I absolutely love the art style. It's dark and mysterious and gorgeous and the story is refreshing.

Suee is a twelve-year-old goth girl-in-training; she dresses in black, has no friends, and seeks to keep it that way even after starting at a new school. A trip to an off-limits room in the school, however, leaves Suee hearing voices - and, eventually, seeing her shadow, which has not only come to life but seems to have truly sinister plans for both Suee and her classmates; perhaps even the entire school! This graphic novel for middle-graders is surprisingly dark and sinister, with a Tim Burton-like tone in the artwork and story, and though said story draws you in, for me I found things stretched out a bit, to the point where at times I found myself checking how many pages I had left to read before The End. That said, Suee is a sympathetic character with a couple lessons to learn whom readers will readily identify with, and for that reason alone is worth the read. A good, if not great, graphic novel with (at least in the ARC I was reading) mostly black-and-white artwork occasionally dappled with color. 3.5/5 stars

Note: I received a free ARC of this title via NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.

Horror graphic novels can be a wonderful thing. We get the visual even if we don't get the atmospheric tension of the language. The visual aesthetic of this book is pretty great. While the illustrations are fairly simple, the round edges and black and white scheme allow the little differences in the evil elements to stand in starker contrast. The storytelling itself was a bit harder to follow. Events jump around, sometimes without cause and effect. Its a bit scattered.

Normally I don't announce that I have a review copy - it just doesn't seem that important to me to share. However, I need to make it clear with this one, I had a review copy because most of the book was in black and white with a few random color pages thrown in. I believe this is because I had an unfinished copy. I'm not 100% sure if the book will be completely in color.
I will say that the black and white suited the book nicely. It didn't feel unfinished and the artwork was still crisp and detailed. The color pages gave the book a more youthful feel. Since the book is geared towards younger readers, I would say that it helps balance the darker topics of the book and give it an old fashioned animation feel. I say it that way because the colored artwork made me think of old Archie comics for some reason.
All in all, I loved this book. The story covered a number of sensitive topics but avoided that excessive preachy voice that many similar stories have. Suee is a girl who doesn't understand herself. She doesn't realize that she is so full of anger and pain. When she comes across the mystery of the Zero children, she doesn't want to get involved until she really has to. Her separation from her peers is part of the problem of what is going on in the school but she doesn't realize it until it's too late.
There are themes on bullies and friendship but the story maintains a mystery and gothic feel. The end of the book isn't as well wrapped up like many books on these themes - which is a good thing. I get the impression that there will be more Suee books in the future but even if it didn't have a sequel, I could see this ending as being honest (except the last page which definitely has that bridge feeling where you know it's indicating a continuation).
I, personally, like it when books don't beat you over the head with the story and doesn't answer all the questions. I, especially, like it when it's children's books because it encourages dialogue. In a classroom setting, this book could open up an amazing number of topics in discussion. I could see me reading this with my child when he was younger and having some great discussions.
I look forward to Ginger Ly's next book.

The good news : there's a sequel coming. The better news, we have this graphic novel to get us primed. The story is fun, interesting and keeps you turning pages. A little bit quirky in places, but that definitely adds to the appeal.

Good art and a nice story. I will say it took me forever to read it because each page took quite some time to load. I hope this is resolved for the final result.

Cute story and graphics. I wasn't really drawn in. I wish I had been.

Well the start was good, but sadly at page 80 I was just dreadfully bored and I didn't know if I would finish it. But in the end I finished it! Yay!

I will be doing a good/bad review.

Good:
-Haeun. I just adored that girl from the start. She was sweet, adorable, and even though she isn't the smartest she was the nicest of our trio. I felt sorry for her for being bullied. :( I wanted to just reach in the book and smack those mean girls. I loved how great she was at crafts (the dolls she made were cute).
-The Zeroes. Creepy, but also very sad, especially as you learn what happened to them to become that way.
-The art. It was a style I really liked. It just fitted perfectly with the story/the creepiness.
-On that note, I loved that the book was black/white. It just wouldn't work in colour. How I know this, because there are some random colour pages in the book, and I just didn't like those as much.
-Suee. She was a really interesting character, a bit grumpy. But I liked how she was trying to control her shadow, how she tried to not have it hurt her friends and family. Her backstory, and her family situation was pretty sad.
-The mystery. Even though it was a bit boring, it was also interesting and fun.

Bad:
-Suee. Yep, I know I added her at the good, but I also didn't like her all the time. I wish she would just talk to her dad, tell him about her feelings. I was also pissed at her general attitude and how she acted like she was much better than the rest of the world. The fact that she was so standoff-ish towards new people, bleh. I get that she may be suspicious, but those 2 are really nice towards you, yet you act like that around them? No. Just no. Just let them help you out.
-The mean girls. And of course the ring leader's parents are doing stuff for the school, because why not? *sighs*
-The mystery. As I already said in the good part, it was boring. It took forever for us to find out things, and at times it just seemed like we lost focus on what the mystery was.
-The random colour pages. Was that really needed? I still don't get why some pages were just magically coloured and 96% was black and white. I guess I must have missed something, but that says more about the book than about me. :P
-The school principal. What a terrible person. If you don't want to work with kids then don't work with kids. Sjeesh. :|
-Suee's dad. Can't he see that he is hurting his daughter? I get that he has to work, but he also has a kid to take care off, and you can't expect her to do everything. Also who the hell sends their kid outside during the night to pick up clothes? Whut? :|
-The ending. So I guess we have more books to come? I was kind of thinking that this was going to be it, but instead it seems there is something darker going on.
-The shadow. Manipulative little wench. :| Then again, we are probably meant to dislike her given everything.

All in all, it looked awesome, it had good moments, but it took a lot of willpower to not drop this book.

This graphic novel is an odd mix of the life of a middle school misfit, ghost story, and episode of Scooby Doo (I'd have gotten away with it if not for you meddling kids!).

Most of the artwork is black and white interspersed with occasional color panels. I received an early ARC, so I'm not sure whether the final book will have more color or not, but I really think the monotone artwork was perfect for the narrative.

I enjoyed reading this book quite a lot, but was surprised how dark and surreal it was (especially for younger readers). Heavy with alienation, powerless (or straight up malign) adults, bullying, evil shadows etc. It seemed somewhat slanted toward middle readers but I think it would be rather scary and possibly confusing for most grade schoolers.

Three stars

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher