I received an eARC copy in exchange for an honest review from Diamond Book Distributors and Mad Cave Studios via NetGalley.

Firstly, what many readers might find confusing is the title. I sincerely hope I was not the only one confused by it. There were no dry feet mentioned in this short but sweet (and beautifully illustrated) graphic novel, FYI.

So, what does dry foot mean? I found these two explanations to be useful:

"U.S. immigration policy played a major role in the Cuban exodus and the rise of the chugs. In 1994, after then-President Fidel Castro announced it was no longer a crime for Cubans to flee their country, the number of annual Coast Guard interceptions at sea jumped from a few thousand to more than 37,000. In response to the rafter crisis, the U.S. government revised the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, creating a new policy that became known as "wet-foot, dryfoot." The program more or less granted Cubans who made it to shore the legal right to stay."


Dry´foot

n. 1. The scent of the game, as far as it can be traced.


Secondly, I wish that the story was more developed; it was way too short for my liking and understanding of the plot. Had it been longer, it would have had more space and time to develop the story and form the characters, ending gracefully.

The graphic novel represents the Hispanic culture of 1980s Miami, giving us the bilingual vibe, the fast-paced action of four teenagers trying to escape the city of violence, crime, and drugs. The short description I read gave me a great vibe; it was a fire burning between pages. The only reason I found it fell short was the length of it; shame it was rushed.

The length of this graphic novel, thus rushed and undeveloped story/characters are the only reason I gave it three stars. But I would like to share a few words of praise to the illustrators, Orlando Caicedo and Warnia Sahadewa - I loved every single detail in the novel. The powerful Mariana with her bat, the swollen Angel's face; your attention to detail came through.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc.

3 stars.

I would be interested in continuing with this story and I hope that they put out more issues. This definitely could've been longer with the character development and the plot more flushed out. Other than the language and violence the plot struck me as very middle grade.

This graphic novel is about four teens in Miami living in the 1980s are sick of living under a violent gangster. Fabian lives with his drug addicted mom and dealing with poverty. Mari lives with her grandmother who wants the best for her. She loves to play baseball but in 80's there weren't many opportunities for girls. They want to escape from his cage and lead a proper life. So they decide to rob the gang who is a drug dealer and move to Hollywood to start new lives. But their plan doesn't work and everything goes wrong.
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Ahhhh....It was so little! It's only 98 pages long, I wish the writer could give some more time on this, because I couldn't connect myself with the story. Story was pretty predictable. Ending felt a bit rushed, there might be a sequel. But overall it was a fun read. And the illustrations were beautiful! I loved that 80's vibe, retro-neon, gave me Vice City vibe!
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The book comes out this year, on the 9th of March. I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

'Dry Foot' is a graphic novel set in Miami revolving around four teenagers.I got into the book having high expectations but it failed to live upto it. The book lacks nuance and the story isn't fleshed out. There might be a sequel to it considering the note on which the book ended. Having said that the illustrations were beautiful, no doubt. Overall 'Dry Foot' is a graphic novel with mediocre storyline but enticing illustrations.

<i>I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

This novel desperately needs <b>more</b>. It it way too short on its own to do itself or anyone any favors.

Four kids growing up in gang-ruled Miami attempt to steal money from the drug-dealing cartel to start new lives. The heist does not go as planned.

I liked the first two parts of this novel because they established characters and gave a very succinct background to the story. That was well done; I was interested in the main characters and curious to know more. There was conflict and drama. Good.

Unfortunately, the actual heist is laughably handled, both by the characters and the author. The plot twist is an old one and one you can see coming from a mile away. It just highlighted how incredibly <i>stupid</i> these characters, one in particular, are. The wrap up makes little sense except as a band-aid over a large wound and by the end I was soured on the story.

It's a shame because if this were a series and given time to be more clever in the heist, then this could have been a really quality book.

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review*

This was a solid and wonderfully illustrated comic. The storyline and premise wasn't ground-breaking, but it did very well considering the short amount of pages it was limited to.

I loved how unique all four main characters were and the glimpse we got into their different family situations. I wish there could've been some more exploration, but like I said, there was a limited amount of pages available and the storyline worked well to even have any exploration at all.

The bilingual aspect of this comic was extremely refreshing. One thing I would probably say could've been improved would be to have English translations for the quite a few Spanish-only sentences. It hindered me from fully enjoying the comic because I couldn't understand what some people were saying. Sure, I could've whipped out google translate, but I shouldn't have to look stuff up in order to appreciate and enjoy a comic.

I think the ending was a little too happily ever after despite the one tragic thing that occurred. It was both closed enough that I wasn't left wondering what happened to characters and also open enough that there's potential for a sequel. Which I would happily welcome and could work so well.

note : this is an ownvoices graphic novel for cuban-american rep.

rep :
💫cuban-american characters

•••

D R Y F O O T

okay, so before we begin with the review, i just wanted to say that i was absolutely confused about what the title was referring to. i thought it was an obscure metaphor of some kind. but obviously, i got curious so i did a lil google search and found this on wikipedia :

"The wet feet, dry feet policy or wet foot, dry foot policy was the name given to a former interpretation of the 1995 revision of the application of the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 that essentially says that anyone who emigrated from Cuba and entered the United States would be allowed to pursue residency a year later. Prior to 1995, the U.S. government allowed all Cubans who reached U.S. territorial waters to remain in the U.S. After talks with the Cuban government, the Bill Clinton administration came to an agreement with Cuba that it would stop admitting people intercepted in U.S. waters. For two decades thereafter, any Cuban caught on the waters between the two nations (with "wet feet") would summarily be returned to Cuba or sent to a third country, while one who made it to shore ("dry feet") got a chance to remain in the United States, and later would qualify for expedited "legal permanent resident" status in accordance with the 1966 Act and eventually U.S. citizenship. On January 12, 2017, Barack Obama announced the immediate end of the policy."

anyway, with that out of the way, i think this graphic novel should have been longer if it wanted to make any real impact. the characters had real potential and could have been more sympathized with if only the book was longer. also, i did not feel like the heist angle of this story was realistic. and i don't mean it in the 'that's so daring, how will they ever do it ?' way but in the 'nah, that just isn't possible' way. [an example : after mari escaped, wouldn't diego's father have tracked mari's abuela down and held her hostage ? he would've certainly known his own son's friends, right ? and by extension considering that he's a gangster he would have to know the whole neighbourhood quite well too. so how was it that she was still safe ? of course, i am glad that she's alive but i'm talking about the unrealistic element here. (hide spoiler)]

it was also fast-paced, which under normal circumstances i would have loved, if only it had not been at the cost of the length of the book. i did love the art, though. it suited the action aspect of the story quite well. i was also afraid that this book would go down the romance territory but luckily it did not, which is for the best, considering that romance in a book of this sort would have been redundant.

would recommend if you're looking for a fast-paced, action-packed, ownvoices graphic novel featuring four cuban-american teenagers on a dangerous heist.

// 3.5 stars

The premise of this novel sounded exciting, but it personally didn’t quite live up to the Oceans-movie-heist level of story tellingI thought it might. The characters seem very intriguing and would’ve loved to learn more about them. The fast pace matches the action and intensity of the novel, but it was very short and quick for everything that happened.

A graphic novel full of facile silliness, when it wants to be gritty, this covers four teens in Miami who think by doing a job on the Mister Big gangster they can escape a life of gangsterdom and turn their destinies on their heads. Unless the creators were trying to make a virtue of this being one of the least believable books of the year, they failed badly in this. One and a half stars.

Dry Foot was an enjoyable fast-read! Full of action, realistic characters, and amazing artwork. The story itself is also good with a few twists - some unexpected and some predictable. The language is realistic but for a more mature audience (I also enjoyed the bilingual element). This graphic novel could have been longer, as the ending felt a bit rushed, but overall it was a fun read. Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC.

Too much cursing and fighting for my liking. I’m not going to give it a bad rating because it wasn’t for me. I liked the art and the story line was okay.

A quick graphic novel with plots twists! One thing I hoped for is that the ending could’ve been a bigger cliffhanger, but that’s just personal preference. Also, the graphics were amazing!! I give this a 3!!

The art is great, but I do have to say it’s a bit predictable and very fast pace. I wish the author was able to prolong what the kids are doing in the story in two book comic so there could be more development.

Four teens living in the 1980s are tired of living under the local gang's foot. They decide to rob the gang and move to Hollywood with their loot, but things go wrong. One betrays the others, one ends up dead, and one is keeping and important secret.

I had so much fun reading this the art was beautiful and the characters were so lovable also action packed this book had everything🌟