I couldn't tell you a single thing that happened in this book but the illustrations were gorgeous! I just don't think the overall plot was very cohesive. I did like how the colour schemes tell you where each scene is taking place i.e. red scenes for the "invasion", but that was the only way to differentiate between different plotlines.

A young chain-smoking artist gets pulled into a world-blasting alien invasion, bonding with one of the aliens who wants to step its brethren.

Very cute art, but the story is merely okay.

I loved this! Fantastic illustrations and color work. And a story I just had to know the ending of!!

Thank you NetGalley and Oni Press for this arc!

5/5 stars

This was such a fun read!! I really enjoyed both the story and the artwork (besides everyone having a runny nose, like why?!). I really liked Maya's character, I found her really funny. And Soma!! So cute!!! Juu was a little annoying but that was the point lol. I really really liked this!

Book Review: Soma
In "Soma," Fernando Llor crafts an engaging genre-bending tale that balances cosmic threats with intimate creative struggles.
The novel introduces us to Maya, a comic book artist whose professional frustrations will resonate with anyone who's felt trapped between creative passion and commercial demands. Her writer's block and deadline anxieties paint a realistic portrait of artistic struggle, grounding the story before it takes its fantastical turn.
When Soma—an alien who crash-lands directly into Maya's living room—arrives with warnings of an impending invasion, the narrative shifts into high gear. What could have been a jarring transition instead feels surprisingly organic, perhaps because Maya's background as a comic artist makes her uniquely prepared to process the extraordinary.
Llor excels at juxtaposing the mundane with the cosmic. While grappling with potential planetary doom, Maya continues dispensing dating advice to her best friend and wrestling with her creative blocks. These parallel storylines create a delightful tension between the extraordinary and everyday concerns.
The relationship between Maya and Soma develops with humor and depth. Their cultural misunderstandings provide comic relief while their growing connection offers emotional weight to the invasion storyline. Soma's alien perspective also serves as a clever mirror, allowing Maya to see her artistic frustrations from a new angle.
While the alien invasion plot follows some familiar sci-fi beats, Llor's focus on how these events transform Maya's creative perspective gives the story a fresh approach. The novel ultimately becomes as much about finding authentic creative voice as it is about saving the world.
"Soma" delivers an entertaining adventure that cleverly uses its science fiction elements to explore the nature of creativity, connection, and finding your voice amid both ordinary and extraordinary pressures.

I have tried to get into this several times, but just can't. Which is such a shame as the art is gorgeous!

This was one of the best comics I've read in a long time. This comic kept me captivated throughout the whole book. I loved the friendship that developed between the main characters and really enjoyed how everything was shown from all different perspectives.

These are the hardest reviews to write. Reviews on good books are easy, and reviews on bad books are even easier to write.

The art is stunning and worth looking at this book for, but the story is boiler-plate, meandering over the course of 300 pages. Which is a shame because Carles Damlau’s work is astounding. From the color choices to the paneling choices, I was routinely amazed by what he could bring to page. If only the story in those pages would keep me turning them.

Damlau’s work suffocates under a bog standard plot about an alien invasion. I’ve read comics for 20 years and I can see plot points in most narratives fairly quickly. The main thing I’m intrigued by these days is the route that is taken to each plot point. Yes, the main character is going through a creative crisis so I know by the end of the book, that crisis will be resolved. The crisis involves an alien invasion with a by the numbers alien invasion plot.

I was looking forward to this and posting this in the journal, but unfortunately it was a non-starter.

Rating: 4.25 stars. This graphic novel was short but super fun! I loved the witty dialogue and appreciated how grounded the characters were despite their extraordinary circumstances. The art was STUNNING to say the least. The compositions for each panel were so dynamic and the colours worked extremely well in enhancing the story. I would’ve loved to spend more time exploring the characters and the world. Thank you NetGalley and Oni Press for this e-ARC!

When an alien-creature lands in burnt-out comic book creator Maya's home, she's like, well, why not? And then the alien tells her that his people are coming to take over the world and that him and Maya need to stop this from happening. Even though this is almost certainly a death mission, Maya accepts because the whole world is at stake, and also, if she survives, her comics are going to get so, so popular.
I wasn't huge on this one. The bright, chaotic art style is probably appealing for a lot of people, but I didn't love it. Also, despite the stakes being the end of the world, I had a hard time finding reasons to keep turning the page. The story wasn't super original and Maya was a little flat.

***I thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review***

first off, ADORABLE! i am in awe of the gorgeous art style. sooo cute and cosy! plus, with the anime-like expressions, the character designs are amazing!!

as a wannabe artist, i related a lot to maya. i love that her personality wasn’t annoying which is a main issue i find these days.

as for the plot, it was fast paced and packed with action. i’m someone who looks for depth in stories which wasn’t exactly in this one. however, that is a me-problem so don’t judge by the rating!

again, kudos to the talented artists for the sweet design!

x

I tried so hard to really enjoy this but I could not get into the story. The art is beautiful and it has the potential to be a really good story but I kept getting pulled out of the story.

This was pretty weird but fun! I liked the alien designs. It was an exciting alien invasion action story.

In a Nutshell: A scifi action graphic novel about a comic artist fighting an alien invasion. Wacky characters and wildly adventurous storytelling. Works in bits and pieces, but doesn’t come together in a cohesive whole. This is partly because the story went in a direction I don’t prefer reading.

Plot Preview:
Maya is a comic book artist frustrated about deadlines and about not doing the kind of comics she loves. Her best friend Juu is also frustrated, but with his lacklustre love life.
One day, when Maya has just returned home after doling out dating advice to Juu, she receives an unexpected visitor: a tiny alien named Soma who has crashlanded in her living room to warn her that his people are planning an invasion against Earth However, as his spacesuit is destroyed, he needs Maya’s help to stop the attack. (He has his reasons for helping humankind.)


This graphic novel was originally published in 2023 under the same title in Spanish (Castilian). This English translation is due to be published in February 2025.

If I have to use one word to describe this entire reading experience, it would probably be “quirky.” From the characters to the plotline, there’s nothing ordinary about this story. But this isn't necessarily a good thing. The quirkiness is as much a strength as a weakness of the book.

Maya is an interesting character. It was fun to see her channelize her frustration with her work into anger against the invading aliens. Soma is a great extra-terrestrial addition to the plot. (Note that his name is revealed only on the last page of the book, which is quite strange considering the book is named after him. Even the blurb mentions his name clearly.) Juu is quite weird at first, and it is good to see him gain courage as the story progresses. However, if we strictly think about it, his arc isn’t vital to the main story at all, so he feels like a page filler at times. In addition to these three characters, there are also a few secondary characters who shine in their limited roles. That said, I couldn’t really get a clear idea of why most of the characters behaved the way they did.

The storyline of the book is good, not great. The alien invasion trope is fairly common in comics. The only differentiating factor here is the type of attack and the counterattack. I like the imaginativeness of the “weapon” that worked against the invaders.

However, I am not that big a reader of action-adventure kind of storylines, so the moment this book diverged into that kind of narrative, I lost my interest. I might not have opted for this graphic novel had I known that at least a third of the book would involve action sequences. (The English cover simply doesn’t indicate that this would go into an actual Hollywood-style alien attack. ☹ The Spanish cover is more accurate in that respect, but I didn’t see it before getting the book.)

The plot is fairly fast-paced. It is divided into three distinct parts – before, during, and after the invasion. The Before section is quite interesting, but there’s a sudden segue into the actual invasion, during which things feel somewhat repetitive and chaotic. The invasion scenes could have benefited with some more detailing. The attack feels too rushed: nothing in one scene and total destruction in the next. The After section is decent, but again, it feels abrupt and too quiet after all the noise of the invasion pages.

The whole book reads like a children’s novel with an overly straightforward plot. But it is actually meant for adults, which leaves me slightly conflicted about how well it will work with the actual target audience.

The illustrations are decent but somewhat cluttered. There’s a lot happening on some pages, which ends up bombarding the eyes with an illustrative overload. Plus, the “invasion” pages are red-dominant, which saturates the eyes sooner. The scenes in the alien spaceships aren’t so clear in plot. The “snot dripping from the nose” expression is a bit too repetitive. That said, I love that the speech bubbles have coloured backgrounds to denote which character is speaking – a great idea.

All in all, not a bad story, but perhaps not a great option for adult graphic novel readers. The storyline is way too simplistic and rushed for adults. However, it might work better for teens and young adults. It might also click with those who enjoy action-adventure comics. Not my cuppa tea, though.

2 stars.

My thanks to Oni Press for providing the DRC of “Soma” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Sorry this didn’t work out better.

I really enjoyed the art style and colors used in Soma, which is what originally caught my eye when I saw the cover. The art made this book truly immersive and really compensated for the more simple story line. I think more depth could have been added to the characters to make them more well rounded and make it easier for the reader to understand their motivations. Overall, I had a good time and it was a quick read, but it would have benefitted from some added complexity.

A mostly fun alien invasion story that can be pretty emotional in some parts. It's about Maya, an artist who's struggling with her art and is constantly worried about deadlines, before an alien crash landed in her living room, completely changing her priorities and worldview. That main plot is a lot more compelling than the subplot, which is about Maya's close friend who's been struggling to get a date. The story as a whole can be a bit predictable especially for readers who have seen/read other alien invasion stories before, but for the most part the emotional beats still hit anyway.

“Soma” nos cuenta la historia de Maya, una dibujante de cómics que lleva una vida monótona hasta que un extraterrestre llega a su vida.

Al inicio me parecía aburrido y tardé bastante en empezar a leerlo seriamente; leía una que otra página ocasionalmente. Al saber que era ciencia ficción, esperaba que fuera todo muy intenso desde el inicio.

Ahora que lo terminé y tuve mi tiempo de reflexión, me di cuenta de que construyeron el mundo demasiado bien; sentía aburrimiento porque era lo que Maya sentía en ese momento. Empaticé bastante con los personajes.

Las ilustraciones son hermosas; me encanta que el estilo de dibujo acompañe tan bien a la historia y se adapte a todos los momentos.

Disfruté mucho la lectura.

This one was really weird but really fun! I enjoyed it. I loved how they used different colors for the speech bubbles for each character. I love the art. The story is kinda funny and kinda creepy at the same time. But why is there so much snot? Like every character has snot running down their face all the time and it’s gross. Other than that, it’s a fun book with a storyline that was a nice little distraction from life for a bit. It also snuck in a few little moral lessons near the end. I liked it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Oni Press for gifting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this graphic novel! The characters were well-developed and relatable, with dialogue that often felt authentic and conversational. The pacing was well-balanced, with a narrative that was engaging and action-packed.

The artwork was impressive, bringing the sci-fi world to life in a way that was both visually stunning and immersive. I also appreciated the thoughtful commentary on human nature, including the importance of self-care and the kindness of strangers.

One area for improvement is the translation, which sometimes felt a bit awkward or literal. Hopefully, these issues will be addressed in future editions.

Additionally, there were a few scenes that didn't quite resonate with me, feeling slightly incongruous with the rest of the narrative.

Overall, however, I found this graphic novel to be a compelling and engaging read. Fans of sci-fi, graphic novels, and Dalmau's work may particularly enjoy it.

In "Soma" a marginally neurotic and highly stressed artist is forced to take a break from her creative crisis to deal with a friend's romantic frustrations and an all out alien invasion. The resulting wild ride is a frenetic manga inspired take on "The War of the Worlds" with a good sprinkling of Gen Z angst.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Oni Press, for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review