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kgarciabug's review against another edition
3.0
Three stars for the story. It was extremely complicated and I was often confused. I really really wanted to like it, but I just was kinda meh.
Extra star for the glorious art and inclusion of awesome cat creatures.
Extra star for the glorious art and inclusion of awesome cat creatures.
jsoakes's review against another edition
4.0
Beautiful artwork. Fascinating magical world-building. Great action and mystery.
Merged review:
Beautiful artwork. Fascinating magical world-building. Great action and mystery.
Merged review:
Beautiful artwork. Fascinating magical world-building. Great action and mystery.
theninthbow_reads's review against another edition
3.0
This took me about 80% of the volume until I was interested in this. It ends on a compelling note, and I am interested to see where this goes.
However. There is so much violence and abuse towards children. And since this is a graphic novel, everything is shown. Children are killed and dismembered, starved and enslaved. And it’s all there visually on the page. It made me feel a bit sick, not gonna lie.
So idk. I really love some of the characters (Kippa and Rin are great, and I’d like to see if Corvin ends up playing a larger part of the story), and the world and relationships of some of the characters might turn out to be heart wrenching.
Also, I really like the cats in this world.
But. BUT! Idk if I can get over the violence towards children. If the violence decreases, I’d like to see where this goes. But it’s also quite a lot to get through if the violence levels continue as is.
So idk. Idk if I’ll continue with this series. I almost stopped reading this first volume a few times. I’ll have to see if I ever feel like picking the next volume up in the future.
Merged review:
This took me about 80% of the volume until I was interested in this. It ends on a compelling note, and I am interested to see where this goes.
However. There is so much violence and abuse towards children. And since this is a graphic novel, everything is shown. Children are killed and dismembered, starved and enslaved. And it’s all there visually on the page. It made me feel a bit sick, not gonna lie.
So idk. I really love some of the characters (Kippa and Rin are great, and I’d like to see if Corvin ends up playing a larger part of the story), and the world and relationships of some of the characters might turn out to be heart wrenching.
Also, I really like the cats in this world.
But. BUT! Idk if I can get over the violence towards children. If the violence decreases, I’d like to see where this goes. But it’s also quite a lot to get through if the violence levels continue as is.
So idk. Idk if I’ll continue with this series. I almost stopped reading this first volume a few times. I’ll have to see if I ever feel like picking the next volume up in the future.
However. There is so much violence and abuse towards children. And since this is a graphic novel, everything is shown. Children are killed and dismembered, starved and enslaved. And it’s all there visually on the page. It made me feel a bit sick, not gonna lie.
So idk. I really love some of the characters (Kippa and Rin are great, and I’d like to see if Corvin ends up playing a larger part of the story), and the world and relationships of some of the characters might turn out to be heart wrenching.
Also, I really like the cats in this world.
But. BUT! Idk if I can get over the violence towards children. If the violence decreases, I’d like to see where this goes. But it’s also quite a lot to get through if the violence levels continue as is.
So idk. Idk if I’ll continue with this series. I almost stopped reading this first volume a few times. I’ll have to see if I ever feel like picking the next volume up in the future.
Merged review:
This took me about 80% of the volume until I was interested in this. It ends on a compelling note, and I am interested to see where this goes.
However. There is so much violence and abuse towards children. And since this is a graphic novel, everything is shown. Children are killed and dismembered, starved and enslaved. And it’s all there visually on the page. It made me feel a bit sick, not gonna lie.
So idk. I really love some of the characters (Kippa and Rin are great, and I’d like to see if Corvin ends up playing a larger part of the story), and the world and relationships of some of the characters might turn out to be heart wrenching.
Also, I really like the cats in this world.
But. BUT! Idk if I can get over the violence towards children. If the violence decreases, I’d like to see where this goes. But it’s also quite a lot to get through if the violence levels continue as is.
So idk. Idk if I’ll continue with this series. I almost stopped reading this first volume a few times. I’ll have to see if I ever feel like picking the next volume up in the future.
gwynn_sky's review against another edition
5.0
Amazing drawing, art and story. I love it. So beautiful and well-worked pieces every page. I would say it is for age 16+. And I appreciate the story behind the idea of the main character. I recommend it to readers, who would like to read about strong will to survive.
ktymick's review against another edition
2.0
The panels were richly detailed but extremely hurried, lacking transitions or large visual set-pieces. This made it hard to understand who was a part of many of the scenes, and even harder to ground myself in any of the settings of the novel. The pacing of the plot whisked me from one scene of super gloom to another of blood-gore extremes, and while this tapped into a certain visceral excitement, there's nothing enduring about any of it. Each "chapter" is cut to feel like a cliffhanger, halting momentum by inserting a congested page of world history to provide exposition where the author couldn't find place to fit it in otherwise. The next page immediately resolves the hanging conflict, making me question why it was worth setting up to begin with. That's the problem with compiling issues into a larger binding, I suppose, that every 20 pages introduces a cheap risk to the characters that carries only short-term suspense.
A woeful dearth of character depth resulted in stereotype fatigue, where only the visuals clued you in to who we should be rooting for (ugly, grotesque characters=evil; beautiful, strong characters=good). The strikingly pretty, but stubborn!, protagonist has a dark past and an even darker power within her, effectively making her an unstoppable killing machine. This cuts the suspense hard since I quickly understood that no force would actually pose a threat to her--there are no stakes in this story. Additionally, her edgy response to every encounter involves a "fuck this/fuck you/fuck it" line, making me cringe whenever I saw a speech bubble appear next to her. She is simply immature, unlikable, and invincible, and we're stuck with her. The only real threat is toward her companions, which comprise the only moral/emotional center to the story, and we don't get nearly enough time to understand their motivations for following a character so self-absorbed, so callous, and so reckless.
One of the primary thematic questions raised in this graphic novel is whether humanity can exist in a monster, but this really only pertains to the main character whose resident demon within her feasts indiscriminately on all beings. No other "monster" in the novel is given deeper motivations rather than "I DESIRE POWER, MWAHAHA" and the author slips in rape, excessive torture, cannibalism, and murder to let the reader know that, yes, these people are evil. These are flat, verging on offensive, villains. The question of the protagonist's humanity is almost nearly as underdeveloped, as she fails to perform a single action in the novel that isn't purely for her own self-serving quest for vengeance. Or knowledge? It's never made clear what her true motivation is, since the only flashbacks utilized were to let readers know she had a friend once who told her not to do what she's doing (which again, isn't clear what that is).
What's most upsetting is how cool the world seems to be, with all the different races and factions, the history of conflict setting up the current political stage. There are such few breaks to explore what could be an incredible world, yet the author seems thoroughly disinterested in building it. Those exposition pages that are sprinkled in after each chapter feel like a clever afterthought, quickly overused, and the artwork merely exists to paint the plot's action in opulent detail rather than use the visual space to enhance the narrative of the world. It's all eye candy, but at the end of the day it left me unsatisfied.
In summary, a lot of people end up dead, the main character has learned nothing, the antagonists persist, but at least there's a talking cat?
Merged review:
The panels were richly detailed but extremely hurried, lacking transitions or large visual set-pieces. This made it hard to understand who was a part of many of the scenes, and even harder to ground myself in any of the settings of the novel. The pacing of the plot whisked me from one scene of super gloom to another of blood-gore extremes, and while this tapped into a certain visceral excitement, there's nothing enduring about any of it. Each "chapter" is cut to feel like a cliffhanger, halting momentum by inserting a congested page of world history to provide exposition where the author couldn't find place to fit it in otherwise. The next page immediately resolves the hanging conflict, making me question why it was worth setting up to begin with. That's the problem with compiling issues into a larger binding, I suppose, that every 20 pages introduces a cheap risk to the characters that carries only short-term suspense.
A woeful dearth of character depth resulted in stereotype fatigue, where only the visuals clued you in to who we should be rooting for (ugly, grotesque characters=evil; beautiful, strong characters=good). The strikingly pretty, but stubborn!, protagonist has a dark past and an even darker power within her, effectively making her an unstoppable killing machine. This cuts the suspense hard since I quickly understood that no force would actually pose a threat to her--there are no stakes in this story. Additionally, her edgy response to every encounter involves a "fuck this/fuck you/fuck it" line, making me cringe whenever I saw a speech bubble appear next to her. She is simply immature, unlikable, and invincible, and we're stuck with her. The only real threat is toward her companions, which comprise the only moral/emotional center to the story, and we don't get nearly enough time to understand their motivations for following a character so self-absorbed, so callous, and so reckless.
One of the primary thematic questions raised in this graphic novel is whether humanity can exist in a monster, but this really only pertains to the main character whose resident demon within her feasts indiscriminately on all beings. No other "monster" in the novel is given deeper motivations rather than "I DESIRE POWER, MWAHAHA" and the author slips in rape, excessive torture, cannibalism, and murder to let the reader know that, yes, these people are evil. These are flat, verging on offensive, villains. The question of the protagonist's humanity is almost nearly as underdeveloped, as she fails to perform a single action in the novel that isn't purely for her own self-serving quest for vengeance. Or knowledge? It's never made clear what her true motivation is, since the only flashbacks utilized were to let readers know she had a friend once who told her not to do what she's doing (which again, isn't clear what that is).
What's most upsetting is how cool the world seems to be, with all the different races and factions, the history of conflict setting up the current political stage. There are such few breaks to explore what could be an incredible world, yet the author seems thoroughly disinterested in building it. Those exposition pages that are sprinkled in after each chapter feel like a clever afterthought, quickly overused, and the artwork merely exists to paint the plot's action in opulent detail rather than use the visual space to enhance the narrative of the world. It's all eye candy, but at the end of the day it left me unsatisfied.
In summary, a lot of people end up dead, the main character has learned nothing, the antagonists persist, but at least there's a talking cat?
A woeful dearth of character depth resulted in stereotype fatigue, where only the visuals clued you in to who we should be rooting for (ugly, grotesque characters=evil; beautiful, strong characters=good). The strikingly pretty, but stubborn!, protagonist has a dark past and an even darker power within her, effectively making her an unstoppable killing machine. This cuts the suspense hard since I quickly understood that no force would actually pose a threat to her--there are no stakes in this story. Additionally, her edgy response to every encounter involves a "fuck this/fuck you/fuck it" line, making me cringe whenever I saw a speech bubble appear next to her. She is simply immature, unlikable, and invincible, and we're stuck with her. The only real threat is toward her companions, which comprise the only moral/emotional center to the story, and we don't get nearly enough time to understand their motivations for following a character so self-absorbed, so callous, and so reckless.
One of the primary thematic questions raised in this graphic novel is whether humanity can exist in a monster, but this really only pertains to the main character whose resident demon within her feasts indiscriminately on all beings. No other "monster" in the novel is given deeper motivations rather than "I DESIRE POWER, MWAHAHA" and the author slips in rape, excessive torture, cannibalism, and murder to let the reader know that, yes, these people are evil. These are flat, verging on offensive, villains. The question of the protagonist's humanity is almost nearly as underdeveloped, as she fails to perform a single action in the novel that isn't purely for her own self-serving quest for vengeance. Or knowledge? It's never made clear what her true motivation is, since the only flashbacks utilized were to let readers know she had a friend once who told her not to do what she's doing (which again, isn't clear what that is).
What's most upsetting is how cool the world seems to be, with all the different races and factions, the history of conflict setting up the current political stage. There are such few breaks to explore what could be an incredible world, yet the author seems thoroughly disinterested in building it. Those exposition pages that are sprinkled in after each chapter feel like a clever afterthought, quickly overused, and the artwork merely exists to paint the plot's action in opulent detail rather than use the visual space to enhance the narrative of the world. It's all eye candy, but at the end of the day it left me unsatisfied.
In summary, a lot of people end up dead, the main character has learned nothing, the antagonists persist, but at least there's a talking cat?
Merged review:
The panels were richly detailed but extremely hurried, lacking transitions or large visual set-pieces. This made it hard to understand who was a part of many of the scenes, and even harder to ground myself in any of the settings of the novel. The pacing of the plot whisked me from one scene of super gloom to another of blood-gore extremes, and while this tapped into a certain visceral excitement, there's nothing enduring about any of it. Each "chapter" is cut to feel like a cliffhanger, halting momentum by inserting a congested page of world history to provide exposition where the author couldn't find place to fit it in otherwise. The next page immediately resolves the hanging conflict, making me question why it was worth setting up to begin with. That's the problem with compiling issues into a larger binding, I suppose, that every 20 pages introduces a cheap risk to the characters that carries only short-term suspense.
A woeful dearth of character depth resulted in stereotype fatigue, where only the visuals clued you in to who we should be rooting for (ugly, grotesque characters=evil; beautiful, strong characters=good). The strikingly pretty, but stubborn!, protagonist has a dark past and an even darker power within her, effectively making her an unstoppable killing machine. This cuts the suspense hard since I quickly understood that no force would actually pose a threat to her--there are no stakes in this story. Additionally, her edgy response to every encounter involves a "fuck this/fuck you/fuck it" line, making me cringe whenever I saw a speech bubble appear next to her. She is simply immature, unlikable, and invincible, and we're stuck with her. The only real threat is toward her companions, which comprise the only moral/emotional center to the story, and we don't get nearly enough time to understand their motivations for following a character so self-absorbed, so callous, and so reckless.
One of the primary thematic questions raised in this graphic novel is whether humanity can exist in a monster, but this really only pertains to the main character whose resident demon within her feasts indiscriminately on all beings. No other "monster" in the novel is given deeper motivations rather than "I DESIRE POWER, MWAHAHA" and the author slips in rape, excessive torture, cannibalism, and murder to let the reader know that, yes, these people are evil. These are flat, verging on offensive, villains. The question of the protagonist's humanity is almost nearly as underdeveloped, as she fails to perform a single action in the novel that isn't purely for her own self-serving quest for vengeance. Or knowledge? It's never made clear what her true motivation is, since the only flashbacks utilized were to let readers know she had a friend once who told her not to do what she's doing (which again, isn't clear what that is).
What's most upsetting is how cool the world seems to be, with all the different races and factions, the history of conflict setting up the current political stage. There are such few breaks to explore what could be an incredible world, yet the author seems thoroughly disinterested in building it. Those exposition pages that are sprinkled in after each chapter feel like a clever afterthought, quickly overused, and the artwork merely exists to paint the plot's action in opulent detail rather than use the visual space to enhance the narrative of the world. It's all eye candy, but at the end of the day it left me unsatisfied.
In summary, a lot of people end up dead, the main character has learned nothing, the antagonists persist, but at least there's a talking cat?
thepaperwitch's review against another edition
5.0
A fantastic story that left me clamoring for the next volume. I read it in one night as I could not put it down. It has a sense of steampunk, which isn't really my thing, but it felt even more of a high fantasy to me, which is my favorite fantasy sub-genre. It has a flavor in the vein of Fullmetal Alchemist but with its own unique story. The art is incredibly beautiful and detailed. Magic, witches, demons, half creature-half human beings, mystrious objects, and a forgotten past--absolutely fantastic!
Merged review:
A fantastic story that left me clamoring for the next volume. I read it in one night as I could not put it down. It has a sense of steampunk, which isn't really my thing, but it felt even more of a high fantasy to me, which is my favorite fantasy sub-genre. It has a flavor in the vein of Fullmetal Alchemist but with its own unique story. The art is incredibly beautiful and detailed. Magic, witches, demons, half creature-half human beings, mystrious objects, and a forgotten past--absolutely fantastic!
Merged review:
A fantastic story that left me clamoring for the next volume. I read it in one night as I could not put it down. It has a sense of steampunk, which isn't really my thing, but it felt even more of a high fantasy to me, which is my favorite fantasy sub-genre. It has a flavor in the vein of Fullmetal Alchemist but with its own unique story. The art is incredibly beautiful and detailed. Magic, witches, demons, half creature-half human beings, mystrious objects, and a forgotten past--absolutely fantastic!
nocturnalreader_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
5.0
apagewithshay's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0