Starting my graphic novel journey last year has been a wild ride. It's been fascinating to see the range of artistic styles and storytelling methods, each offering something unique. One of the more memorable reads has been *Cemetery Kids Don't Die: Volume 1*.

The graphic novel centers around four friends, living in a future where gaming has taken a dramatic leap forward. Their consoles now attach directly to their heads, allowing them to fully immerse themselves in a cooperative LARP game where they fight monsters and demons. However, as the game progresses, they start to notice things going terribly wrong. Injuries sustained in the game begin to show up in real life, leading them to realize that this isn't just a game—it's something far more dangerous.

Beyond the sci-fi horror, the story also delves into deeper, emotional themes. One of the kids is the brother of a girl in a wheelchair, hinting at a tragic accident that has left both siblings emotionally scarred. The brother represses his feelings, while the sister struggles to process the trauma on her own. Their father is largely absent and possibly battling alcoholism, adding another layer of complexity to their lives. The other two friends are supportive but are forced to confront the stark reality of the situation, leading them to reevaluate what truly matters—loyalty to friends or their own survival.

The novel raises a compelling dilemma: should the kids stay loyal to their friends, or save themselves? It’s a tough choice, especially for teenagers, and it adds a significant emotional punch to the narrative.

At 114 pages, *Cemetery Kids Don't Die* is a quick, creepy, and dystopian read. While some characters felt underdeveloped, this might be due to the limited space. Still, it's an entertaining story that’s worth checking out if you’re looking for something eerie and thought-provoking.

Thanks to NetGalley and Oni Press for an advanced copy of Cemetery Kids Don't Die Vol. 1. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I rated this one 4.25 rounded down to 4 stars.

This graphic novel follows a group of kids who play this terrifying VR game while they sleep/in their dreams. However, when one of them gets stuck in the game, his sister and group of friends must find out why he can't separate himself from the game, any why he isn't allowed to return back to the real world.

The artwork was amazing, and the story was actually pretty scary. Even though this follows a group of kids, it definitely isn't meant for children to read. There are underlying themes of grief and loss, along with depression, which were touched on nicely. I did wish there was a little bit more backstory at the beginning, because it was a little hard to follow initially. However, once the story got moving, I was able to pick up on what was happening. The ending was well done and gave me chills, but I feel like there was more to the story and some questions were left unanswered. I'm assuming there will be more installments later on, and I look forward to seeing how this story progresses.

This was a strong comic book, with an already tried out premise of getting trapped in a video game. I quite liked the character design, but would have liked to learn more about the game part of the story. It makes me wonder what the other volumes would be about!

I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

Cemetery Kids Don't Die follows four friends; Wilson, Pik, Enid, and Birdie. Nightly the four play a game called Nightmare Cemetery on the gaming console Dreamwave. The console works as the players are sleeping allowing them to escape into Nightmare Cemetery.

When one of the four friends does not wake up after a session of the game the other three friends work together to find out what happened. This is where the game and the Dreamwave start to be shrouded in a kind of mystery.

I really enjoyed the mystery surrounding the game and how the lines between reality and Nightmare Cemetery started to blur. I also really loved the art design, the illustrator did a fantastic job.

This graphic novel is pretty creative and I really enjoyed it overall.

Cemetery Kids is colorful and energetic. Lots of fun with some gross thrown in, with eye-catching art to frame the story.

...Why have I never ever heard of 'Cemetery Kids Don't Die'?! This volume was awesome and I really had a fantastic time of this.

Thank you to NetGalley and Oni Press for this fabulous ARC.
A solid kudos to Zac Thompson and Daniel Irizarri for their hard work.

Since this is my first time reading a graphic novel like this one and I really want to talk about my experience with it. I was caught up from the very first page, the idea of a horror/scifi fantasy exciting and the art all encompassing. Beautiful. There is so much detail going on in every part of the strip, each window holdings a vast amount of hard work and possibly hours of it. The colours were perfectly well picked and the font was a great choice.

If there does end up being a kindle version do not forget about the ability to select a window to zoom into so that people on smaller devices can see.

Five stars and I cannot wait to recommend this to others.

Oni usually publishes interesting comics from interesting writers and artists, so I always like checking out what's new with them. I wasn't very familiar with Zac Thompson's work but I am familiar with the artist, Daniel Irizarri, and I like his work so I knew that Cemetery Kids Don't Die would look good at the very least.

The story isn't very original - it's a classic story of getting stuck in a video game. The first iteration I encountered of this an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark (with one of the darkest endings in the series at that!), and found it terrifying and thrilling, because I love video games lol The idea of the Dreamwave isn't unique but what it actually is does seem to be... unfortunately, not one characters makes one comment on how freaking WEIRD the thing is. Look at the art, it looks like a reverse facehugger. It has veins. It has tentacles. Nobody says a thing. Maybe that's something that'll have a reason in the future but five issues in without one comment on it feels weird and kind of annoying.

Which brings me to the characters. It's a teen foursome, so I don't expect them to all be likable, but then the focus is on two particularly annoying characters. One of them is in a wheelchair, which I felt wasn't handled with the most finesse, making me cringe at points. The dialogue is just kind of cringe in general. I don't know what it was that tickled me wrong on this, because overall it's not a bad story. It's very much a B-level comic and there's nothing wrong with that, I enjoy cheesy b-movies (and this is about the level of Stay Alive, the cheesy video game horror film, in quality, which I love despite it not being very good lol).

I think what has me just liking Cemetery Kids though, rather than loving it, is that the general vibe of the story is a downer. The characters can be self-centered, thoughtless, and mean, their backstories are tragic, their lives are tragic, the video game is evil... just a lot of negative. It made it not so enjoyable to digest, I guess.

Daniel Irizarri's art is wild and gross and beautiful at the same time though, which makes picking up this comic worth it. It's not a bad way to spend an hour.

(I received this book from the editor and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)

I had been reading a lot about this comic book prior to getting the ARC and, even so, I found myself happily surprised from page one.
It is true that the pacing is not always consistent, and that some moments that are explained “off camera” feel kind of rushed, but in general I really liked the idea of a video game messing with teenager’s heads (and bodies!), and the scary moments were weird enough to be interesting and keeping with the mystery of it all.
The art was in perfect harmony with the story itself, even if there were some moments in which I was not sure what was really happening. I know fight scenes are messy, but some of them were extremely difficult to follow.
In the end, this was a very intriguing reading that I would recommend to those who are looking for an action-packed, strange and sometimes eerie adventure.

I liked the premise of the book: kids playing an interactive video game while they're sleeping....and weird stuff happens. It gave me Existenz and Invisibles vibes in places. The characters were interesting-if a little thin at times- and the art was good.

There were times where the story felt a little rushed- the kids leveling up off panel- but overall it was well-paced. And the ending had just the right amount of weirdness for me.

A good read.