The Lonely Receiver is full of beautiful art work but unfortunately the story falls flat. I found the story to be confusing and not easy to follow. The art work helped with some fo the confusion but it just had a hard time keeping my interest. I think there's a really powerful metaphor in this story somewhere but its not quite easy to find.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Now a days I am searching the Read Now section more than requesting, so when I saw this cover I was instantly intrigued. Now I don’t read reviews often for books, but this one I did just because it felt right. It didn’t take me very long to understand why people didn’t really care for this book. I also agree that this doesn’t belong in the YA section, it would have been better in New Adult just because of some of the graphics.

The concept of the book was good and the artwork is really what sold it, but the writing just didn’t do it justice. Also there was just so much pink and white that my eyes started to hurt at some moments.

I gave it two stars for the beginning, but the ending I don’t even know how to describe it.

this is a graphic novel set in a (near?) future where artificial intelligence is able to create the perfect partner for you, with which to have otherwordly sex, thanks to body modifications and an organic phonelike device. catrin is bonded with rhion, her AI until they're not; and it sends her on a long spiral to rock bottom.


still unsure about how i feel about this. although the art style is gorgeous, i thought the narrative was lacking. I was expecting to be horrified by this but i was just perplexed. the sci fi elements are interesting but underdeveloped as is the central relationship.

it could've worked as a character study if we were given any insight into who this character is. i am very pro unlikeable/unreliable main character, but besides her neediness, possessiveness and lack of direction, we learn very little about catrin. she just felt like a conduit for the writer to explore ideas about technology, relationships, and codependence within them, with a side dish of porn/sex addiction? idk it felt like it lacked a cohesive, human anchor, but maybe that was the point.

i think what contributed to it was the fact that a lot of the text felt stream of consciousness and there wasn't much in the way of worldbuilding. there was a lot of gratuitous nudity and disturbing visuals but i don't really hold it against the authors, however this book was miscategorized as YA which is something that should be fixed.

to come back to the illustrations, i really liked the character design choices and the overall colour palette, even if at times i felt overwhelmed with visual information, i think this is the downsides of reading a graphic novel on a screen.


it wasn't for me, but i would recommend it for people who liked the movies "her" and "ex machina", although it is not as tight on plot and suspense but more on the side of emotionally troubling. i would love to read a story set in that universe that dives more into the world building, maybe even the divide between people who have embraced this technology and those who reject it.

I received an eARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Not exactly my thing but it's definitely someone's! I absolutely loved the art style & the overarching message of the story as a whole. I guess I was just expecting more horror? Like I said - not for me but there are so many people who love this kind of psychological tech future horror who I'm sure would love this.

This was weird and creepy (which is a good thing), and the art was gorgeous and different. I have to admit that I had no idea what was going on most of the time. I don't necessarily think you're supposed to understand everything, but personally it got a little too abstract and deep for me.

read the first issue and i don't think this is the title for me. the artwork is great but the story seems very disjointed and also very ....melodramatic i guess? granted you can probably hang a lot of that on me being aroace and thus not really invested in such over the top relationship drama, but the premise sounded very unique so i did want to at least give it a try. from what little i read i would say you'd probably like it if you're a fan of stuff like black mirror because the scifi aspects seem very reminiscent of that to me, but i just don't want to muddle through the rest of it since i'm not feeling it.

Lesbian goes crazy, turns into a stalker, and don't forget to sprinkle in some sci fi. This was a mess and it lost me in the final issue. I liked the artwork.

A clever way of using sci-fi to discuss an important topic, albeit in a rather graphic way that may not be palatable for everyone. Reminded me of Ex Machina, but without that film's restraint. Not sure if it worked for me, but it is certainly unique.

Let's start with the things I loved: the color palette and the art style were stunning! I'm not going to lie, I was confuse more times that I'd like to admit. So for me it was a bit hard to connect with the storyline and I might have to read it again to grasp some things I'm sure didn't catch along the way.
Overall, the way it portrayed how toxic a relationship can become through a sci-fi/horror narrative is what caught my attention throughout my reading even when I had no clue what was going on.
So if you're a fan of those genres I'm sure you're going to enjoy this!

Book Review for LONELY RECEIVER
Full review for this title will be posted at: @cattleboobooks on Instagram!

This has beautiful and vibrant color schemes and illustrations. However, because of that, the texts are very hard to read and understand. It also made me feel like I am in a fever dream, and I weirdly liked it. The dialogue also sounds very unrealistic and too formal to me. Overall, the aesthetic is great, but I think it took too much of everything that almost nothing left out for the story and the dialogue.

How do I even start? I have no idea what to expect from this book when I started it, but the story itself ends up feeling rather anticlimactic. I love the vibrant colours, the art is beautiful. But the story is confusing and at most parts, I couldn't care less what was going on.

I like the fact that this story shares about a toxic relationship though; Catrin was obsessed with her AI partner, Rhion, and the relationship disconnected when Catrin found that Rhion was also in love with other people and not just her. Because of her obsession, she even considered another woman to be Rhion and tried to control her, which ended rather brutally.

I'm not sure what happened by the end, I really couldn't get the flow (and the amount or orgies are just too much for me) but I feel like she finally found the person that she truly loves and loves herself back is simply, herself.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.
WTF THE ACTUAL FUCK did I just read. A story about break-up, about AI, and a woman gone totally mad because her lover (AI) has disappeared. She goes fully bonkers, sees things in her room that aren't there, stalks a woman who looks like her ex, there is blood and gore, and so much weirdness that I just was contemplating over and over again to just stop reading. It was just too much for me and I frankly didn't give a drop of care about any of the characters, they were all just too horrible.
Eventually we go into the realm of blood and orgies... Yes, really.
But hey, the art wasn't the worst? That one I actually liked. But the rest. Nope.
Also, WTF is this doing in the Teen/YA section at NG? This is SO not Teen/YA. Not just because of the story which is so messed up (gauging of eyes, ripping people open, and many many more things), but also because there are graphic sex scenes, including BDSM, orgies, whips, and more.

Perhaps in another time (no global pandemic stress on top of everything else) I would have enjoyed this. The art was eye-catching, and I enjoyed the colors. The art extras in the back were also enjoyable to thumb through. However, the writing was a bit dense, and the lettering was not my favorite (but this ties into how much text had to be fit onto each page). Some of the typeface choices detracted a bit from the tone of the plot (typefaces were too recognizable and took me out of the reading experience a bit). The initial storyline drew me in but wasn't able to hold my attention because of the density.

The first half of the book we're introduced to our main character, a young woman called Catrin, who is alive in the future. This means she has a Cronenbergian pod-thing (with what looks like pubic hair growing out of it), that's a new kind of operating system, which allows the user to create the perfect mate in A.I. form, and it also allows access to a virtual realm called The Garden, in which one can partake in endless cyberboinking.

So Catrin creates Rhion, her perfect A.I. and there was much rejoicing. Lots of blinking, lots of neediness from Catrin, and then Rhion decides she wants to be elsewhere and leaves Catrin. Apparently an A.I. leaving is very rare, but it can happen.

Catrin doesn't cope very well, so now the story turns into one about obsession, and to see a person lose their mind. Problem is, at this point it's kind of crucial that the reader sort of likes and identifies with the main character, and feels sorry for her. And I found I didn't like her at all - worse, I didn't care about her at all.

Which is when the second half of the book kicks in. This reads like attending a poetry workshop, and everyone reads out loud the work they've written that week, one or two pages, and there's this one guy who dumps thirty pages of typed poetry on the table, and he's going to read ALL of it.

It's all devastatingly heartfelt, and painfully earnest, and it just sort of bounces off your head, because there is no connection, there doesn't seem to be any direction, there is no way in. It doesn't help that the process of Catrin going off the deep end feels unconvincing, it seems hurried and clichéd.

The book feels like a house with locked doors, and closed windows, curtains drawn. I can see some light behind the curtains, there's some movement, someone's put on a Joy Division record, but I can't find a way in.

This fell so short. The art was beautiful, it was what sold me along with the premise. The color palette was so cool and fit the sci-fi atmosphere perfectly. but the rest was just not it. I felt so removed from the story. Will probably forget about this in like 2 days.

Also why is this under Teens and YA on NetGalley? This is clearly adult. There's nudity and multiple explicit sex scenes.

I’m going with 2 1/2 stars rounded down. The art was stunning, but the storyline was confusing. Actually, I feel like this could be a grand metaphor for life and technology and whatnot, but I just can’t fully see it.

Anyway, it started off totally promising and I was really into it, but then things started to derail and get a bit weird... or a lot weird... By the end I was rereading pages because I kept thinking I must have missed something, but, like I said, the art is great throughout, I just couldn’t hang onto the story itself.

I may or may not try to read the next volume. And I also can’t recommend this one. I’m sure there will be lots of people who will be totally into this,... just not me...

Thanks to NetGalley and Aftershock Comics for giving me the opportunity to read this for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Will be posted on my blog and Amazon shortly.

I want to start by saying I found this in the YA/Teen section and the concept immediately had me requesting, because this sounds so cool, BUT this is not a teen book. The protagonist is 38 and this is a explicit graphic, graphic novel with the main protagonist spending a majority of her time nude, and if it was just that it be fine but there is ALOT of graphic sex scene and this is not for teens! IMO

Lonely Receiver is a graphic novel telling the raw story of being broken up with and the realities we face while we grieve through the idea of a highly technological world where you can have an AI company that is designed with you perfectly in mind, to be loyal and to love you forever no matter what. But then she leaves you after becoming more self aware. The beautiful images and colors help tell this heart break that so many of us go through, trying to get that person back, using our phone and technology to “stalk”, reach out to, find them even if they don’t want to be found. The use of the phone in this story, as a literal piece of you the person and the AI love that has gotten away was both difficult to follow and understand but also powerful as a parallel to the world we are in told and our cultures reliance and dependence on our phones.
The message was powerful and is a must read I can’t wait for the next installments and really wonder how this story will continue after that crazy ending!!

Thank you to @netgalley and @diamondbookdist for providing an EArc for my honest review.

This was such a fun ride!

This is totally a break/up horror novel that is so, SO weird. It felt like Riverdale meets Black Mirror.

If you like stories that make you scream WHAT IS HAPPENING?! Pick this up!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I didn't like this at all. I couldn't get into it. It's put under Teens and YA on Netgalley, it does not belong there. This is very much an adult comic. It has multiple scenes with nudity in it as well as explicit sex. I won't be recommending this in the future.