Elle(s) follows a girl who's mood swings rapidly when she is stressed and with those mood swings come out different facets of her personality shown through her hair colour.

Elle(s) was intriguing if not very clear about what is causing those mood swings, asides from stress. There is a villain hidden in the background of the story who, I don't believe, even Elle can see. This left the reader wanting more and the next in the series by the end to find out more about what is happening to Elle and what is going to come next.

I think this was a beautiful way to represent Dissociative Identity Disorder. The changing hair colours depending on who was in charge made it really easy to follow along with the story. Also the art was absolutely beautiful... the character designs, colours, movement...
The plot was interesting as well. I'm inclined to pick up the next volume when it comes out.
(I read the English version, and I can tell you that if you speak French there are a lot more puns hidden in the text)

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974


An amazing work of art. This work explores the facets of multiple personality disorder. Elle is a teenager trying to fit into her new school. As life happens, different Elle's show up. I did not want this to end. It is a one sitting read. It does not make light of mpd, it provides a glimpse of living life with it. The story also delves into the various personalities. Patiently waiting for the next installment.

I don’t know if this is a favourite but I know I loved. First of all, Aveline Stokart did an amazing job at illustrating this graphic novel. It is so colourful and full of life. Plus, the idea of changing the hair colour of Elle when she changes personality is a great idea and helps with understanding and following the story.
Second, the story and especially the ending is very intriguing. I need answers to all my questions now. I don’t really have any negative points about it. Maybe it was a bit quick but it didn’t feel rushed at the same time. I can’t wait to read the second volume. I hope we go deeper into the subject of mental health and multiple personalities.
I recommend this graphic novel to everyone.
4/5

The art style and colors are so beautiful and I loved how the different Elles have different hair colors and aesthetics to differentiate them from each other. The friendships in this book are also heartwarming, though I wished we got to see them more together. I can't comment on the representation of bipolar disorder and I highly suggest reading own voices review about that. The only thing I didn't like in this is the cliffhanger of an ending, but it sure made me want to look forward to reading the next in the series.

Really not sure how to rate this to be honest. I was really drawn in by the art, the cover, and the premise. I was under the impression this would be a story about a girl with bipolar and dissociative identity disorder, which was exciting since it's rare that you see that representation with any sort of nuance or accuracy. However, it seems like it's going more the scifi route, and frankly I'm not excited about that. It's possible that I'm wrong - the abrupt cliffhanger ending left things mysterious and unclear. We'll see!

Artwork pops off the page in Elle(s). It’s a beautiful invitation to an interesting story and visual world.

This is the type of book where it's easy to overshare. For me the book ended too soon. That plot hanger is going to be on my mind throughout the night. The art style was breathtaking. I loved the character development. My favourite is the clueless one, and trust me; you'll spot her right away. The only thing I think could have been better was the transitions. In the beginning, I was a little bit confused because of those transitions.

This is the probably the first graphic novel I've ever read that has mental health representation and I did enjoy it. Elle has bi-polar or even multiple personalities disorder and it covers how she's been coping with growing up and going to school and making friends. I know its hard enough these days for kids to deal with pressure of doing well in school and be well rounded with sports and getting good grades and Elle also has to deal with mental health. I do look forward to more installment of Elle(s). Artwork is beautiful!

This is a gorgeous graphic novel (and I assume v. 1 in an ongoing series), and I appreciated the friend group development in it as well. I will say that I'm not sure how well the authors are handling the main character's mental illness, as her seeming dissociative identity disorder may have an alternative explanation (there's a bit of a mystery/twist toward the end). That being said, I appreciated the way Elle's friends stood by her and the way the volume certainly didn't stigmatize Elle's potential disorder/illness. It was also great to see the way her improper psych. diagnosis (of adolescent bipolar disorder) was shown to be incorrect--it seems like this is a phenomenon that isn't handled much in YA. All in all, this was a fun volume, but I want to read more to see where the author and artist take the story.

[digital arc provided via netgalley in exchange for an honest review]

rating: 4.5★

i absolutely loved this! i think this may be one of my favorite graphic novels. the illustrations and drawing style was just right up my alley and i loved reading these characters and their silly banter. i did not once feel bored at all and enjoyed every single panel of the story. it was the right amount of funny, entertaining, mysterious and beautiful. the only reason this isn’t a full five-star read is because i wanted more of the backstory and mystery. i get that it’s only the first volume in a series (which is why it’s 4.5) but i still wish we got more of the mystery. however i’m dying to reveal more of elle’s past and present and future and i’ll definitely be looking out for the next volumes to come!

I loved this!!! I can’t wait for more. The art is stunning and the story telling is top notch. It’s a brilliant concept that feels very grounded and a touch surreal.

The artwork is GORGEOUS and the story is compelling. I really appreciated the way that DID is visually depicted. I was very disappointed when I got to the last page because I didn't want the story to be over. I will definitely be getting a hard copy and will continue on with the book. 4.5. out of 5 wine glasses.

I really enjoyed the story of Elle and her going on her journey to find out about the 5 different hers. I loved the characters relationships with each other and how supportive her friends are. I can’t wait to read the next volume.

Elle is the new girl in school. She makes friends with a group and is generally happy, but what no one realizes is that when she becomes stressed she becomes a completely different person. Each personality has a different hair color: pink, yellow(blonde), brown(brunette), green, purple, and blue. Pink is normal, yellow is competitive, brown is reserved, green is quiet, purple is funny, and blue is still trying to break out into reality. Elle and her friends try to discover if she was born this way by going to her mother's gynecologist, but she chickens out at the last minute and doesn't ask him anything. On the way out, she sees a man photographing her that she has seen before. The group manages to catch him and he reveals some shocking, life-changing information to Elle. Will Elle ever be the same, and what will happen when the blue personality emerges?

Firstly, I LOVED the art and colours used in this graphic novel.

Secondly, I loved the friendship that gets build between the characters and how Elle is supported by them. Although I found the 'bipolar topic' a bit unnerving, I found the different 'worlds' really interesting.

Each personality is represented by a different colour in Elle(s)' hair, which helps to understand when she switches personalities and also why she reacts the way she does. As she goes through her daily struggles as a teenager, she experiences a lot of different feelings and reactions to those situations. Meanwhile, other mysteries about Elle(s)' birth are brought up and she'll try to discover more about it with her friends. The book finishes with a great cliffhanger and I am really interested to see how her story continues.

Amazing book! The illustrations are beautiful (I am used to reading manga so having this be in full colour kept astonishing me in the best way possible), and the story is so necessary. I loved that there was a bit of mystery as well as the main theme of her multiple personalities. It totally hooked me and I read it so fast! Plus, the friendships here are so wholesome <3

My only complaint is that some of the vignette transitions felt a bit weird, like how the characters moved even when sometimes the panels didn't change. It only threw me off at the beginning though, so I don't know if it was a case of me getting used to the transition style.

I expected to get a bit more detail about Elle's mental health, but I guess it will be expanded in later books (also, I'm guessing it's a book for teenagers, so I don't know how they wanted to treat the issue).

This graphic novel instantly hooked me with the first page. The art style is really cute and bright. We follow Elle as she starts at a new school and makes friends. But when her school life starts to become stressful, Elle's attitude changes. Active and loud one moment, withdrawn the next, until her friends can't make sense of it anymore.

There is a minor pacing issue since we jump very fast from Elle meeting her new group of friends to her first mood change, but other than that I really enjoyed this and am definitely eager to read more and find out what happens.

2.5 🌟
I had trouble deciding how to rate this book. On the one hand, the art style, character design and colours (and colouring style, i guess) were amazing. It's what caught my attention in the first place, because I hadn't heard about this graphic novel before seeing it on Netgalley. The cover art looked so good, I had to download this and read it right away.
The main issue I had, is that they mixed up (real) personality and bipolar disorders with science fiction and they did not do a great job at it. I have never experienced bipolar disorder or multiple personalities, but I have read and heard own voices accounts of how it 'works' and I cannot believe even for a second that a psychiatrist would confuse Elle's symptoms with bipolar disorder, because she clearly has something else going on. If they hadn't made her see a psychiatrist, maybe I could have given this book a higher rating, but as it stands, it really made me uncomfortable. I am sure that in the following instalments they will explain what's going on, but this thing really bothered me and I couldn't not mention it in my review.
Anyways, this seems a series with great potential, so I am still looking forward to see how the authors will decide to make the story go. Give it a chance, but do not take Elle's "symptoms" as true symptoms, rather take them as a sci-fi plot.

Well, there are books with promise and there are books with promise. I didn't think this would be the pick of the five Europe Comics review files this month, but it might well be, and going on March's selection even in the top ten for the year. It looked like being just some everyday teenage issue book, with yucky yacky teens, done in a TV cartoon style. It's so much more. Elle is the new girl at school, but what the kids who by chance become her circle of friends don't know is that there is more to her than first seen. She has a kind of multiple personality – the bolshy one, the silent one, the good friend one, the attention-seeker, all coming in some cool "Inside Out" way with their own specific colouring. This is evidenced by Elle having a different coloured Jodie Whittaker hairdo in each frame, but it's also relevant elsewhere. For all the Elles have an individually-coloured safe place, a mental hideaway to recover from the everyday thing of snogging the wrong boy, being too violent at volleyball, or whatever the issue might be.

So just who and what seems to be attacking Elle on all fronts, in all safe places, and why?

There is a chance this cosmic, mythological side to things might get a little OTT in books to come, but we can't tell – this is months old in the original French, and obviously the readers of that are as much in the dark (and impatient) as us waiting for the translations to come out. As it is, the book could be a marvel – the teens are likeable, even the cute, klutzy one with milk-bottle specs and the memory of an Amstrad 464. There is an element to Elle's backstory here that is very guessable, but it still comes out in an entertaining way, and it leaves no end of mysteries and questions for us to be finding out later. And the cartoonish artwork? Well, yes, the proportions of the faces and so on are really out of one certain school and one particular style, but they work perfectly fine here. And it would appear to be the artist's debut in book form. Like I say, a title of much promise. So much so, this gets four and a half stars, with the possibility the series as a whole gets a full house down the line.