In an effort to untangle her complicated feelings about the loss of her cosmic twin, author Axelle decides to unspool her life in an off-kilter autobiographical comic.

This is a surreal and funny graphic novel which depicts a year in young Axelle's life as she starts going to school, forms a strange connection with the forest by her home, and begins to suffer in the grip of acute anxiety. The art is both atmospheric and humorous, and I enjoyed the many visits present-day Axelle makes to reinterpret past events and emotions. Axelle's siblings are absolute scene-stealers, and I loved every time they appeared on the page.

However, it's definitely a slow moving story, and while there's some strange elements upfront (alien parents, Tonio's imaginary friend who may be more demonic than imaginary), the cosmic twin and other elements are only briefly shown or discussed. They'll probably be expounded upon in future installments, but in the meanwhile we are left with a lot of questions and very few answers, which made the reading experience of this volume less satisfying for me.

"Secret Passages" was a solid four-star read for me.

I hadn't previously explored any of Lenoir's works, and I can't recall what prompted me to pick this up initially, but I'm pleased that I did. It's a graphic memoir that delves into the author's childhood experiences over the course of a year.

The narrative feels authentically emotional, yet it also incorporates surreal elements (like cosmic twins and alien parents) along with frequent adult-author interjections, which become more prominent as the story progresses.

Lenoir and I share the same age, which always adds an extra layer of enjoyment to memoirs. I was drawn to the captivating artwork in the book, and the author's voice was equally appealing.

The overall tone of the book is humorous and endearing, evoking a delightful zine-like atmosphere that evoked a strong sense of nostalgia.

Because of problems with my computer and e-reader my I didn't read the book and my copy has expired.

This was a very interesting story line for a graphic novel. Definitely something I’ve never read before and I’m so glad I enjoyed the art style. This was full of adventure and took a twist I didn’t expect.

Love the artwork! Cute and unique! But unfortunately the story wasn’t there for me and felt like I was dragged towards the middle to the end :((

Secret Passages follows the author, Axel, as she starts first grade. Throughout the book she plays with her brothers, talks to the forest, and (mostly) listens to her parents. I really loved the surrealism in the book. She portrayed her parents as aliens and her little brother had an imaginary friend that's a demon. Overall, I really enjoyed this graphic novel. The story was interesting and the artwork was fantastic! I can't wait to read more from this author.

Like others have said, it was a bit wordy but cute. It was good quality, but just not for me. Loved the artwork!

I really enjoyed this, it was so funny and heart-wrenching and awkward and just all those strong kid emotions, and wow. I'm glad I got to meet 6 year-old Axelle and her family, and eavesdropping on her first grade year was nostalgic and a bit terrifying (in a good way), and so relatable - I may not have had the same experiences exactly, but Lenoir captures that dark magic weirdness of childhood, that sense of something going on that you can't quite understand, rather like the feeling I got from Bradbury's Dandelion Wine. I'm not good at explaining things, but this slice-of-life story, the first part of a memoir-of-sorts, was beautiful and mysterious, and I felt it all, and I can't wait for the next volume!


#SecretPassages #NetGalley

Artwork was lovely and probably my most favorite part of it. The story dragged a little but was still an enjoyable one. Tonio was a scene stealer definitely.

Es una novela gráfica de lo más creepy pero realmente increíble. Me dejó más de una vez impactada y la volvería a leer sin dudas, es increíble 💞

3.5 stars.
I love the dynamic and expressive artwork in Axelle Lenoir’s story of her life. Or, at least one year in her life when she was six-years old.

I thought this story would move more quickly than it does, but I still enjoyed the near constant arguments and musings of young Axelle and her brothers David and Tonio about the Transformers, Anne of Green Gables, G.I. Joe, and various other properties the kids viewed in cartoons.

Young Axelle is a handful, tormenting her parents and her teacher, slamming the faces of her classmates with balls during dodgeball, staring at the trees in a nearby wooded area near home, hating school, and interjecting her adult self into scenes to comment on younger Axelle and the family dynamic.

Tonio was an absolute scene stealer EVERY panel he was in, particularly when mentioning his invisible friend, Asméöth, and the entity’s bloodthirsty or disturbing desires.

Thank you to Netgalley and to IDW Publishing for this ARC in exchange for my review.

This is a cute story. I liked the art the story at times for a graphic can be a little wordy. But it was a nice read.

Wow, that was a werid one. Funny and touching, but weird. I will look out for the next volume. My full review appears on Weekend Notes.

Oh, dear. This pretty little graphic novel is autobiographical ego-maniacal half-a-fun. In some 200 pages or so, we get rumblings of a girl who (as a comics character) doesn't care about other people in any way, which brings us to a conclusion that she doesn't really care about her readers, including myself. She just goes on and on about pretty unimportant stuff that goes in six year olds life. Because, you know, this autobiographic novel covers only two years of her life.

Axelle draws very skillfuly and visually it's really pleasant (in lack of a better word). There are many tiny gags on each page that can keep you preoccupied in a way of writings on the wall of the bathroom stall while you pee, that is. As for the narrative, I felt quite entertained by her little brother Tonio and his imaginary friend, mildly entertained by the catalogue bit and barely entertained by one-liners. The rest was a snooze fest, which may be or may seem important to Axelle Lenoir, but i couldn't care less. Here's a taste of your own medicine, Axelle! Can we get a Tonio spin-off?

Would I feel enthusiastic for the sequel? Hmhmhm. Yes? Maybe? If she gets a better editor? I wish her luck. And I want to thank Top Shelf and NetGalley for free digital copy that provided me an opportunity to write all these (mostly mean) words.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this. There's lots to like: it's very inventive and taps into something unique about the author's childhood experiences. On the other hand, it rips you out of the story intermittently and there is no satisfying ending. It feels like a first section of a longer work. And yet it's a work I want to read more of. I think this is something that will work for some readers and others will just bounce off of it.

The premise is fresh and intriguing and the illustrations are wonderful but I had persistent issues with pagination/file formatting that impaired the immersion not insignificantly, so I don't feel fair in fully weighing in on it.

Thank you to NetGalley and IDW Publishing for kindly passing on this ARC! 💫

I can’t say enough good things about the illustrations in this book! The creator of Secret Passages sure knows how to work a brush and I know others are going to pore over the effusive and seemingly effortless lines as I have.

I read the first 30 pages or so of Secret Passages and thought what am I reading? Should I keep going? But as soon as the author appeared just to rip on her own comic I became more intrigued & I really liked the inclusion of that throughout the book.

I liked the adult perspective of the author telling her childhood story & then communicating with her childhood self at times in certain scenes that felt appropriate to speak with your past child self. I really loved this dual perspective of her childhood memories and adult reflections intertwined.

This graphic novel is very imaginative, quirky, and funny. The illustrations vary a bit in style & are all very well done. The pop culture references which are a large part of any 80’s/90’s childhood were done so well. The adult humour thrown over childhood nostalgia was clever and had me laughing. It was also a bit nostalgic to read and think about being a kid again, playing outside with siblings, anticipating the day when the huge Sears Christmas catalogue would arrive every year, having to go to dreaded school all the time, overthinking literally everything until you had weird nightmares, and talking to trees, yeah, who hasn’t?

I really enjoyed this one. It was a fun read. It did feel a little slow going and a bit anticlimactic but if this is going to be an ongoing series, which it seems like it will be, I’m so in & can’t wait to read more from Axelle Lenoir. The author seems to not give an eff & does her own thing and that’s truly metal! I love it! In the meantime, I’ll be checking out some of her other work.

Thank you to NetGalley and IDW Publishing for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This comic seems to be an imaginary autobiography of a comic artist. It's very wordy for a comic, which makes it personally difficult for me to get through. Coupled with the fact that it was really slow paced and me not being intrigued by the story or characters, I ended up stopping at page 30. The illustrations were good, though.

The first part of a well-drawn, very slow-moving, graphic novel memoir. It's the first collected part of an ongoing series, not a standalone, which I didn't realize going in. I really enjoyed the art, the humor, the stark differences between the affects of adult and child Axelle, the family relationships, and particularly loved the youngest brother. I think people who are already familiar with this author and their works might have more well-founded expectations and a better response to this, I'm not sure. Going in completely cold, it's quite slow, and since I don't know anything it's unclear what I'm meant to guess is real, metaphorical, or completely fictional—and since it turns out to be just the earliest intro, it's hard to tell yet if such a distinction is even important.