The Smurfs Volume 2 Mystery Coloring Book: My Full Review

Specifications

Author: Alexandre Karam.
Publisher: Hachette Heroes.
Publication date: 2 July 2025.
Number of colorings: 100.
Number of pages: 128 (solutions included).
Difficulty: fairly hard.
Paper: premium.
Printing: double sided.
Dimensions: 21.7 x 1.3 x 30 cm.

What works

The white areas are printed as solid white. You will not need a white marker to rescue a greyed background, and on Smurfs, whose hats and trousers take up a good share of every drawing, that is a real comfort.
The areas are clearly outlined and the letters stay readable, even in the busiest parts of a page.
The artwork is charming and faithful to Peyo's world.
Some colorings run across a double page, which gives wide compositions and a striking result once finished.

What does not

Some areas have no color code at all. It is an oversight, and it forces you to open the solutions page to work out the intended shade. On a mystery coloring book, checking the solution halfway through ruins the very thing you came for.
A color code can also point to a shade that differs from the one shown in the solution. You follow the key correctly and the result does not match the finished picture.
The book is printed double sided, which rules out alcohol markers. They bleed through and destroy the coloring on the other side. Plan on colored pencils, acrylic markers or water based markers instead.

Worth knowing

The number of areas is enormous. That is not a flaw in itself, it is the price of the detail, but some pages do look cluttered until they are well under way.
You will need many shades within the same color family. Expect several blues, several ochres, several greens. With a limited palette you will get stuck quickly.

Sample pages

Here is what a page looks like before you start. The density of areas is obvious at first glance, and it sets the tone for the whole book.

The solutions

The solutions sit at the back of the book, printed small. They are meant to let you discover the picture afterwards. Here, because of the missing color codes, you unfortunately have to consult them while you are still coloring.

My coloring, step by step

I photographed page 83 all the way through, from the first patch of green to the final outlines. It is the best way to understand what coloring this book actually feels like: for a good half of the time, you cannot see the picture yet. You have to accept working blind, one area at a time, until the scene finally appears.

This is also where the point about multiple shades becomes clear. The rocks alone need four values of ochre and brown, and the foliage three different greens.

The two problems I ran into while coloring

Both points appear in my list above, but I would rather detail them here, because you only measure what they really cost once you are coloring.

A color key that does not match the solution

On my page, the letter B in the key leans clearly towards olive green. So I colored in olive, logically enough. Checking the solution afterwards, the same area appears in yellow. This is not a debatable shade difference between two screens, these are two different colors. I ended up picking a yellow that matched the solution rather than the key, but the question should never have come up.

Areas with no color code

Several areas on my drawing simply had no letter. There is no way to guess: you have to go and look at the solution. And once you have seen it, the mystery is gone for the whole page. This is the one flaw that genuinely annoyed me, because it undermines the entire principle of a mystery coloring book.

My personal take

I did not enjoy this volume, and I want to be precise about why: I am not a fan of the Smurfs, nor of this drawing style. That is not the book's fault. Peyo enthusiasts will very likely love it, and what I describe as long will probably feel pleasant to them.

Because it is long. A great many areas, a great many outlines. That is not a criticism in itself, a dense coloring is a good thing when you love the picture in front of you. But when you do not, every hour makes itself felt. That may be the most useful advice I can give about this kind of book: pick a world you genuinely love, because you will spend far more time in it than you expect.

One small mishap along the way, for anyone working with markers: I rested my arm on a black outline that was not dry yet and it smudged. With acrylic markers, work from top to bottom and let the outlines dry before putting your hand anywhere near them.

Who is this book for?

It is for you if you love the Smurfs, if you already own a well stocked palette with several shades per color family, and if very dense colorings do not put you off.
Give it a miss if you are a beginner. This volume asks for too many close shades and sustained concentration because of the sheer number of areas. You could easily get discouraged, and it would be a shame to be put off mystery coloring by this one.
Give it a miss too if you only color with alcohol markers. The double sided printing makes them unusable here.