This graphic novel was mix of "Donnie Darko" and "The Light House".
It's a weird combination, but an interesting one.

It's disappointing because this had the potential of being something really great. 
When it starts, you have no idea whats going on, and you're excited because you know you in for a good story. 
And then all this other stuff happens and the books ends .... and you have no idea whats going on. 

As a reader you try and piece the parts you understood together, but in the end you are only assuming you know the story. 

And that's how this book was for me. 
Desperately fitting fragmented parts of the story together, hoping it makes sense in the end.

I really liked the art, but the writing was difficult to enjoy and follow. I was not able to finish it because interest was quickly lost.

Rocky Horror - Do the "Time Warp" Again

Disclaimer #1 - This isn't anything like "Brick", which is a clever, subversive and edgy high school noir. This isn't anything like "Paper Towns", except to the extent that it starts out with a missing girl. Whoever decided to promote this book with those two comparisons wasn't helping anyone.

SPOILER. This isn't a who dunnit or a missing person mystery, except that it starts out with that bit of misdirection. SUPER SPOILER - this is a parallel dimension, alt world, "Lake House" meets "Wonderful Life" teen romance/coming of age story. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but you need to be ready for time shifting, parallel world shifting, and characters who simultaneously are and are not depending on which world you're in. If old her talking to young him about old him and young them makes your brain itch, be warned.

Once I realized that this was speculative time fiction and not a mysterious disappearance procedural, and realized that all of the vague and ambiguous time shifted scenes would start to make sense later on, I relaxed and enjoyed this. Actually, I started to fast read/skim so I could get to the end, digest what had just happened, and then go back and reread with an eye open for clues and bits that I missed the first time through. That worked well and that second time through was more fun.

The art is standard and rather flat. Most scenes lack detail and many character interactions seem to be set in front of blue-screen backgrounds. Characters are recognizable but not very expressive, and since you have to be able to tell the age of a character as time shifts forward and back this slight vagueness can be puzzling.

So, Ludo and Arlo were interesting, and had some tender moments. The story is loosey-goosey, with lots of gaps and whaaats?, but it was still fun.

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

I like the concept of this book, however, there were confusing moments to the ending. The concept of time travel was great and the possible dimensions in the comic. The characters were likable and I thought Ludo was caring and he really went out of his way to find her. The graphics are great, but I can only rate it 4/5.

Interesting comic involving time travel. I like the concept, although it was a bit hard to follow, but that only means it's like Donnie Darko and you'll want to read it again and again to get a better understanding of what is going on.

With a few tweaks I think this could be amazing. I was drawn into the story and I did feel compelled to read it all in one go!... but I did also find elements quite confusing, like the section where there is a deer in the wood. I honestly have no idea what happened there?
I must say though the artwork is really nice and the relationships were all portrayed beautifully (especially Ludo's parents). I would recommend to graphic novel fans but would warn them to read carefully!!!

There’s one word that perfectly summarizes my feelings towards this graphic novel, and that’s confusing. I have no idea what I just read, and despite giving it my best effort there was nothing that explained the complex plot in this book in a way that made it understandable.

The idea is wonderful, the art it great, but the biggest problem here is that the dialogue doesn’t seem to fit with the images, there’s no natural flow between the different frames and it’s impossible to keep up with what’s happening. One moment we’re learning that Arlo has disappeared from her home, but the next frame jumps back in time and without explanation we’re given what appears to be a completely random scene from the past.

It all starts in the 1st chapter, and I didn’t understand a thing. There wasn’t anything cohesive about the chapter and I actually had to stop and make sure that it wasn’t a case of formatting gone crazy on my computer. The dialogue didn’t match up, and it seemed as if the characters answered the wrong questions. So odd. I still decided to keep reading and I had high hopes for a clear continuation and a common thread that’d bind the story together. For the first few pages I kind of got than, but then it all got super confusing again.

I’m still not sure if it’s a case of pages getting mixed in formatting or what, but none the less, this novel is way too confusing, which is too bad considering the idea is super interesting. At the end I kind of got what was going on and I understood the explanations there, that still didn’t make the all the random frames any clearer though.

A minor detail that also bugged me was how a video game in the beginning had the text Super Nintendo on it, but the console it belonged to was clearly a NES and not Super Nintendo. Like I said, very minor detail, but I love the NES and I can’t help but get bothered by the inconsistency there.

I’ll still give this graphic novel two stars because if a great concept and beautiful art.