I previously read Watersnakes by Tony Sandoval, and loved the artwork. When I was invited to read 1000 Storms, I was excited! I couldn't wait to see the new adventures and gorgeous illustrations.

The artwork is gorgeous, which is expected. Beautiful and ethereal with a bordering menacing darkness. Its ephemeral nature complements the narrative beautifully as we follow Lisa in her in-between age and her in-between life. She tries to remain young and cling to childhood memories but cannot escape growing up. The narrative follows her struggles with loneliness and growing up and the artwork fills in the descriptive gaps, keeping it a short and enjoyable read without feeling shortchanged.

Would I recommend Watersnakes by Tony Sandoval? Absolutely, though keep in mind, I don't know if I would particularly recommend it to children or tweens.

Lisa is a lonely girl who enjoys wandering nature and collecting odd bonesand pebbles. The other kids think she’s kinda weird, maybe a witch, andavoid her. When one day she discovers a tree that allows passage to a parallelworld, she finds herself in the middle of a demonic invasion plot, faced withsaving the very children who ridiculed her.


Is a coming of age about a girl who walks in and out of our world into one full of beasties who come here to attack the children. I love the dras but it was a little bit odd and creepy with a few inappropriate parts and nudity scenes. I like the lgtbq rep but the coming of age was weird: sometimes she was a little girl and other times she was a grown woman.

The synopsis and art style are what made me want to read this coming of age graphic novel. I found the art style weird and I loved every bit of it. Unfortunately, I found that there were too many plot holes for me to truly enjoy the story. I’m also giving it two stars because of the overt sexualization of what is presumed to be a child. It was gratuitous and gave me the ick.

This is my first book by Tony Sandoval, so I am not familiar with his previous work set in the same "universe". Overall, I didn't particularly like the book because the characters were so poorly drawn and the story, while being very fast paced, didn't quite make sense.

The story follows a teenager called Lisa (although I fist read her name as "Lila" due to the strange font choice and elongated s's). She is mourning the loss of her mother and living with her godmother, with the father being out of the picture. In the first couple of pages, Lisa is shown naked in a way I didn't find appropriate given her age. She proceeds to be sexualized by characters throughout the book, mostly minors like herself and, even though her initial reaction didn't seem inviting, she is portrait later on as if all of it was consensual. This isn't being addressed later on in the book, so the overall message and the author's intent remain surface-level.

All the characters make rash, impulsive decisions which turn up the story on it's head every 10 pages or so. The end-result was that it felt like the author didn't plan the story in any way or had in mind what it was about. The parallel world with different creatures remain on surface level and their motives and existence aren't explained in any way. One of the big visual motives is a black helmet that Lisa finds in the wastelands which, again, doesn't play any role in the later development of the story. It seemed like the author just liked drawing it.

The story concludes with Lisa's monster-seeing father coming back for her and revealing to us that she is actually a musical genius and will be pursuing her career as a violinist. As you might guess, it this wasn't foreshadowed in any way and the end, like the rest of the book, left me completely baffled.

On a more positive note, the art was absolutely stunning, The line work, shadowing, colors and the overall compositions were mesmerizing and reminiscent of Chris Riddell's style. It's just a shame that the author didn't leave the story and plot to someone else and focused on the artwork alone.

The artstyle was really unique and beautiful, I really loved the watercolor style, but the story left me a little (well... more than a little) confused sometimes and I feel like I wasn't able to 100% enjoy it because of that. It just felt like I missed a lot, which is not the best.

A quirky, beautifully drawn (in watercolour) coming of age tale. Lisa is considered weird by her peers and spends her time collecting skulls and other odd objects. During one of her jaunts she discovers a new world. This is wonderful to look at and the writing is pretty good, however I did find it confusing at times which is part of its charm but also a little bit frustrating.

I love Tony Sandoval’s artistic style so much. Watersnakes is one of my favorite graphic novels of all times and is the reason I started reading graphic novels. 1000 storms did not disappoint and I can not wait to get my hands on a physical copy.

A strange story about a girl coming of age who walks in and out of our world into one full of beasties who come here to attack the children. The coming of age stuff was odd, especially how the art sometimes made her look like a little girl, sometimes like grown woman. The story is often incoherent. The art though is really interesting switching styles from page to page, sometimes between panels.

The artwork of this book is gorgeous! I really loved it, and it hooked me from the very first page. Even if I felt like I was missing some context to understand fully want was going on, I really enjoy it and understood more and more as I read it. The ending left many questions unanswered too, I hope the second book will give me details!

TW for bullying, gore, violence against kids.

Many thanks to Magnetic Press for the complimentary e-copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The art on the cover and the synopsis made me immediately want to read this graphic novel. The art style(s) looks beautiful and I love dark and macabre books, especially in graphic novels and comics. The story is really confusing, and I don't know if that's because it's set in the same world as another one of the author's comics and we are expected to know what some of this means or if it's just confusing all-around. I don't even know how to explain the plot because nothing is tied off at the end anyway. Lisa, the main character who is probably no older than 15, is weirdly sexualized and I don't like how that was handled. Overall, I can see some people enjoying this but it was not what I expected at all and not for me.

This story was very odd and overall, I did not like it.
The art work was amazing. I didn't have an issue with the colors or style changing, based on the shift in mood or setting. The watercolor at work incredible.

That said, the story is confusing. I find it hard to follow and was very uncomfortable to read at times.

The [seemingly] young characters, especially the main character, was overly sexualized, which I found unsettling as it happened more then once.

There also a large number of plots holes with half answers, if any, for many things that left completely open ended and I found it infuriating. Nothing about this story makes any sense.

Beautiful art, but I'd recommend passing.

**Thank you to Diamond Book Distributors and NetGallery for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. **

I was such a fan of the first graphic novel I read from him, Watersnakes, both the art and the vivid storytelling that I wanted to try his newest work.
I can't quite say it lived up to my expectations.

This is a strange and macabre story of a solitary girl with strange interests in small-minded towns, devilish monsters and the intersections of those things. Lisa does not have a great relationship to her mother or brother, her father is away, the kids in town call her a witch.

There are many story threads, two art styles and fantastical lore woven into just 150 pages and doesn't leave for much breathing room. New characters get introduced quickly, personal development happens quickly and some scenes are not set up enough to ease the flow of the story. But it's also wildly imaginative, dark and personal; I felt for Lisa and the sad life she was living.

...
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me this advanced copy of this book, and my legitimate thanks to the author for giving me the opportunity to read his book.

1000 storms is a slightly dark, melancholic and fantastic graphic novel. The story is about a girl who can see forest creatures near her village, little did she know that soon the monsters of that forest... would reveal their secrets to the village

Lisa is a lonely girl who enjoys wandering nature and collecting odd bones and pebbles. The other kids think she’s kinda weird, maybe a witch, and avoid her. When one day she discovers a tree that allows passage to a parallel world, she finds herself in the middle of a demonic invasion plot, faced with saving the very children who ridiculed her.

Really, the story has good plot, although it wasn't so much my style of reading, maybe read them once a year, but no, two or more.

3.5

Thank to Diamond Book Distributors and NetGalley for a copy of the eArc of 1000 Storms by Tony Sandoval. I really enjoyed the artistic style of this book. The attention to detail really comes through. It is a quick read so if the art appeals to you, I'd give it a go. I felt the story was a little rushed and could've used a bit more character and world building. Overall I found the book to be an enjoyable read.

This... Was something. . .

The overall storyline was pretty solid, though I felt it was oddly tangential at times.
Like two pages from the end, it feels like we are given a clue into Lisa, but we are at the end, and it's not going to go anywhere.

Upon some sleuthing on good reads, I do see there is a second volume. But it is still frustrating to feel like you're constantly missing context for things...

The art could be considered whimsical, and I loved the use of watercolors throughout. However, it did feel increasingly jarring to have all of the townspeople to be drawn in a more caricaturistic art style when the kids are drawn to look "normal."

Content warning for this book. It does contain depictions of nudity and sexual scenes with underage individuals.
I was able to pass over the scenes with nudity mostly. Even though they brought some discomfort, it was nothing compared to the discomfort I felt near the end of the book; while not graphic, it left me feeling gross and with a bad taste in my mouth that tainted every part of this book enjoyed.

I was really excited for this based on the cover and description but there are a couple of things that didn't sit right with me. I personally found the font hard to read. The art style kept switching between watercolor and more line art. Both were beautiful but it seemed to switch randomly between the two. The story was confusing and I felt like it was choppy and none of it seemed to really go together cohesively. Also the oversexualization of this young girl was very uncomfortable. I'm assuming she's around 13 and there are multiple sexual instances.

I wanted to put it a 2.5, but as It got me really curious, the more I think about it. I guess it can go to a full 3.

I was attracted to it by the cover and the dark atmosphere. I wasn't necessarily sure, what I was going into as I hadn't read the pitch. But I definitely couldn't have planned what happened.
I liked it. I liked the story and the main character, Lisa. I liked the way the beasts were drawn. I love monsters and those were good monsters.
The drawing is exactly the kind of drawing that I like. Ethereal, unique. with blurriness and a feeling that we are dreaming or imagining it.
The story felt as, if Guillermo Del Toro, took a hold of Narnia and decided to add some spice and nightmares to it.
I do think, there were some plot problems, some unanswered questions throughout the books, I hope it opens the door for a second book, then. I would read it because I am curious about how it can be done. For these elements, I hoped the author would have made the book a bit longer.
There is also the fact that some of the characters say out loud, what could be shown instead, in the beginning especially.

All in all, it wasn't bad, But there wasn't anything special, in the story. The treatment of it was okay. I still have many, many questions! So, I hope there will be a second one.

I got this on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

I have heard good things about Tony Sandoval's work before, so I was hyped to see this available for request on Netgalley. And at first I really liked this! The artstyle is really pretty and unique, and I feel like the graphic novel grasps the feeling of being an outsider, of coming into teendom, the insecurities and childishness of young teens / older children. However, this had way too many plotholes for me to enjoy this as a whole. There are too many treads that feels like the groundwork for a longer series of graphic novels, with both prequels and sequels, but instead we are introduced to a whole bunch of stuff at random where it's almost expected that we know the impact or meaning, but since we don't it in turn creates very little impact OR meaning. Instead it makes it very random and confusing, which takes away from all the good things this has. It almost feels like a story where the author / creator forgets his plotlines and hints along the way, and forgets to add the origin or give hints along the way, but also forgets to tie them together. This makes the whole thing confusing and makes me not care at all about anything that happened, except what I mentioned previously.

This...has a lot of problems.

1.) Art style is always subjective but this hit a weird note for me. The watercolors with fine line work is generally very ethereal and often pretty, but there's also a crudeness to the drawings that is discordant. The amount of teeth that everyone shows every time they open their mouths is jarring.

2.) This story has a lot of different pieces and they don't really weave together into a cohesive whole. There's a lot going on in such a short book and Sandoval compensates for that by doing a lot of telling via dialogue rather than showing. It's a lot of exposition without much in the way of explanation. A lot of the time my inner monologue was just "...what?", which isn't really a good thing.

3.) I have to mention the unignorable oversexualization of the main character. Ages aren't ever defined but based on context we can place the main character around 13-14 with some of the other characters being around 10-ish. Definitely too young for the treatment Sandoval gives this character. It felt uncomfortable voyeuristic.

A delightful and creepy story of a strange girl who enters a strange world and brings trouble back to her own. This graphic novel gets oddly sexual at parts but the illustrations are gorgeous and the story is charmingly odd. The illustrators did a lot of work and used mixed media to bring this strange little story to life in a beautiful way.

Thanks to Netgalley and Diamond Book Distributors for allowing me an advanced copy in exchange for this review.