This has to be recommended as a very good dystopian road trip comic, for the teen and adult audiences. Our plucky heroine, stuck in a remote cabin with her father and two younger brothers, suddenly gets a birthday present in the post from the mother who vanished and turned her back on the family, about the whole time the world went tits up with mahoosive earthquakes. This inspires her to risk all and try and seek out either her mother, or at least her uncle Hank, the only other family she remembers from the good old days. Without giving away any spoilers, she doesn't end up making the journey alone – and at times the "them again – but how?!" response is a bit too great a flaw. But it's a very good journey to witness, with the suitably wrecked western seaboard of the USA peppered by earthquake-damaged landscapes, and even more damaged people. I can see the last few scenes not being to everyone's tastes, but before then this has to be called quality. The black and white and dark pink only artwork is a success in such a counter-intuitive palette, and the artwork and direction are really strong. Also, for all the high drama and heightened circumstances of the piece, it does remain about family and responsibility, and characterisation and dialogue is strong (although you'd have seen a black cloud in a speech balloon above my head for the number of times anger is shown by, er, a black cloud in a speech balloon above someone's head). This is four and a half stars all day from me; it was impressive stuff.

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

Odessa takes place after a massive earthquake that ruined and forever changed the Western half of the United States. Ginny, short for Virginia, receives a letter and package from her long-gone mother for her 18th birthday. Deciding to make the long quest to find her, Ginny leaves her brothers, friends, and her father behind as she heads to San Fransico. Along the way, Ginny's group grows and she meets people who will say they will help her on her quest. However, things don't always go as planned.

I'm not totally sure what to think about this. I didn't know this going on but apparently this is only book one of a series so my feeling about the ending partially come from lack of conclusion. I loved the art of this book and greatly enjoyed the colour palette. The book was definitely heart-warming and a wholesome story about a kid looking for her mother. There was also a nice LGBTQ+ surprise.

However, overall, it fell kind of flat. The characters are a little basic, Ginny is the typical big sister who is just "trying to do what is right" when it clearly isn't always right. I really enjoyed Four Dollars, he showed a lot of character development from his stated past and through the novel. The plot itself was ok, it kind of felt like not much had happened in the over 300 pages. Like I said before, maybe if I knew going in this was part of an unfinished series maybe I would felt better about the end but it could maybe have been shorter. I was also left a little shocked about the fantastical elements of the book, it maybe could have been done without.

As of now, I'm torn on if and when the sequel comes out if I will read it.

Odessa is simple yet stunning with a clean black, white, and pink color palette. The worldbuilding was fascinating, the plot engaging, and the characters loveable and distinct. I loved the Vietnamese American rep and the focus on sibling/family relationships. As a first book, Odessa offers a lot of potential for the future, but is also equally satisfying on its own.

Rating: 3.8 stars.

I liked the art style in this graphic novel and I really liked the story as well. It's a story where years after the siblings mom left the oldest gets a package on her birthday and wants to find her mom. It's the journey of going to find her.

Odessa is visually compelling and emotionally rich. I loved the work this graphic novel conveyed in terms of character and storyline.

I would give this a 2.5-star rating.
I want to start this review by saying that the final third of this graphic novel is pretty good, and made me more interested in the story, the world, and relate more to the characters. Before that point, however, I didn't really care at all about the characters and felt a bit confused about the world-building. I wish we just had more. More scenes where we got to see more depth to the characters, their relationships, and what is happening. The story jumps from one thing to another for large parts of this graphic novel, which improves at the end. I liked the story, but it lacks the execution in my opinion.

During lockdown, I have enjoyed reading dystopian novels, and Odessa fulfilled this brief. This was my first graphic novel and I found this an easy read. Odessa was full of tension, exploring the human condition and the ties that bind us.

Whilst there is some violence in this novel, I believe this would be suitable for 14+ whilst the vocabulary and the story line would make this an easy read for reluctant readers.

This is my first graphic novel and I wasn't sure what to expect. I like fantasy and sci fi, so I suppose it was about time I tried graphic novels. I do though want to empathise this was my first one, so I only have novels or non-fiction reads to compare it to.

I liked the story, and it moved at a good pace. To me it felt more like watching a TV show with subtitles than a book, but maybe that's the point?

The dialogue is a little simple on some pages, but the story and relationships were developed well. I also liked the development between the siblings. This seemed realistic and not cliche.

Overall I am not sure graphic novels are for me, although I did find this entertaining and appericated vewiing something different.

Odessa is a wholesome as fuck graphic novel set in a dystopian future where three siblings travel across the country looking for their mother. Beautiful art and a beautiful story, I am so excited for the next volume!

I loved everything about this book. The characters were amazing and the banter and relationships between the siblings felt so real. The art style is so unique and beautifully rendered in shades of pink really brightens up the really dark setting of a post-natural disaster world. The story is dark at times, and devastatingly sad at others, but it's so heartwarming the whole way through.

I'd recommend Odessa to anyone! I think it would be both a really good place to start for people new to graphic novels, but also offers a great adventure story with unique art and developed characters that makes graphic novels so so good. Out the 3 November 2020 from OniPress, so still a long way to wait, (and an even longer wait until volume 2 for me!)

Review to come on Friday.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

WARNING: This is the first book. Don't go in it like me and expect a full story, don't be disappointed, like me when I found out that after 328 pages there is a to be continued. But yeah, this why I am rating this one lower, I wanted a conclusion. The story already felt too long.

A girl decides to go search for her mother after she receives a package from her mother on her birthday. Her brothers tag along and so begins a long long long journey across the country. And yes, that does sounds fun/interesting.

What I expected: girl and her brothers go to find their brothers in a desolate and destroyed America. What I got, Mad Max x Maffia x Chinese/Asian Crime Syndicates. It was just too much at times and instead of thinking OMG action, I was just thinking, Oh lord another one? Oh lord, something else? Good grief. It just got ridiculous and I think if that all was cut and we just got some normal stuff we could have gotten to mom by now.

There was also way too much dialogue for my liking. Sometimes a lot of dialogue works and it is OK, but in this one I just had a hard time and didn't seem to get through the book, I kept checking my page numbers to see if I made progress.

The revelation about Maya, thanks Ginny's brothers, was nice and had me giggling, especially seeing Ginny's reaction. However it did feel kind of underwhelming given the situation.

Then there is the jinx root which seems like such a magnificent thing.. but there is something off about it. Which caused me to roll my eyes at the situations that followed. It just didn't seem well executed/thought about. The idea is there... but the rest needs working.

I do would like to know what is left of the world. Probably not much given what we are being told, I am guessing tsunamis have gone across the world, but I would think that there are still places left that are still safe.

I did like the art. That was pretty nicely done and I love the colours used. I did like Ginny she was a sweet independent and strong girl who wasn't afraid to kick some butt and got especially protective when things happened to her brothers. I liked seeing how that part of America looked after the big quake.

But I am just so disappointed in this in overall, if I had known this was the first book in a series... I probably wouldn't have read it. Or have dropped it because I was really dragging myself throughout the book was since this was supposed (going by NG and GR) one book and I wanted to see the reunion. Because I am definitely not interested in more of this series.

A post-apocalyptic story whose timing is either perfect or terrible, according to taste. Eight years after the Big One finally shook the western US apart, life in the sticks is mostly just dull and constricted, while the cities are considerably more dangerous - but still, y'know, less so than on the news. We follow three kids trying to find their mother, all of it shown in black, white and salmon, with a cartoony style (think a less hyper Kyle Starks) that makes events feel quite low-stakes even when they're being menaced by cannibal gangs. The rural scenes have a melancholy beauty, though some of the trees seem to have grown awful fast for less than a decade. Equally, it seems odd that only one old-timer would remember lore regarding some of the less realistic changes that have taken place in that time. Maybe it's intended as commentary about how, after the lights go off, it'll turn out we'd all outsourced too much of our memory to nostalgic listicles.

(Netgalley ARC)

This book is definitely a light and easy read. Despite the end-of-the-world atmosphere, the tone remains relatively upbeat and sometimes comical as the group of siblings travel across the country. I thought that the art was very well done and I liked the choice to only use three colors as I felt it added to the feel that their world is relatively stagnant. I can recommend this if you want an art style that was vaguely reminiscent of James Patterson's Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life.
The characters were reasonably fleshed out although I didn't feel as though they developed as much as they could have individually. We see the relationship between Wes and Ginny improve towards the end of the novel which feels somewhat rewarding, but the lack of characterization makes it hard for you to bond with these characters. It feels very much like every other apocalypse story you've read but the art style and the way it works with the overall tone of the story add it's own flavor to the genre. I was under the impression that this was a standalone but I do feel like it could be read as one despite an impending sequel. I could see myself reading the sequel if I saw it, but I would not actively search it out.

3.25 stars

I feel conflicted. :/

On one hand, Odessa is a very heart-warming graphic novel about a sister and her two younger brothers on a journey to find their mom. On the other hand, Odessa wasn’t much of anything.

This graphic novel is set 8 years after an earthquake wrecked the world. Life changed for everyone, including Virginia Crane, who’s mother left shortly after the incident. When on her 18th birthday she receives a gift from her mother, Ginny is set on finding her and goes on a journey throughout post-apocalyptic America with her brothers.

If there’s one thing I can say about this book, it’s that there wasn’t anything special to it. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, however. Not all books need to be revolutionary in order to be considered good, but this one fell below my expectations.

Starting off with the things I liked: the art. I don’t read graphic novels very often, and I sure ain’t no art connoisseur, but I loved the illustrations. The way Jonathan Hill portrays this post-apocalyptic world in his drawings just amazes me. Most of my favourite drawings were landscape shots of the ruins. Being able to capture the essence of this sort of world in three colours just amazes me.

While I can’t say this about most of the other characters, I also really liked Four Dollars. While he is a changed man, there’s still a part of his old life he can’t seem to shake off. Four Dollars stood out to me the most and his conflicting motives and loyalties made me appreciate him as a character. His dialogue was also my favourite out of all the characters, and the way he interacted with Ginny and her brothers really warmed my heart... except for when they first met him and he almost scammed them out of all their money but that is besides the point.

Now onto the not so good parts: the characters. With Four Dollars aside, I could not make myself feel anything for these characters. Ginny had nothing else going for her except being a heroic bigger sister. Wes was just another one of those kids who wanted to grow up, and Harry was just...plain. I understand that this is Hill’s first attempt at writing and drawing a book all by himself, and I get it, characters are hard to write. But feedback is feedback, and I have to say that the characters are just too static for me to enjoy. I couldn’t sense any development throughout the novel despite a lot of the harrowing events the group goes through.

As they went along their journey, I was just waiting for something to make me like these characters, but nothing happened. I felt so detached to them that I didn’t care much for their story at all. For example, why did Ginny abandon everything she knows just because of a necklace? What made her suddenly have an urge to find her dead mother despite her having left them years ago? In this sense, I don’t see what Ginny’s true aim is here. It seems as though this is a sudden impulse which is never a good motivation for a character; it’s just lazy.

One good thing I can say for all the characters is that I do appreciate the representation of Asian-Americans and queer characters in the novel, so brownie points for you, Jonathan Hill :D

With all that aside, I did like how this chapter of the story ended. While I’m not too sure if I’d read the second part, maybe something in me will want to give this story another go.

Overall, if you’re looking for a nice graphic novel to pass the time during quarantine, you might want to give this one a go. Maybe you’ll enjoy it more than I did.

This a journey story, only the journey is taking place in a world mostly destroyed by a massive earthquake. Eight years later, and Ginny receives a package from her mother, who left her, and now she wants to find her, thus the trip.

The name of this first volume is the feminine version of Odysseus, the wanderer. And like her namesake, Ginny has to wander pretty far to get to where her mother is.

It is interesting seeing the artists version of San Francisco ruined by this massive earthquake. And quite plausible.

But since this appears to be a series, it does not wrap up in this volume, so we have much more of the journey to go to find the resolution. And that being so, it is hard to rate how well this will end, with only having the beginning.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

I think this book suffers from not enough exposition. I wanted to learn more about Ginny's past, what it was like to live with her family post earthquake. But I will continue the series!

Odessa follows the story of Ginny and her two younger brothers in a post apocalyptic USA, where an earthquake has devastated the country. After receiving a birthday gift from her mother who has left them, Ginny decides to go on a journey to find her mother, and get the answers she's been looking for.

It's a story of survival and family, heartbreaking at times with it's wholesome moments showing through too.

The three tones in this graphic novel startled me at first as this is the first graphic novel I've read that only uses three colours (white, black and pink), but it was beautiful, and it ended up being one of my favourite things about this.

The story was interesting, albeit a little slow at some points, but I found myself getting attached to our main characters, and rooting for them the whole way.

This is the first in a series, and I'd definitely be interested to see where the next part of the story goes.

Closer to a 3.5 than a 3.

The file is too big to download so I can't even read it to review it - great job guys. Why not test these things out before you put them on the site? This is just a waste of everyone's time.

A post-apocalyptic graphic novel! This unusual and highly readable book serves up a "Walking Dead"-meets-"The Road" feel. I enjoyed the world-building, however the set up for Ginny leaving was a bit unbelievable. There's not enough character background provided to help the reader understand why she would abandon her father and brothers to set off on a dangerous hunt for her long-lost mother. Overall, however, once I bought into the story, I was hooked.

First of all, I read this in one sitting. While that happens often in graphic novels, I found it too gripping to even pause.
Odessa is the mom everyone is searching for, and in this fictional account that happens 8 years after a disaster, many questions remain. Perhaps if this plot was a novel, we'd have more explanations, but as far as the visuals ad the storytelling is concerned, this is a concrete, packed-with-thrill graphic novel.

I did like the villains and the heroes and such. I liked the characters a lot!

I really liked the use of colour in this graphic novel. The two tone art was interesting and added a lot of depth to the drawings, and I think I find two-tone less distracting than full colour art. The linework really stood out to me, and the monochromatic nature of the art made me see more of the jagged post-apocalyptic landscape and really added to the mood of the book in places.

I liked the three main characters a lot. Ginny, Wes and Harry had a very realistic sibling relationship and seemed appropriately aged, though the younger ones switched between childlike immaturity and moments of forced responsibility - which I think makes sense for the setting of this graphic novel and was well done. The setting was well-developed and well-explained without the use of exposition. I managed to predict a could of the twists in this story, but that didn't make it any less enjoyable, and this was an easy and interesting read. It didn't shy away from the dark moments that post-apocalypse stories call for and I'm nervous and excited to find out what happens to the siblings and Maya next.

I found the digital format a little hard to read and blurry in places but that may just be an issue with my eARC. I'd definitely be interested in seeing this one in paperback because I think that would make the art really stand out. Definitely looking forward to the rest of this story, and to seeing more of Jonathan Hill's work.