Not what I was expecting, but there was a lot to love in this graphic novel. The story is fun and the art is clean and simple.

A beautiful touching graphic novel about the power of human connection. The central character, is an illustrator, seemingly going through the motions of life, but not the emotions. His view from the edge of life looking in, is a swirl of hipster cliches - coffee shops, vinyl records, beards... As he plods from day to day, he feels something is missing and starts to make changes to his interactions with others and subsequently starts to experience life in different ways.
Beautifully paced, with clever uses of monochromatic vs colour images, this is a tale from the heart - and reading it from the isolation of quarantine was an emotionally amplified experience.

This graphic novel is awkward, witty, relatable, and pokes fun at the daily things that we have come to become accustomed to but are quite strange when you really start to analyze it.

Nick is a normal guy who is looking to make connections with other people, but his attempts backfire constantly. It's fascinating to see the portrayal of his thoughts vs spoken words and the self-editing we do in order to seem normal and non-confrontational.

"Just making the noises that will navigate us both out of the conversation unscathed."

His use of color to depict when people were being vulnerable and honest was beautifully done. The story delves into very difficult topics that many people find hard to talk about. Very personal and poignant.

7.75 out of 10 stars
Relatable light read. I wish it had more impact though..

Keywords: comic/ graphic novel, contemporary, social interactions, family

REVIEW
In is a book about what its mean to be humans and connections. It's about family, life, and communications. The story follows Nick, an illustrator who struggled finding meaningful social interactions. He felt that there was something he could not grasp about connecting with other human beings. We see his trials and errors as he striving to put meaning to it all.

It's a graphic novel with simplistic artstyle and occasional detailed sceneries. The flow is moderately ok, although there was very little dialogue and more emphasis on characters' expressions. The tones is a bit bleak and it fits with the comic's aesthetic. There are some jokes but perhaps it's not for me because I didn't really grasp it. The story is quite nice and relatable. I am sure a lot of people can find themself in Nick, especially in this era of technological advance that push us more and more into disconnected individuals. Alas I think the book still lacking some impact. Still a nice quick read though.

CONCLUSION
Recommended to those who want a quick read about connections and social interactions.

This was...oddly relatable. I mean, not all of it. This is clearly a personal story. But the feeling of wanting to connect to people, but not sure how to do it, overthinking it in your head, having words tumble out of your mouth that are NOT in the same order they were intended, and regretting everything about that interaction...I get it. This felt very real and very comfortable, in a way, particularly after this really weird year where it took six months to realise social distancing actually meant physical distancing, and that connection to people can be found through a multitude of ways - not just by meeting them in person. (This book is not about the pandemic, but the pandemic made it more relatable, in a way). I'm not familiar with Will McPhail's work at the New Yorker, but I did really like his style of art. I especially liked the way he used colour while exploring the main character's inner thoughts and feelings. I really enjoyed this, far more than I was really expecting to. Because the truth is, I didn't know what to expect. But I'm already looking forward to reading this again, and again, and continue to feel less alone in the world, oddly enough.

An interesting graphic novel about self-knowledge, our emotions and the way of being that only we can understand.

I recently read "In" by Will McPhail, a graphic novel about a 20-something going through day-to-day life experiences and his relationships with various people. The illustrations are what kept me reading, the story was just meh for me. If you enjoy graphic novels though, be sure to read this one.

I received a free ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for sharing Advanced Reader Copies with educators.

There are things that I loved about In: A Graphic Novel.

I think the illustration/design is stunning. I love the contrast of the simple cartoon panels with the elaborate dream-state color pages.
I think the wry commentary on coffee shops is spot-on.
I enjoy the warmth of this new woman in the narrator's life who jolts him into feeling something.

I think the story is unsettling. A detached, lost, ill-equipped guy fumbles through trying to genuinely connect and grow, but just seems completely out of shape for the task at hand. Then life smacks him with moments of reckoning and growth that are so... heartbreaking.

This one will stay with me. I don't know if stays with me for the reasons the author intended. Does it matter?
Beautiful and haunting for me.

I have really been vibing with graphic novel memoirs lately. It's such a great medium for telling an individual's experience. Mostly these are semi-autobiographical and the little details that you just know have to be true really make the stories feel so real.

I really like Will McPhail's art style. He uses it so well to add color in only select areas. The storytelling in this book is done so well. The internal dialogue compared to what the protagonist actually says gave me many chuckles. The way he depicts conversations is excellent.

Nick is a Millennial going through the motions. This is a story about wanting to connect to others and figuring out how to do that. I think it's super relatable.

I give this book a 5/5. Wonderful storytelling. The methods used are simple, but so effective. I will be recommending this book to fellow Millennials. Empathy and vulnerability is at the heart of this book.

The cover on this was fun and drew me in, but that ended up being the only thing I liked. In fact after a few pages I started skipping pages to find something to enjoy and I didn't like the artwork or any of the stories. The characters were boring or mean and did not hold my interest.

I loved this graphic novel. I couldn't put it down and I read it in one sitting.

'In' is about Nick, a 20-something guy who wants to connect to people, who wants to feel something, who wants to relate. In the novel Nick's relationships with his mother, his sister, his nephew and with his friend Wren are portrayed beautifully. The illustrations and dialogues made the characters come to life.

'In' is a wonderful story about connecting, detachment, loss and growth.

This is one of those books that make you pause and think.........whoa. The author/illustrator uses color to represent the inner, deeper lives that we can only reach when true human connection occurs. It certainly left me thinking about the connections I have in my life and if they could be richer. Note: sex scenes make this unsuitable for high school library.

"In" is a comic that follows a main character who is completely detached from life and his surroundings. The comic shows the MC's desire to connect to people or to feel genuine emotion by acting the way he thinks he ought to act. We see a young man walking through life, trying -and failing- to be all the things he thinks he should be, and that only makes his disconnect from others greater. This fosters a general sense of melancholy throughout the comic, however, the book maintains a witty tone and a humorous portrayal despite the sad subject.

I found this comic really clever in how it delivered and paced the story. I have the highest appreciation for the author's ability to portray both strong emotions and plot through art and colors without any dialogue. I can't speak too much on the storyline without spoiling it, but I'll say that one panel hit me really hard, and I wasn't at all expecting that from this book. The visual storytelling in it is stunning, and I know that this might sound redundant in a review of a graphic novel, but not all graphic novels have the ability to communicate this much of the storyline through a few panels.

Overall a really creative and clever story that packs quite the emotional punch towards the end. Really enjoyed reading this!

I was really caught by surprise by this book, right from the opening scene which sets a wonderfully odd and haunting tone. McPhail explores themes of loneliness and isolation with really creative use of colour and economy in his illustrations. At times the drawings are minimalist and subtle, at other points the frame is completely saturated in colour. This variety brilliantly conveys the emotional journey of the characters as they search for connection. Look out for some scathing parody of hipster/gentrification culture as well!

In this graphic novel, we follow Nick.
Nick is an illustrationist for a weekly newspaper. His whole life, he found making meaningful connections with other people, very difficult.
To him, social interactions feel like he's playing a part at a theater.

He realises simple things that used to give him joy, no longer do that. And even when he does things he likes, he tends to feel shame afterwards.

He constantly tries to connect to other people and when he - kind of accidentally - makes a connection to a plumber, by asking him about his life and seeming genuinely interested, he begins to have positive feelings about human connection.

He constantly tries to reach out to his sister and his mother, but as he is new to this whole thing, these intentions are met with "It's okay, you don't have to pretend like you care".

He keeps on insisting and his attempts finally have a positive outcome, as his nephew grows to view him as a father figure and his mother opens up to him about having cancer.

Nick along with his sister, accompany their mother throughout her journey as a cancer patient and when she unfortunately dies, he is more devastated at what parts of her he is never going to discover, now that he has finally stopped seeing human interaction as a performance, but his mother isn't with him.

This is a lovely graphic novel about a detached man in his 20s, mental health, human relationships and family.

I loved the dialogue and the fact that this whole subject is treated with respect. I also loved the art style, both the black and white and the coloured illustrations. This one also features great representation of being a single mother (both Nick's mom and sister are single mothers) and an interracial relationship, since Nick dates a black woman, Wren, a very smart and quirky character.

The only downside to this, were the blank pages throughout the story. At the beginning, I thought it was an artistic choice, but near the end, I could tell that there was something wrong with the e-book itself. Other than that, this was a positive reading experience.

I received a free e-book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A young man tries to fight his social insecurities and focuses on people's 'in'. His journey of building a conversation and exploring about things is beautifully sketched in this graphic novel.

I could feel his insecurities. Trying to start a 'meaningful' conversation with a neighbor, trying to speak up in a group meeting— these are some very instinctive behavior for some people. But for a few people, these are the hardest things. 'In' shows the dilemmas inside one's head.

There are special things in this book. People who are not much socially expressive tend to imagine a lot in their heads. Like that, the book contains some pages with graphical illustrations without words that express what goes inside one's head. And these particular illustrations are colored with deep hues. So, the colors play in reader's mind and brings up a particular impression.

One thing about the illustration that irritated me— the eyes of the characters were sketched with big-round-serious-scary tone  at many circumstances. Which was to emphasize on the situations but I was uncomfortable looking at those eyes. Also, since the sketches were light, sometimes it was hard to track the outlines.

At few places, I demanded a bit more details of "how it happened" too....

In overall, it was a good read. It took no time to finish the book! The plot had variations and surprises and kept me inside the book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for sending me this unique ARC! I enjoyed it.

A poignant graphic novel about breaking out of self-absorption to make meaningful connections with other people

I think I experienced a bit of synesthesia while reading In by Will McPhail.

The book is largely done in sketch-like black and white, the characters little more than outlines on a white background, except for moments when Nick, the main character, experiences real human connection. As soon as he makes that connection, the pages burst into fully painted, dynamic scenes, and I oftentimes felt like I could hear the sounds of crashing waves or the swell of some imaginary film score in my head. It made the whole thing quite extraordinary.

Nick is an illustrator, disaffected and disconnected from everyone in his life. He goes to a bar and performs sadness just to see what it might feel like. While he is there, he meets a woman and goes home with her, but feels nothing. Nick can’t seem to stop holding everyone he knows at arm’s length, not even his mother.

And then, one day, he decides that he needs to say something that matters instead of having another meaningless conversation. He takes a small step, and says something real to a plumber who comes to fix his toilet. In a moment, everything changes, and a whole vista of emotion and experience opens up in his mind. It’s like Dorothy stepping into Oz or a movie changing aspect ratios to widescreen. It’s thrilling and invigorating and over too soon.

Nick spends the rest of the book chasing that feeling, trying to open up and let the world in, sometimes with mixed results. When Nick starts uncovering this hidden well of feeling around him, not everything that comes inside is good or happy. The moments of color are an effective emotional gut-punch as the story continues down more fraught pathways.

One of my favorite parts of the book is a weird little story Nick tells about a slide at his favorite water park where he sees something unexplained and possibly supernatural. It gives the story just the right amount of spooky unreality, a touch of deathly sunlit horror.

I loved this book and would recommend it highly.

This was such a unique and touching story. While it felt like the story didn’t really begin until about halfway through the book, once it started to pick up I was really loving it. The art was gorgeous and uniquely done, especially when it came to the colorful interludes. I love the exploration of grief within this book and I wish there had been more of it. A sweet story overall!

I really, really loved this. The book was laugh-out-loud funny, which turned out to be a brilliant disguise so its making me cry would be a real sneak attack. The art, with its combo of beautiful backgrounds and hilarious backgrounds, realism and ridiculous bubble eyes, fit perfectly.