We start with a content warning: graphic violence and attempted suicide. Olivia Vieweg certainly delivered graphic violence.

Ever After has my favorite dystopian tropes: zombies and asylums. We follow Vivi, who has suffered a breakdown after getting separated from her sister during the zombie apocalypse. The creepy woman who runs the asylum where Vivi is staying treats her like her daughter, going so far as to get Vivi to dye her hair pink to match. Which was totally creepy to watch. Like there isn’t enough going on in Vivi’s life and now some creeper wants her to look and act like her dead daughter.

But Vivi doesn’t seem to care about that. I mean, in the grand scheme of things if it’s the asylum or zombies, I’d go with the asylum too. To teach Vivi a lesson, the warden sends her to fence-mending duty. And the worst happens: a zombie attacks.



Vivi witnesses a girl get bitten and then shot. And she knows she has to leave town.

On the way out she encounters Eva who has a bad attitude and a dangerous secret.

Vivi and Eva never really become friends. And to be frank, they’re barely traveling companions.

I ate Ever After up in a single sitting. More than once I audibly gasped at what was happening on the page. Part of my intense reactions, I think, was due to the art. Not just the graphic nature of apocalyptic fiction but the contrast between the childlike illustration and the dead and bloodied bodies.

While the title and cover art are, incredibly misleading, I still think Ever After is a great addition to any graphic novel collection. The story was had me on the edge of my seat and I was attached to these characters. Well, to Vivi anyway.

Eva got what was coming to her. You’ll see.

This was a story with a very interesting premise, not everything went as I expected, in fact I was surprised by some moments of it.

I think Vivi's story was a little bit poorly worked, I believe there was a lot to explore on her plot, i wanted better explanations and motivations stronger even though it was a zombie story. I didn't expect the whole plot of the story to be about Vivi's "liberation", so I was a little upset about Eva's fate, as well as I was a little confused by her ending.

But undoubtedly the reading is fun and delivers good entertainment within what it is predisposed to deliver, the drawings are so beautiful and I really liked that the graphic novel was made using warm tones, which for me demonstrates life, generally these types of stories use cold tones. Not everything is perfect here, but I really enjoyed the reading.

I was excited to read this story after seeing the cover and reading the description. I think it was a little darker (ok much darker) than I was anticipating.,

Ever After tells the story of two girls in a post apocalyptic world. Eva is tough and though it's not explicitly stated you get the feeling that Eva has had only herself to rely on for a while. Vivi is soft and passive and when we first meet her she is living in a mental hospital under care of the head nurse. Vivi is mentally unstable and bothered by things have happened during the apocalypse. Something happens to Eva and she needs to make her way to the city Jena where she can be helped. They manage to hop a freight train out of the city on its way to Jena. They have to rely on each other to survive.

The story was a little difficult to follow and seemed somewhat disjointed in a few places. However, the illustrations were beautiful and the colors used in them added to the story. I would not recommend this book for the 10 year olds I work with, but I am sure there are older students who would really enjoy this book.

There were some parts that confused me, especially with the gardener the main character meets along the way. The female friendship was rocky and the ending wasnt very satisfying. There was some mental health representation with the main character but her weird relationship with the psych warden wasnt explained in a way that made sense to me. I was a little disappointed with the art style because I thought it would be just as bold and colorful as the cover but it ended up being a little more muted. The zombie elements were interesting but I think the overall story just wasnt for me.

I don't know why I didn't expect it to be a zombie story. How is it possible? This graphic novel has been on my tbr for a few years since I've seen it on German bookstagram and I haven't known it was about zombies? (I don't like zombies) Also, i didn't know it had a film adaptation!

Anyway, my three favourite things were how female-driven the cast was, how there was no sex or romance (tho possibly some minor sapphic vibes? Or was it just me?) and that it was probably the first European dystopia I've ever read. I think? So even if it was a zombie scenario, by far my least favourite type of dystopia, at least it didn't take place in America which is always a nice change. It makes books so much more relatable.

I liked the art, too.

Unfortunately, I absolutely didn't care about the plot but it might have been the zombie thing.

I was originally attracted to this book based on the blurb and the cover, but honestly, the story felt like it was missing a lot. It was also a lot darker and more graphic than I expected it to be.

I did enjoy the artwork and felt that it added to the scenes, moving from dark to light as they moved from indoors to outside. I also liked that the bright colors were such a dramatic contrast to the darker storyline, especially once the girls moved out into the countryside. The landscapes were especially beautiful.

Overall, the storyline was somewhat muddled, jumping from scene to scene. The storyline was pretty confusing, especially in the beginning, and I had to go back through it twice to really understand what was going on. Sometimes it was difficult to tell what was a memory/flashback, though one flashback was emphasized by a more monochrome palette.

I did like the character development of Vivi, as she grew from being fearful and became more assertive based on her experiences with Eva and the zombie encounters, even though it was rather sudden. I would have liked to see more of that development building over the course of the story. The ending was rather powerful and a good closure to the novel.

The graphic novel 'ever after' is one in a kind. The soft pastel colors hide the true colors of the story. It's a very dark and apocalyptic theme with current topics. I expected it to be a graphic novel for kids, but I would recommend it for readers 14+ and up.
The pastel drawings are very beautiful. They are detailed and contain a unique art style. I also loved how every character seemed to have something typical about their appearance.
On the other hand, the story was a bit messy. It felt more like a scene, not as a whole story on its own. It's hard for the reader to understand what happened, how it happened, and why it happened. Also: the setting is a bit vague. But I feel like it was vague due to the main character. She's a bit mad, to say it nicely.
Most characters were round enough to be interesting in a graphic novel. I mostly liked the main character because she is so sweet. It's a very creepy and dark world, but she stays herself and is truly the sunshine throughout the whole story.

I liked the graphic novel, but it didn't blow me away.

The story is set in Germany after a zombie apocalypse. We follow two girls who flee one city to try to get to another. Both are dealing with their own issues.

The story was ok. There were a couple of really interesting and somewhat exciting parts, although these were never really explored in depth. For me, the story was hard to follow and mostly confusing. It seemed to consist of a lot of different pieces that just don't really fit together to make a complete story. I also didn't really care for the main characters and I was way more excited about the creatures they encountered along the way.

I love the cover art, but found the art and colors that were used for the story hard to read at times.

I really wished that I could get into this graphic novel. The illustrations are a major part of whether or not I will enjoy a graphic novel and unfortunately, they were not my cup of tea. I found the story line to be quite confusing and could not devote the energy into reading and re-reading.

This one didn't work for me. I wasn't crazy about the artwork since it was so simplistic. The story was disjointed and not particularly interesting.

Hmmm… A book that wants to do more with the zombie apocalypse than others before it, and that ends up doing less. Two girls hitch-hike on the unmanned freight train from their city to the next, only it never gets that far. Instead it's up to them to get to a potential new home, even with the undead around every corner – and their own issues as baggage, too. So far, so good, but it's actually a bit too woolly, ill-defined in concept and content, and doesn't really answer the questions it thinks it's clever in asking. So for every effort it takes to be about resilience, hopes and dreams, and shrugging off a past life when tomorrow is a lot closer and much shorter timespan to have to worry about, there is an encounter that doesn't really make sense with its dreamlike qualities, an openness to the explanation for this beat, and a question mark over that piece of action. Some take to that lack of explanation better than I – it's not to say I need my hands held as a reader, but I do seek for greater clarity in what's supposed to be the plot and what we're supposed to think about it. Perhaps the movie adaptation would make things a bit more clear, but for now this book is a little too obscure.

I'll be honest. I DNF this book. I love zombie apocalypse books, and I've read a few others recently. I am also a big fan of graphic novels, and use them in my classroom. This one, however, was so confusing. There was no narration, and as I read, I did not know what was going on. The lack of narration left so many questions for me as I read, and because of this, I lost interest. The premise of the novel is great, and the illustrations were fantastic. But it needed narration to hook readers in an explain the subtle events throughout the book.

"Sometimes I just stop and think...has it really only been two years since everything fell apart?"
"Yes."
"Two years since the apocalypse...feels like a lifetime, doesn't it?"

If you can resonate with these words, sitting in your houses and thinking about the normalcy of pre-corona era, then Ever After is clearly a book that you can relate with.
It's a dystopian world here.

And hallo! You cannot go out of your house; unless you really have to. Sounds familiar, right?
No there's no pandemic in this book.
It's worse. Apocalypse has arrived with humans turning into zombies .👹👹
So you cannot go out; you have to hoard food; wait for cargo to arrive; beware of the nighttime; and don't forget to stay away from getting bitten!!

Birthday parties ruined. College plans shattered. Flight tickets gone waste. Families lost. Zombies becoming the "new normal". All just in a blink. Similar to what we are facing in corona era, right? I told you- the book is relatable!

The author, Olivia Vieweg, is a German cartoonist, born in the city of Jena, and currently lives in Wiemar. It is these 2 German places that she has sketched as a place full of zombies. The book, in Germany would be called a 'Germanga', which for English readers mean their all time favourite- "manga" (originally a Japanese term).

Two girls, one with a disturbed mental state and the other with a zombie wound that is to turn her into a zombie sooner rather than later, are out on the run from Wiemar to reach Jena, a place where medication can treat early zombie wounds.

This book is engaging to its bit. You won't want to stop flipping the pages; and you sure will not be able to guess what's next.

Ever After makes us realise that it is always peace of mind that you are running towards, and as soon you get peace, life becomes much more bearable and bright.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.

I did not expect the gore in this lol.

It definitely wasn't exactly for me but still a good read I guess

Dark and creepy, ever after takes readers on a post-apocalyptic journey that was surprisingly poignant and beautiful. I saw someone compare it to Coraline, and I think that’s a good comparison. It’s much darker than I expected but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It’s one I would recommend for a quick and memorable read.

This book was confusing and it felt like I was reading the second one without having read the first. CW for gore and suicide attempt.

First of all, I would like to talk about the illustrations. The cover is awesome and grabbed my attention in seconds!! The other illustrations are brilliant too, so colorful and vibrant that it gave me a lot of pleasure to discover them through the pages. Despite being very excited with the illustrations, I felt a bit confused with the story. In some moments I thought that I was reading the second book of the series because it didn't look like the first one, but as the story progressed I understood the missing parts and felt really curious about the unanswered questions and that made me very anxious for the next book!

Lastly I would like to talk about the characters. I felt that they were real, they had questions and fears and tried to deal with difficult situations and move on from it.

I really recommend this book!

TW: attempted suicide, gore, body horror. I really liked this a lot actually. It was haunting and strange, but in a really cool emotional way. I liked the bleakness mixed with hope. I loved the colors and the art style and thought it fit really well.

I truly didn't like this book. I see some appeal of being brave and zombies, however it wasn't my cup of tea. I felt like there wasn't a true plot line, and the same things just kept happening. The best part of this book is the illustrations.

This beautifully illustrated graphic novel set in Germany, after the end of the world as we know it. We follow the story of Vivi as she battles mental illness and dealing with her family’s demise. When Vivi is sent to the gate to work, she witnesses a terrible ordeal that has her reeling on what to do next. She decides to leave the city, and accidentally going along with Eva, who has a tough heart because of what she has had to do, they make their way to the city of Jena. Along the way they find themselves and the acceptance they need, not what they were looking for.

This graphic novel does cover some series issues such as suicide and mental illness, and it is addressed to containing those issues at the beginning of this book. The feel of this book is of someone who suffers from a mental illness which helps the reader understand their thinking. Though this book is not for me, I do think others can enjoy it if they like zombies, the end of the world, or dealing with mental illness. Graphic novels can be hard to contain all the information in them that a reader may be looking for, that is why I am not as impressed with the story of the book as I am the illustrations that are beautifully done. This book can be a story of acceptance and learning to find what makes you happy, even in a world that has been turned upside down.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley for my honest opinion.