A wealthy family with a coffee business has two daughters vying for control of the business. When one loses out, she gets pregnant after a drunken rampage. The mother is cold and wants nothing to do with the son while his grandparents dote on him. The story just keeps getting darker and darker but begins to go off the rails towards the end. It also ends without an ending and there still hasn't been a follow up 5 years later. The art is strange. Everyone has giant heads.

Was unable to read this book as the format didn't work for me. Tried finding it online and at the library but no luck. Needed to write something in order to get my percentage up. Hoping one day I can read this though as it sounds great.

'Sun' with story and art by Wilbert van der Steen is a graphic novel about some ugly people and an innocent child.

A man who owns a coffee company and has wealth is looking for a successor. He has two sharp-faced daughters and selects one to run the plant. The other, in a drunken fit, finds a stranger and gets pregnant. The result is a son, who is immediately doted over by her father. She wants little or nothing to do with the boy, which works until family tragedy hits.

This was kind of a dark story, but I liked it. There are characters to like in it and characters that are pretty pathetic. The art was interesting too.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

This may be a little TOO European for me - it was pretty dark and bleak.

MILD SPOILERS AHEAD!


It starts out when a woman who doesn't get along with her wealthy family (she wants to run the family's coffee business, her father thinks her sister should run it) and has a one night stand that leads to her becoming pregnant.
She doesn't want to be a mom but has the baby anyway, and her father is basically the only member of the family who loves the boy and shows him any affection. But when the old man passes away everything goes to hell, especially when the young boy is accused of a murder. It ends on a complete cliffhanger, and part of me wants to know what happens but part of me just thinks all these people are horrible and wants to leave it alone.

Ultimately this should’ve been a very emotional and sensitive read due to the subject matter. As it was, this first volume went at such a lightning pace that I didn’t feel like there was any real opportunity to feel bad for the kid before the volume ended. The story had so much potential to really get into some grit on many different subject matters (sex positivity, feminism and women in the workplace, and parenthood) and yet none were really given any real thought. I’m sure some of these plot lines will be touched on in further issues but I won’t be reading them. I’m just not invested.

Received via Netgalley and reviewed of my own accord.

Wow! To me, this was a gut-wrenching story. A mother who has a one-time affair and the resulting unwanted child. Her father dotes on the grandson, but once he and his wife pass away, horrible things befall the child.
Very dark. The ending was a little abrupt. I am assuming there is more to come. PLEASE let there be more to come!
Thank you NetGalley and publisher, Europe Comics, for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Thank you, NetGalley for the preview of this graphic novel.

Sun tells us about a child who is neglected by his mother because he was born out of wedlock. It was rather dark at times and the neglect and verbal abuse that he goes through made it a hard read. But I felt that this book is more about the mother than the child. I hope there is a sequel to this graphic novel because the ending denoted that there is more to come.

Humorous and human, Sun is fully illustrated and works as a shining example of the graphic novel. This book has a sense of classic cinema and is visually impressive. The book also draws on color and uses this effectively. Recommended for readers of this medium.

Sun is a very European-esque cartoony story of childhood - one that's aimed at kids but has a dour edge to it. That was ok but the characterisations were very one-dimensional, the story was a bit simplistic, the art was so-so, and the ending was very abrupt. Not really hooked enough to come back for the next part of the story.

This is a wonderful "comic" story, with a varied format of drawings and delivered in the spoken word of the brilliant characters.
Running a family business without an obvious successor, the father falls out with his head strong daughter. He is a traditionalist and his coffee is without any better; its delightful aroma pervades the town well beyond the factory gates. His first born wants to inject some more diversity into the product with flavours of France and Italy. But it is Dad's way or no way and she is dismissed and her younger sibling takes charge of the coffee house.
In a rage and a sense of disobedience the sacked daughter takes off and comes to her senses after a wanton sexual encounter. Unfortunately, the consequences are only too clear some nine months later when she gives birth.
Doting on his new grandson, the coffee entrepreneur feels overjoyed as the lad slowly grows and forms a close bond with his grandpa. Mum is as disgruntled as ever and still finds little chance to reassert any influence over the business. Lucien, her son maybe the heir apparent to the coffee empire but her status remains unclear. Stark humour, a family at war and a young boy denied a relationship to his father, a nameless one nightstand, uncared for by his mother and devoted to the only person whose attention and love is consistent.
Great to read. Dark in its shading and mood. I loved the sense of smell that drifts among the pages of coffee and desire to get hold of a business before it is worthless. It is simple text and stunning in its delivery, blunt and as blank as the general tone. A simple link is the oft repeated sounds in bursts of three; tip, tip tip for example.
Volume 1 sets up the whole things and demands further instalments are sought out.

Sun feels like (and probably is) the first chapter of a fuller work. Lucien is the result of a drunken encounter between his mother - the heir to a coffee roasting business - and one of the local layabouts. The mother does not get on with her own parents and is likely to see the coffee business go to her flame haired sister, And the parents are further unimpressed that she has fallen pregnant out of wedlock. So Lucien finds himself born into a family where love is thin on the ground - the one ray of hope is that although grandfather never forgives his daughter, he loves Lucien...

Plot wise, this very short work just really sets up Lucien as a boy on the run. There's no real ending, just a beginning. As a stand alone work, it doesn't work.

But in terms of the graphics, it is beautiful. The sparing use of accent colours in an otherwise drab world is really stunning. Lucien is blond, evil aunt is orange, mother is blue,. It is really striking - and quite unlike the front cover.

I was fortunate to receive a complimentary copy of Sun for review purposes. It was a pleasant way to spend 20 minutes. But I might feel short changed if I had paid for what feels like a tester-sample rather than a complete whole.

Not the easiest of reads with what this child has been through but I think some folks will find it very relatable. The art is fun, though it doesn't match the writing style as much.

A rather dark graphic novel about an illegitimate child, and the mother who never wanted him. I quickly found myself getting wrapped up in the story, and was thoroughly enjoying it, despite the darker than usual subject matter, but then it ended so abruptly that I was kind of flustered. I'm hoping they're considering coming out with a second volume to finish up the story...

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I appreciate it!

An interesting German graphic novel. The ending was not as compelling as I would hope. I'll recommend this one.

Hmmm – I think a lot of my response to this book is down to the artwork, and me not liking it – I took some time to gel with who was who, and what was actually going on at certain key times was not always clear. But eventually you're caught up with the shenanigans surrounding a bastard scion of a coffee family. It's not just the coffee that's bitter here, though, as the mother is annoyed at not running things, the older generation are getting worse and worse, and so on and so on until it just stops, goading us towards finding Volume 2. But while I might be pleasantly surprised by something dramatic to come, I won't lose any sleepless nights in the interim. Worth a look perhaps – particularly when it's all out in your language of choice – but until then, one that didn't really engage, what with its unfriendly artwork.

A very interesting story that did not take the normal pathway of a many similar narratives I have read. Overall, an enjoyable experience.

At first, this comic was insightful and dark and I thought that the art style and writing were okay. However, as it shifted over time in a few pages I started to realize the plot wasn't strong enough to hold on its own. I stopped liking the art style and I found the premise boring. I really didn't care for many of the characters at all. All in all I don't really recommend this. It wasn't my cup of tea.

Enjoyed. It took me a bit of time to get into it but I soon got it. Liked the drawings, the colour scheme and was left hanging at the end. What happens next?!

This is a fast-paced graphic novel about a woman's selfish ambitions and how they impact those around her. Her evil nature turns flat, however, as that is all of what we see in her. There is no 3 dimensions here, nor are there in the boy whose life she has ruined. He is only good, or only trying to get out of her way. She is only evil, or trying to get him out of her way. The lack of realism draws away from the story. The artwork is interesting and helped to move the story along. The ending was jarring, however, as it stopped as the boy was trying to get away from his pursuers. We don't know if he escaped, or no.

This didn’t lose something in the translation. I think it is just about a cold mother, and a child that is not allowed to bond with her. The mother just doesn’t like being a mother, and hates the child for no other reason than that. And because the child is illigitamite, the mother feels that he is an embarrassment. But her father loves him, and the child dotes on his grandfather.

Most of this first volume is the set up of the child being accused of doing something he did not do, after his grandfather passes away, and thus he is left with no one to care about him.

And because this is mostly a set up, it is hard to say where this one will go, after this.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.