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legs_mcgee's review against another edition
4.0
The artwork isn't exactly my cup of tea, but the plot is inventive and honestly a lot of fun. I'm all for unexpected spies.
friendlydisaster101's review
2.0
Thank you to Netgalley and Graphic Universe ™ for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
'The Spy Who Raised Me' had an intriguing storyline and premise, but was ultimately quite disappointing.
Josie Black is a special operative who works for the Company, under her mother, which she's only figured out now, after discovering some concerning gaps in her memories. As it turns out, she's been mind-controlled and brain-washed into being a special, elite operative, all while believing herself to be just another ordinary teenager. Faced by her mother's decisions and what the truth means, she decides to take matters into her own hands, and realize what it is that she really wants to be.
I found the central story of this graphic novel incredibly interesting. While we may have heard of it before, in other books and movies, the idea of a special operative - a kid, at that - not knowing of their own abilities really appealed to me, and I was immediately drawn to this book.
Unfortunately, this book didn't deliver in the way I hoped it would. Much of the story was very convenient, and I felt that there were many storylines left dangling at the end of the, admittedly, short book. The book felt rushed at times, and didn't delve into some aspects which I found needed to be expanded upon more, with scenes that felt borderline ridiculous. The characters weren't truly elaborated on either, though perhaps the action tries to make up for that.
All of that being said, one of the biggest problems that I had was with the art itself. I felt that the illustrations could have had more detail, and done a better job at basic storytelling overall, with speech bubbles being quite big and more informative of the story than what was happening in the panels themselves. The illustrations weren't exactly what I had been hoping for, to say the least, and were disappointingly bland and unsightly.
Overall, while it sounds great at first, this graphic novel didn't really live up to what I was hoping it would be. While I would recommend it to anyone who would like to check it out for themselves, especially if the premise sounds interesting, I would also tell them not to hold out for much. Here's to hoping for a sequel that goes more in-depth about how this one ended, I suppose.
'The Spy Who Raised Me' had an intriguing storyline and premise, but was ultimately quite disappointing.
Josie Black is a special operative who works for the Company, under her mother, which she's only figured out now, after discovering some concerning gaps in her memories. As it turns out, she's been mind-controlled and brain-washed into being a special, elite operative, all while believing herself to be just another ordinary teenager. Faced by her mother's decisions and what the truth means, she decides to take matters into her own hands, and realize what it is that she really wants to be.
I found the central story of this graphic novel incredibly interesting. While we may have heard of it before, in other books and movies, the idea of a special operative - a kid, at that - not knowing of their own abilities really appealed to me, and I was immediately drawn to this book.
Unfortunately, this book didn't deliver in the way I hoped it would. Much of the story was very convenient, and I felt that there were many storylines left dangling at the end of the, admittedly, short book. The book felt rushed at times, and didn't delve into some aspects which I found needed to be expanded upon more, with scenes that felt borderline ridiculous. The characters weren't truly elaborated on either, though perhaps the action tries to make up for that.
All of that being said, one of the biggest problems that I had was with the art itself. I felt that the illustrations could have had more detail, and done a better job at basic storytelling overall, with speech bubbles being quite big and more informative of the story than what was happening in the panels themselves. The illustrations weren't exactly what I had been hoping for, to say the least, and were disappointingly bland and unsightly.
Overall, while it sounds great at first, this graphic novel didn't really live up to what I was hoping it would be. While I would recommend it to anyone who would like to check it out for themselves, especially if the premise sounds interesting, I would also tell them not to hold out for much. Here's to hoping for a sequel that goes more in-depth about how this one ended, I suppose.
drkbloodfntsies's review against another edition
2.0
⠀⠀⠀⠀ ↠ | two stars.
⠀⠀um. what the fuck was that?
⠀⠀this was ... not good. if it wasn’t a graphic novel, if it wasn’t something i could finish in an hour, i wouldn’t have finished this. i would’ve stopped around page twenty. minor spoilers will be included because there is absolutely no way for me to get around them.
⠀⠀when you first begin this, it is extremely mundane. then, randomly, it picks up and throws you into this extremely fucked up story. let me preface this by saying i love spy stories and all of the negative trauma that comes along with it. however, this... this was something else. mainly because a child was involved.
⠀⠀our main character (JB? i don’t even remember...), discovers her mother enrolled her into a spy program and has literally controlled every aspect of her life since she was born. that is the main issue i have with this story. this type of abuse made out to be a light hearted subject. on top of that, this was far too fast paced. once you were thrown in, you got whip lash every few pages because something else happened. this took place over the course of... two days? three at most? in that time, this child literally solved a case the CIA couldn’t. it was far too convenient and far too easy.
⠀⠀this lacked details and explanations that would have only enhanced the story—not that i’d want to subject myself to something longer, but adding just a few more pages could have benefited the reader’s understanding of this mess. i think this would have also been benefited from being written as a novel. again, i definitely wouldn’t want to subject myself to it, but i believe it would have more potential to be executed better especially because the art wasn’t that fantastic and the color palette was mediocre.
⠀⠀overall, this was a rapid paced story of glorified child abuse. the authors could have done this exact same story without allowing the mother to abuse her daughter for years. it didn’t have to be like this. it could have been far more enjoyable. it wasn’t an awful read given the fact it took about an hour to finish and it was mainly pictures, but i can assure you, you can skip this. please, skip this. you don’t even need to bother with a summary.
NOTE: thank you to netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this graphic novel. this in no way impacts my decisions. all thoughts and opinions are my own.
↠ ebook
↠ 01.06.21 — 01.06.21
↠ annotated? no
⠀⠀um. what the fuck was that?
⠀⠀this was ... not good. if it wasn’t a graphic novel, if it wasn’t something i could finish in an hour, i wouldn’t have finished this. i would’ve stopped around page twenty. minor spoilers will be included because there is absolutely no way for me to get around them.
⠀⠀when you first begin this, it is extremely mundane. then, randomly, it picks up and throws you into this extremely fucked up story. let me preface this by saying i love spy stories and all of the negative trauma that comes along with it. however, this... this was something else. mainly because a child was involved.
⠀⠀our main character (JB? i don’t even remember...), discovers her mother enrolled her into a spy program and has literally controlled every aspect of her life since she was born. that is the main issue i have with this story. this type of abuse made out to be a light hearted subject. on top of that, this was far too fast paced. once you were thrown in, you got whip lash every few pages because something else happened. this took place over the course of... two days? three at most? in that time, this child literally solved a case the CIA couldn’t. it was far too convenient and far too easy.
⠀⠀this lacked details and explanations that would have only enhanced the story—not that i’d want to subject myself to something longer, but adding just a few more pages could have benefited the reader’s understanding of this mess. i think this would have also been benefited from being written as a novel. again, i definitely wouldn’t want to subject myself to it, but i believe it would have more potential to be executed better especially because the art wasn’t that fantastic and the color palette was mediocre.
⠀⠀overall, this was a rapid paced story of glorified child abuse. the authors could have done this exact same story without allowing the mother to abuse her daughter for years. it didn’t have to be like this. it could have been far more enjoyable. it wasn’t an awful read given the fact it took about an hour to finish and it was mainly pictures, but i can assure you, you can skip this. please, skip this. you don’t even need to bother with a summary.
NOTE: thank you to netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this graphic novel. this in no way impacts my decisions. all thoughts and opinions are my own.
↠ ebook
↠ 01.06.21 — 01.06.21
↠ annotated? no
anvitascorner's review against another edition
2.0
***Thank you Netgalley and Lerner Publishing Group for the arc of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review.***
I really wanted to read this graphic novel after reading its description. Unfortunately, I found the execution of the story to be very lacking. The dialogues seemed very dry and didn’t flow all that well in the beginning. They did get somewhat better towards the end though.
And the graphics. I just didn’t like them. It wasn’t just the style (I liked the red theme and some other style aspects) but it felt like there was no effort put into the illustrations and just didn’t feel like it would be a final draft for a graphic novel?? I think the book would’ve been more enjoyable had the illustrations been revised a bit more so we could actually see the characters’ facial expression a little better or even some of the cool spy moves the protagonist does.
I really wanted to read this graphic novel after reading its description. Unfortunately, I found the execution of the story to be very lacking. The dialogues seemed very dry and didn’t flow all that well in the beginning. They did get somewhat better towards the end though.
And the graphics. I just didn’t like them. It wasn’t just the style (I liked the red theme and some other style aspects) but it felt like there was no effort put into the illustrations and just didn’t feel like it would be a final draft for a graphic novel?? I think the book would’ve been more enjoyable had the illustrations been revised a bit more so we could actually see the characters’ facial expression a little better or even some of the cool spy moves the protagonist does.
loreroni's review against another edition
DNF.
Artwork: 4/5
No he conseguido terminar esta novela gráfica. A pesar de que el arte es bonito y los colores de la historia me gustaban bastante, la trama no me consigue enganchar y me aburre demasiado.
Artwork: 4/5
No he conseguido terminar esta novela gráfica. A pesar de que el arte es bonito y los colores de la historia me gustaban bastante, la trama no me consigue enganchar y me aburre demasiado.
maviii's review against another edition
3.0
this graphic novel was very.....interesting. Right off the bat, I was hooked, this was a unique story and I enjoyed the writing and the illustrations. But as the story went on I had some issues. This is a decent book on the surface level, but some things just don't add up? Maybe I'm looking too much into it, but the character's actions didn't align sometimes and it wasn't exactly very realistic.
Overall, I enjoyed this one and had a lot of fun reading it.
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Overall, I enjoyed this one and had a lot of fun reading it.
my socials : my blog my twitter
my bookstagram my pinterest
my amazon wishlist
xelinevn's review against another edition
2.0
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher of this novel for providing me with this ebook in exchange for an honest review .
1,5 / 5
The story: ☆☆
The characters: ☆☆
The graphics: ☆
I thought this would be an awesome graphic novel when I read the plot and looked at that cover. But unfortunately it didn't live up to my expectations. I was really hoping to love this novel..
First, the graphics: they were very simple and not rememberable. Also it were only red drawings. I like the color red, but it is such a dominant color so I instantly felt a bit overwhelmed by it. Secondly, the characters. I had to think a minute about the name of the character, that's how forgettable she was. Josephine was a basic, flat character with zero to no background story.
The main issue I have with this book is the plot. Josephine Black discovers her mother enrolled her into a spy program and has literally controlled every aspect of her life since she was born. Like.. what mother does that?
Even the ending was cut short and did not trigger me to get excited for a sequel. The plot was too fast paced and lacked depth.
Luckily it only had 176 pages so I could finish it soon. If it was longer, I would've cut it short. Too bad.
1,5 / 5
The story: ☆☆
The characters: ☆☆
The graphics: ☆
I thought this would be an awesome graphic novel when I read the plot and looked at that cover. But unfortunately it didn't live up to my expectations. I was really hoping to love this novel..
First, the graphics: they were very simple and not rememberable. Also it were only red drawings. I like the color red, but it is such a dominant color so I instantly felt a bit overwhelmed by it. Secondly, the characters. I had to think a minute about the name of the character, that's how forgettable she was. Josephine was a basic, flat character with zero to no background story.
The main issue I have with this book is the plot. Josephine Black discovers her mother enrolled her into a spy program and has literally controlled every aspect of her life since she was born. Like.. what mother does that?
Even the ending was cut short and did not trigger me to get excited for a sequel. The plot was too fast paced and lacked depth.
Luckily it only had 176 pages so I could finish it soon. If it was longer, I would've cut it short. Too bad.
ihavereadsomebooks's review against another edition
1.0
1 star out of 5.
❝Every parent screws up their kids somehow, right?❞
To be honest, I was not a fan of the book. The general idea was super interesting and I love spy stories but this- this i wasn't a huge fan of.
The story was way too simple and too predictable for my liking. All my predictions were correct and that didn't please me, it just straight up annoyed me.
[ I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. ]
❝Every parent screws up their kids somehow, right?❞
To be honest, I was not a fan of the book. The general idea was super interesting and I love spy stories but this- this i wasn't a huge fan of.
The story was way too simple and too predictable for my liking. All my predictions were correct and that didn't please me, it just straight up annoyed me.
[ I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. ]