Seek You is a non-fictional graphic novel, part memoir, part scientific explanation on the topic of loneliness. The book is subdivided into sections such as Listen, Watch, Click and Touch and delves into the socialization we all have regarding the topic of loneliness. Everything is fair game, from radio to neuroscience to sitcoms to animal experimentation to mass shootings to laugh tracks. While I found the transitional pages between each section to be a bit unnecessarily long in the e-ARC version, I appreciated that the artwork having a great variety in layout and perspective.

This text is timely considering the discussions regarding mental health, but the text correctly shows that isolation and loneliness required discussion pre-pandemic too. I would recommend sections of this text for high school aged-audiences and up, and in placements ranging from libraries to reading lists for psychology and general science courses.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday for this ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

This book give such an in depth explanation of loneliness and looking for connection. Very fitting considering the time we live in. I feel like this will be the right book people need or readers will feel it's too much too soon while we're living in a pandemic.

Although Radtke started working on this graphic novel in 2016, the 2020 pandemic-imposed loneliness by way of quarantine isolation would make you think that it was written apropos of this event. Although not the case, it comes across as prescient that in 2021 we might want to explore more about this near-taboo subject.
Radtke weaves in her own instances of loneliness with eclectic historical events, scientific studies, and pop culture to flesh out the reality of the human condition: that we are all susceptible to loneliness and the destruction it brings with it. Radtke also presents the myriad of ways in which human ingenuity has used to cope with loneliness - chat rooms, social media, hotlines for the elderly, professional cuddlers, therapeutic animatronics for nursing home seniors; to name a few. The illustrations are simple line drawings with a limited color palette, but are nonetheless beautifully used along with the sparse text, together constructing a harmonious and evocative narrative.
Despite its inherently sad subject matter, and Radtke does not sugarcoat it, Seek You manages to assuage the reader in the simplest way: we are not alone in loneliness.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

This book is absolutely fascinating. It looks at loneliness, not just from an emotional perspective, but through a scientific and cultural perspective as well. The concepts and history coerced were extremely eye opening. The art was very subdued but it works fantastically with the subject covered.

The combination of the illustrations and stories was wonderful. The subtleness and normalcy of stories drew me in. I would definitely recommend this to people for a read!

This was a thought-provoking and inspiring read. It provides a powerful commentary about life, relationships, isolation and so much more. Parts of it seemed like unnecessary tangents (eg gun control, wHich I support but which seemed out of place here ). On the whole it’s is a provocative and well-done piece.

I am fond of graphic novels that are, at least at first glance, a compilation of studies rather than a cohesive story per se. Let me explain myself: when I started reading Seek You, by Kristen Radke, I was looking for a mature and deeply worked point of view regarding loneliness, separate and independent segments that did not need a continued reading. What I found was that and so much more.
Separated indeed in very distinctive segments (Touch, Listen, Watch…), the author shares some deeply personal stories but also a lot of academic information and details, and she manages to do so in a way that feels organic in a more or less harmonious way throughout the book. There are segments that feel more ‘artificial’ than others do, but all of them give the reader the opportunity of learning a lot about the topic discussed, and never feels heavy.
There is this amazing moment where all you read are small descriptions of what loneliness feels like for different people. It feels like a window to the most vulnerable moments of their life, and even if they are completely different, you as the reader understand that, if it hurts, it hurts. There is no need for a more complex explanation; something that I feel is a triumph.
I think I will be recommending this book a lot.