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3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
3.5 stars
Rep: queer Jewish main character, gay side characters; WoC side character
A story about a young college student struggling to find friends in a new city, and finding companionship with a set of ghosts living in an old mansion, Ghosted in LA has a shaky start but has potential to be an engaging story. Daphne's fought with her best friend, and picked a college and moved to LA to be with her boyfriend, but he has dumped her, and she doesn't seem to be lucky in the friend department either; her roommate, too, seems to hate her guts. Dejected and lonely, she comes across a mansion and the ghosts residing in it, and she strikes a deal with them to help with some 'errands' in exchange for being allowed to stay there.
The artwork is beautiful, and I loved the coloring and the character designs! I feel, though, that action scenes, like the attack, etc, could be better. The story's pacing is a bit, jumping forward without much indication of where the story is going; intermittently there are flashbacks about the ghosts, which were interesting, but it doesn't solidly relate to the ongoing plotline always. Also what exactly is the threat to the ghosts, for which they need secrecy, is still not even hinted at. Still, I'm interested in this different version of a haunting, where ghosts have different powers, and how Daphne's relationship with them overall and them individually is explored.
Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review from BOOM! Box, via Netgalley.
Rep: queer Jewish main character, gay side characters; WoC side character
A story about a young college student struggling to find friends in a new city, and finding companionship with a set of ghosts living in an old mansion, Ghosted in LA has a shaky start but has potential to be an engaging story. Daphne's fought with her best friend, and picked a college and moved to LA to be with her boyfriend, but he has dumped her, and she doesn't seem to be lucky in the friend department either; her roommate, too, seems to hate her guts. Dejected and lonely, she comes across a mansion and the ghosts residing in it, and she strikes a deal with them to help with some 'errands' in exchange for being allowed to stay there.
The artwork is beautiful, and I loved the coloring and the character designs! I feel, though, that action scenes, like the attack, etc, could be better. The story's pacing is a bit, jumping forward without much indication of where the story is going; intermittently there are flashbacks about the ghosts, which were interesting, but it doesn't solidly relate to the ongoing plotline always. Also what exactly is the threat to the ghosts, for which they need secrecy, is still not even hinted at. Still, I'm interested in this different version of a haunting, where ghosts have different powers, and how Daphne's relationship with them overall and them individually is explored.
Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review from BOOM! Box, via Netgalley.
I want to preface this review by saying I love BOOM! comics. I think they put out consistently great work to a wide range of audiences.
Ghosted in L.A. follows a girl named Daphne who follows her boyfriend to a CA school, and then is stuck there after he quickly breaks up with her. She stumbles upon this old manor which houses a number of ghosts (each with a special power) who agree to let her live there in return for errands and the like.
This is a hot mess. Daphne is incredibly unlikeable but also has no actual personality traits except for "taking on other people's personality traits." She continually complains about how rough her life is, but her ex-boyfriend even points out that her parents have enough saved up for college that she could transfer at anytime, while he has to work three jobs to pay tuition. This comic essentially reads like a series of unconnected shorts-- there's no overarching narrative, there's no consistent characterization, each page feels like it's from a different book.
However, within all this, I can't say enough about the art. Even if the story makes no sense, the art is really gorgeous. It has a cartoon realism style which communicates emotion well. It's also just nice to look at! The art carries the writing well, and if you like the art style, you might even like Ghosted in L.A. just for the visuals.
Pros
-ghosts are rad
-pretty art
-this reads like a bunch of random ideas were put in a blender and what came out was this story. I promise you, you cannot ever tell what is coming next
Cons
-nothing is consistent
-main character is not a good person
-there's a lot of action without substance, which leaves no time for character development
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!
Ghosted in L.A. follows a girl named Daphne who follows her boyfriend to a CA school, and then is stuck there after he quickly breaks up with her. She stumbles upon this old manor which houses a number of ghosts (each with a special power) who agree to let her live there in return for errands and the like.
This is a hot mess. Daphne is incredibly unlikeable but also has no actual personality traits except for "taking on other people's personality traits." She continually complains about how rough her life is, but her ex-boyfriend even points out that her parents have enough saved up for college that she could transfer at anytime, while he has to work three jobs to pay tuition. This comic essentially reads like a series of unconnected shorts-- there's no overarching narrative, there's no consistent characterization, each page feels like it's from a different book.
However, within all this, I can't say enough about the art. Even if the story makes no sense, the art is really gorgeous. It has a cartoon realism style which communicates emotion well. It's also just nice to look at! The art carries the writing well, and if you like the art style, you might even like Ghosted in L.A. just for the visuals.
Pros
-ghosts are rad
-pretty art
-this reads like a bunch of random ideas were put in a blender and what came out was this story. I promise you, you cannot ever tell what is coming next
Cons
-nothing is consistent
-main character is not a good person
-there's a lot of action without substance, which leaves no time for character development
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!
rep: Jewish main character
It was a nice introduction to the characters, I can't wait to learn more on what's going on at the mansion
It was a nice introduction to the characters, I can't wait to learn more on what's going on at the mansion
Received an e-arc of this from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book whatsoever
I loved this graphic novel, it was a breath of fresh air. I enjoyed the plot and the characters were all unique and interesting.
I enjoyed that it was set in a L.A. mansion and the characters were all ghosts!
I can't wait to read more of these!
I loved this graphic novel, it was a breath of fresh air. I enjoyed the plot and the characters were all unique and interesting.
I enjoyed that it was set in a L.A. mansion and the characters were all ghosts!
I can't wait to read more of these!
I was extremely lucky to receive a digital ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book or the content of this review.
I'm always more willing to take a chance on books I know little about when they're graphic novels - after all, they're shorter and quicker, all wrapped up in an aesthetically-pleasing package. The premise of this new series didn't sound like much - a girl moves to L.A., gets dumped by her boyfriend, and moves in with some ghosts - but you add in pictures of all this, and I'm in.
OK, maybe the premise isn't that normal, but the story sure makes it seem that way. I had a little trouble getting into the story because we're just thrown in without a lot of explanations of who everyone is, but I suppose that's normal - after all, no one's life just begins with easy character introductions and info-dumping. Despite all the ghostly adventures, though, it manages to feel like a pretty normal story about a girl adjusting to college and lots of changes.
I found the big cast of characters, ghostly and alive, interesting, but I found myself still confused all the way to the end. Since there are so many characters, many of them dead and who had lives previous to being dead, it can be a lot to take in. There's obviously some mythology behind all of this story as well, so it's even more to take in.
I'm curious to check out the next volume, because I think this book suffered from some common first book growing pains, and I'm just hoping that those are absent in the future.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
I'm always more willing to take a chance on books I know little about when they're graphic novels - after all, they're shorter and quicker, all wrapped up in an aesthetically-pleasing package. The premise of this new series didn't sound like much - a girl moves to L.A., gets dumped by her boyfriend, and moves in with some ghosts - but you add in pictures of all this, and I'm in.
OK, maybe the premise isn't that normal, but the story sure makes it seem that way. I had a little trouble getting into the story because we're just thrown in without a lot of explanations of who everyone is, but I suppose that's normal - after all, no one's life just begins with easy character introductions and info-dumping. Despite all the ghostly adventures, though, it manages to feel like a pretty normal story about a girl adjusting to college and lots of changes.
I found the big cast of characters, ghostly and alive, interesting, but I found myself still confused all the way to the end. Since there are so many characters, many of them dead and who had lives previous to being dead, it can be a lot to take in. There's obviously some mythology behind all of this story as well, so it's even more to take in.
I'm curious to check out the next volume, because I think this book suffered from some common first book growing pains, and I'm just hoping that those are absent in the future.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
I would like to start by saying that Ghosted in L.A. is one of like, 6 or 7 print comics that I read.
I actually started reading it as it was released because I follow Siobhan on social media and saw her posting about it! I was really excited to read the bind-up though and see the extra art and behind-the-scenes stuff included.
The story follows Daphne, a rising college freshman as she moves across the country to attend the same college as her boyfriend Ronnie. But everything is not quite as dreamy as she hoped to find when she got to L.A. Eventually she finds herself mostly living in a haunted house where she slowly befriends some of the resident ghosts.
Daphne is such a sunbeam of a character and I love seeing her grow into a more sensitive person as she deals with some of her own drama and the ghosts that she hangs out with. I also have some favorite ghosts (of course) and I'm excited to see how their stories continue and how their interactions with Daphne change, especially based on how this volume ended.
As per usual, I love Siobhan's art. Great panel compositions and sense of movement!
I actually started reading it as it was released because I follow Siobhan on social media and saw her posting about it! I was really excited to read the bind-up though and see the extra art and behind-the-scenes stuff included.
The story follows Daphne, a rising college freshman as she moves across the country to attend the same college as her boyfriend Ronnie. But everything is not quite as dreamy as she hoped to find when she got to L.A. Eventually she finds herself mostly living in a haunted house where she slowly befriends some of the resident ghosts.
Daphne is such a sunbeam of a character and I love seeing her grow into a more sensitive person as she deals with some of her own drama and the ghosts that she hangs out with. I also have some favorite ghosts (of course) and I'm excited to see how their stories continue and how their interactions with Daphne change, especially based on how this volume ended.
As per usual, I love Siobhan's art. Great panel compositions and sense of movement!
Thank you to NetGalley and BOOM! Box for providing me an advance reader copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.
I felt this was an intriguing story, but it didn't dive deep enough into the characters' personalities or history for me to form a strong attachment to them yet. Hopefully, that will change in later volumes, since I do think this world has the potential to hold readers' interest for a while. Giving each ghost a distinct style based on different periods in contemporary history was a smart decision, and I'm excited to learn more about each of their previous lives.
My favorite part of the series so far is the art. I love Siobhan Keenan's soft, round style and dynamic expressions. Her characters always have a friendly air to them that makes me want to live in their world. Cathy Le's colors were also attractive and provided further character to the story while creating a clear divide between the normal and the supernatural.
The issues in this volume were fairly episodic, so it seems like readers could easily follow the plot whether they chose to read the series as single issues or trades. The mystery aspect present in this volume is what interests me most, and I will likely continue reading along through collected editions.
I felt this was an intriguing story, but it didn't dive deep enough into the characters' personalities or history for me to form a strong attachment to them yet. Hopefully, that will change in later volumes, since I do think this world has the potential to hold readers' interest for a while. Giving each ghost a distinct style based on different periods in contemporary history was a smart decision, and I'm excited to learn more about each of their previous lives.
My favorite part of the series so far is the art. I love Siobhan Keenan's soft, round style and dynamic expressions. Her characters always have a friendly air to them that makes me want to live in their world. Cathy Le's colors were also attractive and provided further character to the story while creating a clear divide between the normal and the supernatural.
The issues in this volume were fairly episodic, so it seems like readers could easily follow the plot whether they chose to read the series as single issues or trades. The mystery aspect present in this volume is what interests me most, and I will likely continue reading along through collected editions.
* I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. *
Ghosted in LA was a treat! I think the art and coloring were absolutely gorgeous and the story and characters were a blast to follow. This volume left off on quite a cliff hanger, so I can't wait to see what kind of ghosty hijinks Daphne gets up to next.
Ghosted in LA was a treat! I think the art and coloring were absolutely gorgeous and the story and characters were a blast to follow. This volume left off on quite a cliff hanger, so I can't wait to see what kind of ghosty hijinks Daphne gets up to next.
Daphne follows her boyfriend to college, but things don't go quite according to plan and boom, she finds herself in a fancy ol' building full of ghosts. Fun times all around.
I'm always here for ghost stories, but in this they're essentially more side-characters than mains and yet they're the most interesting part of the story, which is a tad unfortunate. Daphne was a bit generic and boring, and the pacing was all over the place, but the ghosts were great and saved it, for the most part - I loved the little glimpses into their "former" lives. The illustrations made it easy to distinguish between the different timelines and who was alive and who wasn't, which was neat, but the lack of plot and purpose made it all a bit messy. Where's it going? What's the end-game?
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
I'm always here for ghost stories, but in this they're essentially more side-characters than mains and yet they're the most interesting part of the story, which is a tad unfortunate. Daphne was a bit generic and boring, and the pacing was all over the place, but the ghosts were great and saved it, for the most part - I loved the little glimpses into their "former" lives. The illustrations made it easy to distinguish between the different timelines and who was alive and who wasn't, which was neat, but the lack of plot and purpose made it all a bit messy. Where's it going? What's the end-game?
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
I received a review copy of this book, this does not influence my thoughts on the book or this review.
I really enjoyed this first volume of an interesting new series! All the characters were quite compelling and I'm really excited to see what happens in volume 2.
I really enjoyed this first volume of an interesting new series! All the characters were quite compelling and I'm really excited to see what happens in volume 2.