple cliffhangers, and as of 2026, Part II has not been published.