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Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, Classism
Minor: Body shaming, Death, Drug use, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, War, Deportation
But even this early on there are obvious problems. A rolling snowball has to start somewhere.
The art in Lore Olympus, while unique with its painterly, abstract aesthetic and strong color choices, is inconsistent and noticeably sloppy for a professional published work. Persephone, in particular, routinely changes her face shape, eye size, body shape, and general proportions every other page. She's not shapeshifting; it's just inconsistent and demonstrative of a lack of a character sheet.
At times she will have a defined square jaw; a moment later she'll be all curves.
The abstract, painted style works at times but at others gives way to laziness. Characters will be blobs of color with a few sketch lines to inconsistently define their features. Anatomy will break often and expressions will become exaggerated to an ugly, deformed degree.
At times the comic will stop looking complete and switch to uncolored sketches because the artist couldn't be bothered to finish a page. This kind of unfinished work is unbecoming of a published book, even if it was more acceptable as a Webtoon.
The narrative at this point is so simple that barely anything actually happens in the book. Persephone and Hades meet, Persephone makes a friend, and something horribly traumatic happens at the end. That's about it. That's the entire contents of the book. Rather minimal, huh?
For what does happen, Persephone and Hades do have chemistry. Their banter is fairly cute and the visual aesthetic of them together is pleasing to look at. The pink and blue go very nicely. In this version of the story, Hades doesn't kidnap Persephone. That alone takes a seriously problematic element out of their romance; however, whether their relationship is any good remains to be seen.
Of course, the age gap is already a problem and will remain a problem for the entire series.
The fetish at play is creepy and the characters in the story love to bring it up without doing anything to end the problem.
Artemis has some character assassination, I must say. Supposedly her home has a "no men" rule, yet she breaks it constantly even when Persephone, her roommate, protests. This consistent lack of regard gets Persephone hurt and it's completely out of character for the moon goddess to be so negligent with men. Eros too is fairly unlikeable as a person. The story doesn't try hard to make anyone that likeable outside of the main romantic leads.
Then there is Minthe.
Who will be discussed in a later review.
All in all, it's not worth the paper it's printed on. The story is stretched much too thin and the romance doesn't pick up enough to justify the filler. If I must praise anything, Persephone's trauma is taken very seriously and is portrayed with respect. However, this too will be ruined later on.
It's not terrible. Yet.
Graphic: Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Sexual harassment
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism
Minor: War
Graphic: Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, War
Graphic: Rape, Medical trauma
Moderate: War
Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping
Moderate: Infidelity, Violence, War
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Infertility, Physical abuse, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Alcohol
Minor: Bullying, Death, Torture, Blood, War