‘Nectar’ Review: Blood, Butterflies, and the Dancing Plague

We picked up Nectar without really knowing anything about it. The cover caught our attention, we saw beautiful butterflies surrounded by considerably less beautiful things, and apparently that was enough. Then we learned the actual premise involved blood-drinking butterflies spreading a dancing plague across an isolated island, and suddenly buying it based entirely on the cover felt like an excellent decision.

The Dancing Plague Was Already Horrifying Enough

The story takes place in 1837 on Misery Island, off Salem, Massachusetts, where a strange species of butterfly starts appearing at exactly the wrong time of year. They are beautiful, but instead of drinking nectar from flowers, these things prefer human blood, and their attacks trigger something even stranger: people begin dancing uncontrollably.

That idea is inspired by the real Dancing Plague of 1518 in Strasbourg, now part of France, when dozens and possibly hundreds of people reportedly danced for days or even weeks without being able to stop. Historians still debate exactly what caused it and how deadly the outbreak actually was, but the event is already disturbing enough before Nectar adds bloodsucking butterflies to the equation.

The series escalates very quickly from there. A few butterflies become swarms, the dancing spreads, and suddenly the entire island is dealing with two different kinds of horror at once. Some of the most violent scenes involve people being completely overwhelmed by the insects, while the dancers are horrifying for a completely different reason because nobody is spared once the illness starts taking hold.

An Island Losing Its Mind

What I really liked is that Nectar does not stop at “killer butterflies attack town.” Dr. Amos Hall becomes the closest thing the story has to a voice of reason, trying to understand what is happening while everyone around him becomes increasingly terrified. Unfortunately, this is 1837, so science is competing with religion, superstition, and a community desperate to find something or someone to blame.

Pastor Grant sees the outbreak as something demonic, and as the situation gets worse, his fear starts feeding into the panic around him. Watching religion, paranoia, and violence spread alongside the actual plague gives the story another layer, because eventually the butterflies are only one part of the problem. The people themselves become just as dangerous.

That progression worked really well for me. The series keeps finding new places to take the same central disaster without feeling like four issues of people simply running away from insects.

The Art Goes Completely Insane

I was not familiar with anyone on the creative team going into Nectar, which always makes discovering a book like this more fun because I had no idea what to expect. Annapaola Martello and Francesco Francini absolutely sold the horror for me, especially once the swarms start appearing and the violence gets much bigger.

The butterflies can look genuinely beautiful in one scene and completely disgusting in the next, while Steve Canon’s colors make those brighter tones stand out against the darker, older world around them. Every issue has at least one image that made me stop for a second, and when the series decides to go violent, it really commits.

Four Issues Was Enough

Nectar moves fast, but I think four issues was the right length for this story. The plague keeps escalating, the island becomes more unstable, and each issue adds something new without stretching the premise until it loses its impact.

And the ending was so good. I thought I had a general idea of where everything was going, but the final issue took the story somewhere more interesting than I expected and gave the whole series a satisfying finish without overexplaining everything.

We bought Nectar because of a cover, and four issues later I was extremely happy that we judged this particular book entirely by it. If blood-drinking butterflies, historical horror, religious paranoia, and an island literally dancing itself into madness sound like your kind of thing, this one is very easy to recommend.

Related Reading

If the historical folklore side of Nectar is what gets you, our Whisper of the Woods review dives into Romanian legends and a forest where every warning probably should have been taken seriously. And if you want another horror series that takes a completely wild concept and commits to it without hesitation, our Abattoir 6 review heads into a future where vampires have turned humans into livestock.

FAQ

What is Nectar about?
Nectar follows an isolated community on Misery Island in 1837 as blood-drinking butterflies begin spreading a Dancing Plague through the population.

Who created Nectar?
Jeremy Robinson writes the series, with art by Annapaola Martello and Francesco Francini, colors by Steve Canon, and lettering by Jim Campbell.

Is the Dancing Plague in Nectar based on a real event?
Yes. The best-known outbreak happened in Strasbourg in 1518, when people reportedly danced uncontrollably for days or weeks.

How many issues is Nectar?
Nectar is a four-issue horror series originally published from March through June 2026.

Is Nectar collected?
Yes. The complete four-issue story is available in a collected edition.