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A review by dinipandareads
Midnight Radio by Iolanda Zanfardino
4.0
Midnight Radio is a short, thought-provoking graphic novel that is beautifully illustrated. It follows four characters who currently find themselves lost or in difficult social and personal situations that they're struggling to navigate or deal with. Each storyline is rich with emotion and the issues that the characters face are very relevant to modern times; especially with how easy it is for people to pretend to be someone they're not with the use of social media and the internet, and the pressure to conform to society's idea of "normal" (whatever that is), instead of just being their individual selves. I really enjoyed Stephen's storyline (yellow!) and I probably liked Seika's (blue) the least, as it felt the least genuine (imo).
To be honest, I found it quite difficult to follow the storylines and to keep up with what was happening with each character, but the "Oh!" moment towards the end was very well done. Everything clicked into place without me even having to look back at earlier pages. I liked that despite the characters all living very different and separate lives, there was one element that connected them all, and it wasn't done in a contrived way.
I thought that the illustrations, while not the clean sharp lines that I usually love, added a sense of fluidity to the movement of the characters. At first, the use of the bright neon-colored boxes for the different characters was slightly jarring, but I ended up appreciating how it made it easier for me to follow the storylines--I am also just generally a fan of bright colors! I have to say that there is a lot of text in these pages, that initially put me off because I find it tiresome to read such small text cramped together in a small space, but I'm glad that I kept reading! Perhaps the concept of the storylines weren't anything new or extra special, but I was still able to enjoy it because I haven't seen it done in this format before.
A review of this book will be posted on my blog (http://dinipandareads.home.blog) closer to the release date. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for providing me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
To be honest, I found it quite difficult to follow the storylines and to keep up with what was happening with each character, but the "Oh!" moment towards the end was very well done. Everything clicked into place without me even having to look back at earlier pages. I liked that despite the characters all living very different and separate lives, there was one element that connected them all, and it wasn't done in a contrived way.
I thought that the illustrations, while not the clean sharp lines that I usually love, added a sense of fluidity to the movement of the characters. At first, the use of the bright neon-colored boxes for the different characters was slightly jarring, but I ended up appreciating how it made it easier for me to follow the storylines--I am also just generally a fan of bright colors! I have to say that there is a lot of text in these pages, that initially put me off because I find it tiresome to read such small text cramped together in a small space, but I'm glad that I kept reading! Perhaps the concept of the storylines weren't anything new or extra special, but I was still able to enjoy it because I haven't seen it done in this format before.
A review of this book will be posted on my blog (http://dinipandareads.home.blog) closer to the release date. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for providing me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.