This graphic novel was hilarious and well-drawn, definitely worth the money and the hype, and I hope will be successful!

Interesting concept and compelling art throughout, but at times very confusing. I felt like I was missing too much and ultimately felt frustrated reading this one.

I normally adore Andi Watson's work, but this one... I don't think I'm understanding what happened, or what we're supposed to take from it, or maybe it's just that I don't care for Kafka-esque "everyday guy beaten down by circumstance". Not a mystery, but dark absurdity, and it's difficult to grasp the details in the very loose art style. Too abrupt an ending, I thought, and various questions left unanswered, much like life.

A fun to read GN
Gives a black and white retro feel tot he book
Similar to newspaper comics
The main character has to go promote their book on a book tour.
All the while the main character has to deal with being accused of murder

The amount of effort that went into illustrating this book is astounding, considering how reliant upon the visuals the narrative is (even more so than most graphic novels). In a frustrating way, the trials pressed upon the main character are all too relatable and so is the disappointment felt when the story just ends. Definitely recommended for more experienced readers (i.e. not children in constant need of entertainment).

This was a strange graphic novel. The main character is the epitome of bumbling fool and boy does he bumble his way through some situations. Overall, I think that this is a good graphic novel. Not great, but not bad either.

Andi Watson has created a graphic novel mystery that will have you questioning if you know whats really happening after all. An author on a book tour may have unwittingly been the last man to see a woman alive or was he? Is there a killer on the lose shadowing his steps? Are the police correct, could he know more than hes saying? Could he be the killer? Could it be coincidence? Whats happening to his book tour, his marriage, his life??? One cant help but feel life may be having its merry way with our writer, poor thing. Right? Darkly humorous, illustrated with a deft hand and a possibly murderous intent, this novel was a pleasure to read and I would definitely recommend.

A graphic novel that lives or dies on it's atmosphere - good thing it's suitably creepy, confusing, and engaging.

Thank you to @idwpublishing and @netgalley for the ARC of The Book Tour by Andi Watson. This book was not at all what I expected and was so interesting! This book follows a blundering and oblivious author who sets out to promote his new book. From the beginning of his book tour he steps unknowingly into a web of crime, murder, and misinformation. Will he be pinned as the criminal behind a series of murders? This was a page turner with a interesting cast of characters. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Imagine the excitement and anticipation of a book tour. With a suitcase filled with his published book "Without K", author G.H. Fretwell disembarks from a train at a European style city. "Usually someone comes to meet me but there's no mention of it in my itinerary". A gentleman appears, takes the suitcase, and states that he will pull around the front of the train station to pick up Fretwell. This presumption leads to the beginning of Fretwell's surreal, confusing and absurd journey...no vehicle will appear with his suitcase of books.

Off to the police station to report a theft. A disinterested policeman, absorbed in his newspaper, half listens to the reported claim. No valuables in your luggage, only books? "The books are valuable". The police station looks eerily deserted, however, the officer states, "we are very busy at the moment...we must prioritise ongoing investigations".

More bizarre happenings. Apparently "a startling new voice" in writing, author F.P. Guise, has each of his book signings scheduled the day before each of Fretwell's. No one arrives for Fretwell's signings. The downward spiral continues. A bookseller named Rebecca Harpin goes missing. Funny, Fretwell's wife is named Rebecca. The suitcase of books is missing. There is a predator on the loose nicknamed "The Suitcase Killer". The police question Fretwell.

"The Book Tour" by Andi Watson is an unsettling and puzzling graphic novel. It is unique, darkly humorous, and dreamlike. At first, the comics etched in black and white with scant dialogue didn't entice this reader. Slowly, the atmosphere created by author Watson became mesmerizing and quite addictive. As Fretwell was seemingly sucked into an abyss, he visited a homeless shelter that required a reservation...but alas...the city had no homelessness...all beds would remain unoccupied. "The Book Tour" was a captivating, curious read about a dispirited man searching...searching... Highly recommended.

Thank you Top Shelf Productions and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Bitter experience would appear to colour these black and white pages, as we see an author trying to peddle his latest mystery, regarding an encyclopaedia seller with a missing volume K and a missing wife likewise. He's forever finding the book shops not set up for his arrival, and nobody is at all interested, partly because he's forever arriving the night after a different author has hit town for his strange-sounding hit novel. Worse than all that, however, he's forever expected to read the papers, and to know of 'the way things are' at the moment – and even worse than all that, he's been questioned about the disappearance of the tour's first venue's hostess…

There is more to this Kafkaesque plot than that, too, but the drama of this suitably down-trodden man is definitely on the engaging side, and not hung up on references to older books or styles. I couldn't go as far as saying it breaks any ground visually – I can hardly go as far as I'd like with describing the style with what appeared an incredibly low-res digital review copy – but it seemed to evoke simple, timeless, newspaper cartoon styled images. Speech bubbles come without the bubbles, but the tail attached always makes it perfectly obvious who says what – and I don't think any one panel has more than one spoken sentence, for this is a sparsely-worded story at times and no mistake. The ending might not be the strongest, and in a way it's not about the mystery, more the feel – but even so we get to feel for the lot of this man, what with our being able to sit back and smirk at his misfortune. A strong four stars.

This book is simple in many ways: the art style, dialogue, and characters. But is is a very complex narrative with many twists that you only appreciate on a second reading. It is subtle and Kafka inspired in the dread and frustration that build within the main character and the reader.

At the risk of sounding paradoxical, I found this charming graphic novel to be delightfully frustrating.

This is a book tour gone terribly, terribly wrong. It starts with a lost suitcase and devolves into a murder accusation for our protagonist, who just wants to complete his book tour and get home to his family, but is thwarted by maddening setbacks at every turn.

Sometimes I find this sort of Kafka-like “if it can go wrong it will go wrong” plot too frustrating and irritating, but the light touch employed here seemed to keep the plot from straying from sweetly exasperating into overtly obnoxious. The concept is clever and we sympathize with our beleaguered hero.

The art is just ok, but it doesn’t take away from the clever story.

An absurd tale of the perils of authorship and publication. The protagonist spirals from the onset of a book signing tour through a bizarre deterioration of incidents and locales, leaving a reader with the same sort of discontent that occurs when reading Pinter or Beckett. The illustrations and the script add to this effect by appearing simple while conveying a dark sense of confusion, the precise tone that the protagonist feels at the end of the book. Skilled and thoughtful and worth the read.

Thank you to and NetGalley for an Advance Release Copy in exchange for an honest review.

G. H. Fretwell is the author that is subjected to this graphic novel's surreal book tour. It begins when he arrives at the airport and no one is there to pick him up. The story then follows him through a series of misunderstandings and awkward situations as his book tour continues on a downward spiral. He is a victim of theft, becomes a suspect in a murder investigation, his publisher may or may not be going out of business, and his phone calls home to his wife and child get bleaker by the day.

The surreal dark humor is conveyed perfectly with the simple line drawings and sparse dialogue. I enjoyed this book, as I am a fan of absurd, dark humor. I can see how this is not a graphic novel that everyone would enjoy. The humor is very "British" in that Fretwell remains a passive participant in the absurdity going on around him. He is only along for the ride as his accommodations, book signings, and life take turns for the worse by the day. Many readers won't like the abrupt ending, but I say it's par for the course with a novel of this ilk. Personally, I'd be up for a continuation to see how Fretwell fares in the end, but he's such a blank character that you don't get truly invested in him, so it really doesn't matter does it?

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

I found this to be a charming story of a befuddled author sent on book tour, where nothing is as it should be — no one to pick him up on arrival, unprepared bookstores, shabbier and shabbier accommodations, etc. On top of all that, the police suspect him of a terrible crime and keep popping up at various stops on the tour. The end was a bit abrupt, but other than that, I found this to be an enjoyable read.

This was such an odd dark comedy and I enjoyed the bazaar adventure. Mr. Fretwell is a small time author going on a book tour across Britain when he is suddenly and hilariously suspected of being a serial killer. If you have ever watched Are You Being Served? or any British comedy where everything is a confusing befuddled mess and no one wants to comment on it? You will enjoy this graphic novel. I laughed far too hard at the implied sarcasm and the continually shabbier and shabbier accommodations of Mr. Fretwell. A fun graphic novel for a time filled with far too much anxiety, I adored it,.

I think maybe I am not made for things that are Kafka-esque. I did enjoy the art, and as a bookseller, a few of the jokes were spot-on.

I tried this one, but it just wasn't for me. It's also not one I can easily imagine an audience in our stores for.

This is an intriguing and often puzzling story with a surreal feel.
The story follows Mr. Fretwell, an unassuming author on a book tour in the city promoting a new novel that no one seems to care for. Mr. Fretwell is the type of man most people dismiss and he always seems a bit lost in his surroundings. As the story progresses, people's reactions to Fretwell become more and more dismissive and odd. What begins as a series of uncomfortable social situations escalates to something more unsettling, creating a bit of a Kafkaesque tone as Fretwell navigates a series of bizarre encounters and gets caught up in a bit of a mystery.
The story often has a dreamlike, even nightmarish quality to it, as the reader, like Fretwell, is kept in the dark about what is really going on. Fretwell's alienation and the sense of unreality is emphasized by effective stretches of panels illustrating Mr. Fretwell's travels throughout the city. Rather than a site of opportunity or excitement, the city is ominous and alienating, much like the people in it. Everyone Fretwell encounters acts increasingly suspicious of him for reasons we're never entirely sure of.
At times the story is frustrating because of this, though I assume that's the point. The story is most successful in its cultivation of a particular mood and tone and its depiction of feeling "out of place" in society and your surroundings. If you are looking for a story where everything gets wrapped up neatly, this is not the one for you. Like Fretwell, the reader is launched into an unfriendly world where nothing entirely fits together.
The art style is quite unique yet minimal and in keeping with the story's tone. Though dialogue is minimal, the art is evocative and really effective at emphasizing the feeling of dream-like unreality and disorientation.
Recommended for:
-readers interested in surreal, existentialist stories
-readers interested in stories that focus on crafting a well-defined tone and mood rather than providing a straightforward narrative

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Netgalley and IDW Publishing.