At the End of Your Tether is a mystery/sci-fi graphic novel following two teens - Ludo and Arlo - who grow up on an air force base and fall for each other. When Ludo's mother transfers bases, his relationship with Arlo ends. But now, several years later, Ludo and his family are returning to visit – he is nervous but excited to reconnect with Arlo. However, when they arrive, it turns out Arlo has been missing for several days, and for Ludo, nothing about it adds up.

This is kind of a mystery story, kind of a coming-of-age, and kind of a sci-fi. The first half is pretty wholesome – Ludo has this super supportive relationship with his parents, (they all bond over their love of motorcycles, aww); and I liked his meet-cute relationship with Arlo. Things quickly take a turn when Arlo goes missing, and it turns out the multiverse has something to do with it. Overall, I liked the characters, and I think there was a lot of potential there. Not only were they well-designed and recognizable, but they felt full of potential - I was excited!

However, I had two big problems with this story – the plot and pacing. I had a really hard time following what was going on. There were elements to the multiverse aspect of the story that were ill-explained for me. Additionally, there were a lot of side-plots and leads that didn't seem to go anywhere or that were not elaborated on. I was asking myself, "what was the point of that?" or, "why is this in here if it's not important later?" There is also an omniscient narrator throughout the story that said things like, "Oooh yes, in THIS version of the story, it happens like this!!" – which made sense given the multiverse aspect, but those constant asides left me feeling even more confused trying to figure out what they meant.

Unfortunately, the wandering story isn't leaving me feeling super invested or interested enough to continue to the next installation, hoping there are explanations. I do give the creators massive props for the beautiful artwork, especially the fact that some (all?) of the coloration is done with gouache. Additionally the characters were wonderfully designed and felt fully realized; it's just too bad the story was so weak in comparison.

Would I recommend it? Maybe, maybe not. It is quite a quick read, yet it was also so unsatisfying to me I felt I could've spent my time better. I wanted a lot more out of this one than I received.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

This was a gorgeous story featuring two army kids making a connection in a lifestyle that means constantly moving around. But when Ludo finds out his ex- and best friend, Arlo, has gone missing things his life starts to change.

The artwork in this graphic novel was a style that I love - simplistic but colourful and just aesthetically pleasing when paired with storytelling. Reminding me of illustrations by Fiona Staples in the Saga series, they were just enjoyable and wove the story-line together well.

While I adored our main characters, Ludo and Arlo, in their own way, the overall character development was a bit flat for me.

Without spoiling too much, this does have a little bit of time/dimension travel involved. A lot of other reviewers have stated that this wasn't clear and ended up causing some confusion. I don't disagree. While I don't think it was downright confusing, there was something missing to just make it clear to the reader.

But overall, I love the concept of the story that is weaved together by these fantastical elements. I enjoyed the novel and am interested in keeping an eye out for Adam Smith in the future - maybe a baby Vaughan on the horizon?

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

Interesting read overall. Touches upon time travel. The illustrations were great. The concept was also good. There were a few confusing times, but it made more sense when i read ita ll again.

At the End of Your Tether is, honestly, a very lovely story. It's steeped in time travel that I'm not sure always makes sense, or is as clear as it could be, but ultimately it works for me. The art is stunning, especially during the climax scene when everything really starts coming together.

I'm excited to read more of Adam Smith's work, though, which is always a plus!

*Thanks to NetGalley and Lion Forge for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

This was a bit twisty and had a lot going on. It delved a bit into alternate timelines, which is really cool, but I wish it had gone deeper. I have so many questions still as to how it works and the ending was pretty open. The art was well done and I liked the skipping back and forth between past, present, and future. I'm hoping there are more installments to this so I can find out more!

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

At the End of Your Tether is the story of a boy who goes searching for his missing ex-girlfriend only to discover that some things aren’t meant to be found. It’s Brick meets Paper Towns in this graphic novel, and I am sharing my thoughts on this upcoming release.

At The End of Your Tether follows Ludo as he tries to find his ex-girlfriend, Arlo, after she has gone missing. Things don’t line up though as Ludo has a phone call with her as if all is fine, but she had already been missing for weeks. And turns out that this whole situation is much more complicated than Ludo ever expected.

I do really enjoy the art. At first, the differing styles between the cover and the actual comic through me off. But there are some really nicely done panels within the comic itself that made me enjoy it overall. It would have been cool to see the whole comic in the cover art style, but that is just subjective preference on my part.

However, I found the story very confusing. It is too short to fully understand what on Earth is happening during the big climax and explanation. I find the concept interesting, but the execution is not great because it didn’t have the time to fully develop. It moved very fast through certain pieces so when you got to the climactic reveal, it was hard to understand because there weren’t enough pieces for the reader or even Ludo to put together to have this situation make any sense.

You have time travel and parallel universes and those two concepts alone are very complex to integrate and explain in a story so it makes sense at the end. It is hard to accept the conclusion as what happens when you barely understand it.

I will say, in defense of the book, it is all of the individual comics put into a single graphic novel. So in its original format, it was released slower and probably didn’t feel as rushed. I had this same reading issue with The Avant-guards as well.

Also, Arlo’s explanation of what is going on is terrible. When you have a solution as complex as this, you need the person explaining it to make sense and do it well. I feel like she never got to any point of clarity. It makes it feel like the writer didn’t even know what the resolution really was, or at least didn’t know how to explain it.

Overall, I would have enjoyed this comic more if it took more time to really develop this whole crazy situation. The first thing I thought when I finished reading it was “what?” It could have been a really cool story but it was just too rushed.

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Arlo and Ludo met on an army base as teenagers. They dated for a while. Now, a few years later, Ludo is back in town. He calls Arlo the night before he arrives, and she says she can't wait to see him. However, when Ludo actually arrives, he finds out she has been missing for 2 weeks. Unsatisfied with the way the army base and the nearby town are handling the missing person investigation, Ludo tries to find Arlo himself.

I really liked the artwork in this graphic novel. I was a bit confused my the story at times. It jumped back and forth between the past and the present, which was always clearly noted. The book is only 120 pages. Personally, I would have liked more explanation into what exactly was going on with Arlo. I liked how at the end of the ARC, we got to see character concept pages.

2.5 stars

The illustrations in the comic are just gorgeous. The beautiful brush strokes, the colors, all of it. The story is a tad hard to follow as it jumps between timelines, but the essence of the story shines through.

Well, that was just REALLY confusing. I think I understood parts of it, but because it jumps around so much in time it was hard to keep everything straight in my mind, let alone keep track of... the other element in the story that makes it confusing. I don't know what to think - I guess it will appeal to people who are able to better keep the separate timelines straight.

Not bad, I wasn't sure going into it, I just liked the idea behind the blurb.
The plot stumbled here and there, however that feels like it was the point. You have to go back and reread and things will click into place, so of course, I'm going to flick back through again.
Interesting characters, interesting building of the relationship between Ludo and Arlo and an overall good, interesting story!

The synopsis of this graphic novel is about Ludo returning home to a place he hasn’t been since he was a teenager. He’s excited to see an ex-girlfriend Arlo and calls her the night he gets in to talk about meeting up the next day. When he arrives at her house he finds out Arlo has been missing for over a week.

Sounded like such an interesting premise and I was excited to read a mystery graphic novel but I was not at all prepared for alternate realities and parallel universes twist it takes. It made the storyline confusing for me and although I got what was happening by the end of the book, I was confused through most of it. In the earlier part of the graphic novel, I was feeling a little disappointed in the color scheme and graphic style but I now think it’s intentional as a way to portray what the character is feeling. Beautiful!

This is my first graphic novel by Adam Smith. I’m not sure I would chose to continue if this was made into a series but I am still very interested to check out more of his work. He’s published a few graphic novels set in the Dark Crystal realm which I’m all for! And of course I will always chose to read whatever Oni Press publishes!

Thank you to Oni Press for providing a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Honestly, I dont even know what to say about this book or how to review it other than confusing.
I don't know what the plot of the book was. I found that the characters lacked depth, and without a proper introduction to the characters it lead to my confusion about the plot, and what was even happening in this graphic novel.

The cover is goregous, the artwork in it was nice, but as for content itself I was left utterly underwhelmed.

The storyline was confusing for much of the book. There was more of a sci fi twist than I expected from reading the summary.

I'm only going to write a fairly brief review of this graphic novel, simply because I don't want to give too much of the plot away for any other potential readers. This means I might have to keep it quite vague, too, so I apologise in advance!
An extremely simplified summary of the plot is that Ludo's girlfriend goes missing under rather peculiar circumstances. When a body is found alongside the burned wreckage of her car, most people accept that she is dead. But Ludo doesn't - he's sure something is wrong with the whole situation and is determined to find answers.
And he does eventually find answers. But I was left with so many questions; I really would have liked more detail and information about how it all worked and why it happened. I was just left confused, honestly.
Don't get me wrong, the writing was great and I did enjoy it. The premise was really unique and interesting, too. I just would have liked to understand things a bit more.
The art was great, too. It was detailed and clear, and generally really quite pleasant to look at.
I'm giving this book 3.5 stars overall.

I’ve been wanting to read comic books for a while and I thought this book would be a perfect place to start. It has an awesome concept but I couldn’t help finding bits of the story line confusing. Otherwise I really enjoyed it and loved the artwork!

I received an ARC of this from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting and a bit confusing love story taking place alternate realities/parallel universes. When the love of his life goes missing, Arlo makes it his mission to find out what happen to her. Especially since everyone one, including the police has given up. What he finds out, or begins to find out blows both his mind and his perception of reality.

At times, this graphic novel is hard to understand because of all the characters and their different outcomes. I think with more instalments to the story, it would become commonplace for the reader and easier to grasp. That being said, I’d read the next one to see what happens.

It was pretty good and I enjoyed it until the "big twist" happened. The whole mistery was solved with an infodump that, besides being implausible and having no foreshadowing whatsoever, made me feel SO cheated that the story is told from Ludo's POV instead of Arlo's.

Art style was beautiful but the story was lacking.
I was confused about the back and forth timelines and the overall outcome of the storyline. Going into the plot could give too much away, but ultimately this is a story about love and loss and learning that while looking for answers, you may find more questions than anything.

At the End of Your Tether is an intriguing graph novel. Ludo’s girlfriend Arlo is missing, but in trying to find her he discovers more questions than answers.
I liked this story, I can’t discuss the plot without spoiling it, but it’s suspenseful. Arlo and Ludo have solid chemistry and I enjoyed their relationship.
The story feels rushed at certain points, perhaps because of the graphic novel’s short length. My only other complaint is the ending is confusing.
I enjoyed this graphic novel a lot, and I hope for a sequel!

I had a hard time getting into the story and catching my bearings. The book takes it's time to get to the meat of the story when Arlo disappears. To get to that point we are moved from one time to the other with only the illustrations to indicate these are the same characters and introducing characters we won't know who they are until very late in the story. I wanted to feel more compelled by Ludo's loss but I don't think I was because I was seeing so many time periods of him with Arlo and only the one without. We never get an explanation about Arlo's abilities, only something said mildly in passing. The climax at the end feels so convoluted and unclear that as a reader I was let down to have been put on this journey in the first place.