Unusual yet beautiful and heartwarming graphic novel. Zoc is a young woman who an unusual gift: her hair attracts water. So she decides to use her gift for good, but not everyone is happy about her gift or the journey she decides to take. Such a quiet, introspective, moving story. Loved it!

*Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

this graphic novel is filled with beauty and melancholy, the illustrations are superb (I particularly appreciated how the trees were illustrated), it talks about an important subject that is the importance of having a purpose.

Thank you to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book! The following is my honest review.

Zoc is the titular character in this graphic novel. She is a girl who can drag large amounts of water with her hair. Along her journey, she meets a boy who also has his own special ability and they form a friendship. The world isn't explained much, but I don't feel like it took anything away once I realized it was magical realism and to just go with it. I feel like the story could have been expanded to explore some of the potential conflicts.

Even though Zoc's abilities are odd, I could empathise with her not knowing what she wanted to do with her life while people around her insist that she do something "useful" and figure it out.

The art is strongest in its backgrounds and scenery. The colours are beautiful. The characters look much more simplistic, especially in the eyes, than what I would have expected given the backgrounds.

3.75 stars rounded up.

Overall, this was an easy, slightly quirky read with some good themes.

Charming but with a melancholy edge, like an X-Men mutants story with a small-town focus instead of on the costumes, and surprisingly clever.

Although a bit apprehensive because the title didn't give me much to go on with what the graphic novel wanted to show, I was pleasantly surprised. The cover of this graphic novel really gripped me, and throughout you can see the illustrator's talent at work. We are introduced to our protagonist Zoc who holds an unusual ability to hold water through her hair. She’s lost because she can’t truly find happiness in her small town. This is where I think the book can connect with others who feel that they exceed so many expectations outside of their town. She decides to leave and explore the world outside of her own through various misadventures and stumbles upon a friend. Zoc is able to look at this new person as someone who is totally consumed by fire and has to work together to survive. When she returns home she sees that she was better off on her own and that she was growing as an individual. This was my very first eARC and I cannot be more grateful for getting an excellent first read.

I didn't expect to be so emotionally captured by Zoc, a girl who can drag water around with her hair. She's often teased and ridiculed for this talent, but she's determined to find a way to use it to her advantage. This is such a sweet story of finding practical uses for your unique skill set. The art was gorgeous as well! I really enjoyed this one.

This is a cute graphic novel that deals mainly with the struggles of finding our place in the world and what suits us best as individuals. In this story Zoc tries to figure out what jobs could suit someone with her unique talents. Her struggles are the struggles a lot of us have had, even if our hair didn't pick up water. During her journey she will find she is not so unique in her weird talent and struggle after all.
It's a simple premise and a short read, overall I enjoyed it!

Zoc is an unusual story about a young girl who's able to drag large quantities of water with her hair. This ability causes a lot of trouble for the town and the kids her age tease her a lot. That doesn't change that Zoc wants to use her power to do good, When she gets a job to drain a flooded village, she takes it. During her travels she learns more about how she wants to live her life.

A sweet story with an interesting illustration style that perfectly compliments the surrealistic world of Zoc.

I immediately felt for Zoc, she's so unappreciated and always being told off for something she can't control.
I couldn't understand how people did not see how amazing her power is! It's lovely when she actually makes a friend and they figure out how to work together.

Personal rating: 3.5🌟, rounded to 4🌟


Favourite quote: “It always sucks being alone... but better to /choose/ being alone, right?”

Or at least that's how I read it 😂 the emphasis is definitely my own interpretation of how the character's speech sounded like lol

So. The premise is actually pretty intriguing. I mean, come on. A story about a girl who naturally collects water with her hair and the water follows her trails behind her until she cuts off a little portion of her hair that's attached to the said body of water? That sounds cool. I also am a big fan of the mainly bright colour palette used throughout the novel. Feels very summer-y 💛☀️

The downside for me is the speech bubbles. They're placed pretty far from the characters and there's no way to distinguish which speech bubbles belong to who. This makes it a little confusing and impacted my enjoyment of the overall story. Still, a pretty enjoyable quick read for me, so I can't complaint too much.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free digital copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

A lovely weird tale, told in beautiful, colourful art. A girl, Zoc, who can tug along large bodies of water hanging from her ponytail. A boy who tends to explode in fire, without wanting it. Troubadours with bird heads that travel from town to town - Zoc is a big fan, collects pictures of these bird bards. It's a bit like a children's book for adults.

If you read that, I think you can quickly decide whether that appeals to you. It certainly appealed to me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing a digital version of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Graphic Novels are a bit out of my comfort zone but as a reader i was drawn in by the premise of a girl with hair that can drag water and I was pleasantly surprised with how much i enjoyed it. The themes of unlikely friendship and growing up were enjoyable and i found Zoc's uncertainty in regards to her future very relatable. The illustrations themselves were very well done and i loved the colour palettes used throughout the novel. I did however find the font quite difficult to read in the E-book which slightly hindered my experience. Overall a quick, easy and enjoyable read for graphic novel enjoyers.

Zoc has a power or a gift she can drag water with her hair but it has it's draw backs, it stops her from living a normal life. When the story begins she has no idea what job she can do in future and of course the careers adviser is no help at all.
She tries to figure out what to do in this engaging story and meets a friend along the way, they seem to compliment each other. Zoc is challenged about whether her choices are harmful. But how many choices does she have?

This story was very compelling and I was curious what would happen next. It's a quick read as comics can be but satisfying. Graphic novels are a perfect destress and this one definitely does not disappoint.

My only criticism would be I didn't quite understand one part at the end but since this could be me, or maybe missing pages in an ARC I'm not sure, I didn't let it reflect too much in my overall view of the story.

Zoc is a sweet, charming, and unique story with beautiful artwork. I would recommend it.

I was really excited to read this, the cover was gorgeous and the premise sounded right up my alley. I LOVE heartwarming graphic novels with fantastical elements. And there were things I did enjoy: some of the illustrations were AMAZING, the friendship dynamic was nice and I liked everything surrounding the minstrels.

But while the places and other illustrations were gorgeous I really struggled with how the humans were drawn which drove me out of the story and the textbubbles made things hard to read. I also find the fantasy aspect, which was one of the main things that made me interested in this book, that interesting and it felt like a missed opportunity in terms of breathtaking illustrations, there was one example I feel like it was very well illustrated but otherwise it was very plain. But even looking past the illustrations the plot didn't feel that well developed, didn't find the fantastical elements interesting and did not care for the characters.

I do think that if you are a beginner to graphic novels and have lower standards for the genre you might like this book more, but it wasn't it for me.

I couldn't understand most of the plots. The font was hard to read( i don't know if it's my eyesight).

A short read after all. Would I read it again. Not really..

This story was a real joy to read.
The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous and the fantastical elements are both unique and intriguing. I really want to learn more about the world that Zoc and Kael live in.

I look forward to reading more graphic novels by Khoo in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and Jade Khoo for giving me a free digital copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Europe Comics and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Zoc by Jade Khoo is a unique fantasy graphic novel with beautiful artwork. The story revolves around Zoc, a girl who has a superhuman power. Her hair can drag water behind her. This power comes in handy when she tries to help a flooded town. Along her journey, she will meet plenty of strange creatures and magic.

Overall, Zoc is a lovely graphic novel that will appeal to fans of anime or Studio Ghibli. One highlight of this book was the artwork, which reminded me of movies like Howl's Moving Castle and Arietty. It was delightful to look at and really enhanced the story. I did take off 1 star, because I was expecting a bit more to the story - maybe more action, maybe more magic. If you're intrigued by the description, or if you're a fan of fantasy graphic novels, I recommend that you check out this book, which is available now!

I had to unfortunately DNF this one.
I didn’t enjoy the illustrations which made it hard to enjoy, also this just seemed super slow for me.

Just not for me!!

Thank you NetGalley!

Beautifully illustrated book. I enjoyed how creative it was. I couldn’t stop reading cause I found the character intriguing and wanted to find out more about her. The only thing is, some parts needed context like how do people know where she is when it seems like she is travelling alone in nature. Why do they hate her? But she also had followers, where were they? I wish they was more supernatural aspect as well or at least more understanding of why she has such magical hair?
Other than that I enjoyed the story, again beautiful art, I want to posters of them!

Really interesting book, I found the art style to be quite nice however it was quite dark in some areas. The storyline was really engaging, I read the whole book in one sitting. I'd like to pick up a physical copy to see how it differs to the digital, as I find some graphic novels suit paper better.
I would recommend this as I do think the story is fun and I love the river attached to their hair.

Thank you for sending me a copy to review!