A fantastic summer read that I think readers of all ages would thoroughly enjoy. I highly recommend this book, especially if you want something to keep you full wondering what will happen next. Great book overall

One line tells the story of 18 different people across generations. I do feel that some characters could have been more developed and I was eager to know more about their stories. The art is deceptively simple, but so much of the story is told through the illustrations, the expressions and the small details. Overall, I'd say it's worth checking out if you enjoy graphic novels with strong symbolism and philosophical elements.
Overall Rating:★★★½

One line tells the story of 18 different people across generations. As other reviewers have stated, the format takes some getting used to, that's why I highly suggest getting a physical copy. The stories are beautiful, showing humanity as it is, happy, sad, angry, greedy, ambitious and hopeful. Definitely one of my favorite comics!
Thank you NetGalley and Oni Press for this ARC.

The format of this took me ages to get used to and I even toyed with the idea of reading each lifeline separately but once I got used to it,this became very enjoyable. It is a fairly unique format and at points I felt real sadness at the sudden ends to specific people's lines.Pretty much like real life. Sometimes the set is a bit weak but overall this was pretty good.

As One Soul followed eighteen people from birth until death, showcasing their common joys and pains as well as their unique experiences, One Line follows eighteen families through four centuries, showing how traditions, ethics, and prejudices are handed down from generation to generation. Some families will interact, some will join together, some will remain alone. Some will persist, and some will die out.


Very unique and full of roller coaster happened in this book. I enjoy it just fine and what a nice artwork!
Thanks a lot Netgalley and publisher for the ARC!

This graphic novel feels like poetry but as it follows so many families it was hard for me to understand or get attached to any of the characters. The concept was unique but the execution was poor and felt overwhelming to read

This is a unique graphic novel that follows eighteen family lines over four generations using two-page spreads of nine panels each. It's a little confusing at first, especially if you, like me, haven't read Fawkes' previous book "One Soul," which is formatted in the same way and follows eighteen people's lives from birth to death. In each spread, each family line gets one square that shows their progress through their lives, sometimes intertwining with other families' lives. We see scenes of good fortune and bad, births and deaths, love and hate, all told eloquently in spare black and white with minimal text. When a family line ends, that panel is left black for the remaining pages, until we come to the end.
I enjoyed this graphic novel quite a bit, though I can tell it won't be everyone's jam. It helps to read through a second time after finishing, I found I noticed more the second time through. The art is deceptively simple, but so much of the story is told through the illustrations, through the expressions, the small details, the action. This is a good read for when you want something meditative.

#OneLine #NetGalley

This is the first Ray Fawkes book I read so I didn't know what to expect. It really exceeded my expectations and was incredible and fascinating. It contains 18 stories and each spread has 18 panels that show one story at a time. Fawkes did a really good job covering a diverse range of characters and emotions. It was so heartbreaking to see some families die out and some families continue on despite their hardship. All the words flowed from panel to panel even though the stories where disjointed. I'm really impressed with this work and I'll read his other works soon!

Gigantic thanks to Oni Press and Netgalley for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I will start with this disclaimer; this is not a graphic novel that you can rush through but must be processed and read slowly. This graphic novel follows 18 (yes, 18) families as their stories are told throughout four generations. The author uses mostly pictures to describe what is happening and it takes careful concentration from the reader to not get lost. If you want a quick easy read, I would navigate to a different story. However, as a writer, I applaud the author for what they did with this story. This was a huge undertaking, and I am sure writing it took a ton of research, hours, tears, sweat and caffeine to execute this story. I would never take on this big of a project in one go, but this author not only wrote a story, but then illustrated it as well. Wow. This story was heartbreaking, eye opening and brought a new perspective for what is happening in our world across generations.

Overall, as a reader, I gave this story 3 stars because of how difficult it was to navigate and read. As a writer and artist, I gave this story 4.5 out 5 stars. Both these ratings round out to 4.8 stars. Well done, Ray, well done.

Thank you NetGalley and Oni Press for this ARC.

This was my first Ray Fawkes novel and I was very curious to see what he could do. The graphic side of this novel is quite good and a nice to look at and go through.

It feels a lot like poetry in the beginning and the interconnectivity of the stories is a intriguing and a bit hard to follow though you can easily see that exactly that interconnectivity talks more about as humans and our big story on Earth.

All in all is a good book but not exactly my cup of tea when it comes to graphic novels and graphic stories.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for providing an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the opinions expressed in this review are my own.
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The concept of multiple stories following different families and then intertwining over time was intriguing. This book pulled off many aspects of this concept really well but at times fell short.

I was a little confused at the beginning and feel that the set up could have been executed better, but I soon grew comfortable with the style and story.

I do feel that some characters could have been more developed and I was eager to know more of their stories but unfortunately they were sort of glossed over.

Overall, this was a new experience for me and I'm looking forward to seeing more of Fawkes' works!

Rating: 3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐

I liked several aspects of this book. I liked the story lines, the characters, and the ingenuity and novelty of the book. The only thing I didn't like is the inappropriate panels.
It was a little challenging to read. I should have read it with the pages side by side. That might have made it easier. I recommend doing that if you decide to 'pick up' the digital version.
The book is set across a few centuries back, moving forward. I didn't like the historical aspect of the book. I liked the contemporary ending best.

I found it quite confusing to begin with but once time continues to pass you start to distinguish each character. It reminded me a lot of a video game! Really really enjoyed it. Perhaps I'd appreciate that at the beginning there was more of an explanation of setting (time and place) to make it more clear, but really enjoyable read.

at times beautiful and poetic, at others unclear and complex.

"Here we begin, in the city of Vienna, home to misfortune and lament"
- to lament("sudern") is definitely our favourite pastime.

I had never read another book by Ray Fawkes but was intrigued by the idea of multiple family stories told in such a unique way. However when I first started to read it I didn't quite know the set up and didn't pay enough attention to discern every family. I was able to remember a couple of specific story lines and was delighted when they started intertwining. It was a really clever way that he showed the end of some family lines. With some of the story lines I really wish there was a way to know what history he was telling as I wanted to research more. Overall a fascinating read, told in a new and interesting way, just a little hard to pick up on.

An intriguing concept--following many stories in parallel to experience their commonalities. The artwork is approachably cartoony which i liked at first, but over time the simplicity lost some appeal as the stories began to blur. Appreciated the advance look but this wasn't for me.

One Line will inspire you to live life more. Tracing the lines of a few families until they ultimately end is an emotional journey. This comic or graphic narrative is extremely poetic, and can be hard to follow at times, but the result is always the same. We are born. Bad things happen. Love happens in the midst of evil. We die. The cycle repeats. Some of us are just more fortunate in the circumstances of the life we were born into. Fawkes has reminded me that human connection will usually prevail.

Thank you Oni Press and NetGalley for the advanced reader's copy!

The drawings are striking, and the words almost poetic. But it also feels chaotic and underdeveloped. I found myself having to flip back and forth between pages to reestablish the individual stories. This unique structure is better suited as a physical book and loses part of its charm in an e-format.

unfortunately this did not work for me. too many moving parts, not enough focus. and the characters did not seem to be visually different enough from one another.

**Disclaimer: I received a free early access copy of One Line by Ray Fawkes in exchange for an honest review through NetGalley.  Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this opportunity.

One Line by Ray Fawkes is a graphic novel that follows 18 families through to the end of their line.  It is set to be published on July 20th, 2021.  I rated it 3 stars on Goodreads.


Here's the summary from Goodreads:

From Eisner Award nominee, Ray Fawkes, comes ONE LINE, the third book in the ambitious, intricately constructed One Soul series.
As One Soul followed eighteen people from birth until death, showcasing their common joys and pains as well as their unique experiences, One Line follows eighteen families through four centuries, showing how traditions, ethics, and prejudices are handed down from generation to generation. Some families will interact, some will join together, some will remain alone. Some will persist, and some will die out.

The summary is what drew me into this story, and I found myself really intrigued.  I wanted to know how a graphic novel would be able to tell that many stories in such a condensed format.  It's sometimes tricky to tell even one story, so 18 seemed like an impressive amount.

I will say that I was impressed with the story and the way it was told.  I really liked the art and how there were just a few words included on each page.  I also really liked the way that there were parallels in some of the stories and how lines repeated between stories and how sometimes they were changed slightly by the story's context but overall went together.

However, I will admit that I found it confusing.  Initially it was hard to tell which story was which and it something that would probably improve upon several re-reads.  It was hard to keep track between generations as well, which just added to my confusion.

Overall, I'd definitely say it's worth checking out, but I just didn't love it as much as I wanted to.