I have really liked the description and the promises of this book, I like to read a lot of horror, but this was really chaotic, I dont even know what have I read. The graphics was cool, it fit the story, but the story and the characters were really off for me. Maybe I was not in the right mood.

lonely receiver is a strange horror-scifi graphic novel. i snagged it because i like the strange, because i love gay stuff, and because i'm a sucker for breakup stories.

at first i wondered if it was going to be a sapphic knockoff of the film HER. being abandoned by AI which was meant to be your perfect other, but which has complex robot needs that are beyond human comprehension? hmm.

this book is comprised of five volumes, and i enjoyed the first few. it explores the agony of losing someone who feels like a part of yourself. and for our protagonist, catrin, that's literally the case. years worth of her diaries, photos, and memories are stored inside her AI ex. intense, right? as catrin sinks into a post-breakup depression, the reader is introduced to the semi-dystopian reaches of technology in her world.

all this is interesting enough, but things go off the rails in the last two volumes. there's uncertainty as to whether the loss of catrin's relationship is "driving her mad," or whether her mental health is spiraling because of how she's been biologically altered to accommodate technology. the ending feels like a metaphor for finally finding oneself again after a breakup; particularly after reaching new heights of self-destructive behavior.

these are interesting and relatable themes, and i wish i could have enjoyed seeing them explored here. but i had a hard time engaging with the story emotionally. a story about heartbreak is supposed to feel heartbreaking, whereas this just doesn't go anywhere, and feels unnecessarily convoluted.

something that really bothers me is that there are pages and pages of odd, graphically-illustrated sex orgies that take place in the liminal dreamspace of catrin's altered mind. why the hyperfixation on sex? why do we see pages and pages and pages of catrin's naked body? this made me uncomfortable, especially considering that this is a sapphic story written by a man.

jen hickman's art beautifully done, and the color palette is vibrant. author zac thompson's earnest introduction indicates that he put a lot of heart into this story, and i'm sure some people will enjoy it. but for me, it pushed too far into the realm of weird, bewildering, and icky.

Thank you to NetGalley and AfterShock Comics for providing me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I liked the art style of this graphic novel most of all. Much of the content is relatable to anyone who has had or is struggling with a relationship that is toxic in many ways. While I could relate to many of the experiences in the story, I wasn't particularly pulled into the world that was created as I am not a fan of body horror or gore. I was hoping for there to be more of a horror aspect, but it was merely a footnote in the overall story. Also, it is categorized as YA, but I would put this more into an adult category. Its content can overlap between YA and adult, but some of the subject matter is more mature.

like many people already pointed out this is definitely not YA idk if its just at netgalley or the book is really being marketed like this

i really like the premise but the story felt really rushed and/or confusing most of the time so it was hard to connect to the story.
but it was creepy (in a good way) and the art and coloring is gorgeous

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.

I'm very much torn on this. It's not YA, so thanks for that, NetGalley. It's a strange graphic novel (comic book?) in the sense that it attempts to be erotic but mostly is repulsive because of the base main character and her... weird and vaguely abusive relationship to her A.I. While the ending sort of redeems that, it takes most of the book to get to a point where I could figure out if I even liked it or not and if there were any redeeming features. The introduction made matters only worse, as much as the author probably thought it helped; if you deal with grief and loss and heartbreak like this... that's not very healthy.

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 cover of this book just drew me in so much, I felt compelled to read it. Sadly, I didn't like it very much. I think this has to do more with personal taste than it does the art style and plot. I thought the art was gorgeous and the colors vibrant, yet very reflective of the plot. This was definitely an adult book, as most of the book is focused on sex. But overall, to me, the book was just confusing. I couldn't keep straight the characters, whether Rhion or Catrin was the main character and if I hadn't read the author's note in the beginning I would've been in a deeper, darker hole than I am now. This book was super confusing plot-wise too. I think there were some interesting parts, and I definitely think that the concept was interesting (love in AI) but I think the execution was not there. At some points, I was confused whether Catrin was actually the AI rather than Rhion. After I finished the book, I could tell that this would be a book ranked based on personal preference. I completely don't mind gore, sex, or horror aspects (as I've read plenty of manga with all three), I just didn't think it was effective in this story. In conclusion, this book wasn't my cup of tea.