This book is a bit of an odd duck, and it's not going to appeal to everyone. There isn't particularly a story here; there is instead a series of vignettes that may or may not have actually happened - rather, they might be the product of the main character's schizophrenia and psychosis, and there's no way to know what here is real and what isn't. As such, it offers a good look into madness and how it might feel for the person experiencing it. While I haven't had such experiences as what are depicted here, my mother did, and this story tracks with the type of stuff she told me about - the voices, the people who aren't really there, the odd happenings that everyone else tells you didn't happen - so I could still relate even though I haven't experienced this particular madness myself (there's a vignette that happens at the MC's workplace that anyone who has ever had a corporate job will relate to that just hits right in the gut). The flow is disjointed, and this added to the relative realism for me; if you have and/or know someone with mental illness, you'll get it. The art sets the mood well, sketchy, without color, bleak, a bit sinister. This is a good book for when you feel like mulling things over in your head, not so much if you want a linear story that makes sense. I think people who have experience with mental illness will enjoy this.

#TheVoicesofWater #NetGalley

'The Voices of Water' by Tiziano Sclavi with art by Werther Dell'Edera is a graphic novel about a man who hears voices in a city with persistent rain.

In an unnamed city with persistent rain and gloom, a man named Stavros hears voices whenever water is running. The voices are all different and tell him different things. But are they real or is he crazy?

I wanted to like this moody, strange story. It's got lots of elements that make for a story I would love, but it was hard for me to follow what was going on, so it left me wanting more out of it than I got.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Diamond Books- Ablaze for an advanced copy of this graphic novel about being lost in the world.

With 8 billion people in the world one would think that it must be hard to feel so alone. However this is something that many people experience, maybe someone writing this. Combined with that feeling of being alone sometimes that inner voice that talks back, down, around and quite oddly sometimes has ho barrier, its noise is a 24 hour broadcast, effecting how people live their lives, and how we effect others. This modern world doesn't make it easy either. Somehow this timeline is getting dumber, with occasional bursts of sanity, but this steady drum of the world, flooding our social media, our workspaces, our relationships, makes it hard to care about ourselves and our mental well being. The Voices of Water by Italian writer and journalist Tiziano Sclavi and illustrated by renowned also Italian artist Werther Dell'Edera is the story about a man who hears voices, that slowly make his life harder and harder to deal with.

Stavros lives in a city that is never revealed, but seems to be under a pall of horrible weather, always dank, dark and wet. Stavros has a girlfriend, and a job, maybe, as it is hard to say what Stavros has or had or will have. Stavros hears voices when he hears water running. And today he has decided to talk a walk in the rain, allowing the voices to run free in his brain. His mother shares that he was always a disappointment, even has she forgets everything else in her life. People commit suicide, a relationship is broken up. Work problems. Doctors are not helpful, neither are the pills prescribed. Maybe it is schizophrenia. Maybe it is the modern world. Maybe it is all in his head. Maybe he will never know.

A story told in bits and shared conversations. There is not a lot of dialogue, as the art tells the story, but some of the lines are quite brutal and mean, just like the words we hear some times, even without the rain. The art is really good. Characters pop, as do backgrounds, the look is singular and really quite well rendered and fit the story perfectly. The art captures both the real world of Stavros and the world that he imagines. The scenes with him mom, as he pours his heart out, thinking that her dementia has progressed so far she has no idea what he is saying, was one of my favorite sections. Just a clean look that told so much, it was really very good.

A different kind of graphic novel, probably for people who are more familiar with European works and stories, especially the ending. The art is the real star here. Dell'Edera is better known here in the States for his work on Something is Killing the Children, and here is work is different both in style and storytelling. This is a story that makes the reader think, and come up with their own interpretations, with art that really is gorgeous to look at, both enthralling and unsettling.

I wasn't able to complete this before the download expired, but I really enjoyed the ~half of it that I read. I'll be preo-ordering this for sure :)

So, this is the mindset for this book.. it is not a graphic novel. Instead, I took it as graphic poetry. Experimental, bizarre, and moving. The story is barely held together and all it wants to do is make you feel. The pencil art is erratic but affecting. The sparse narration/dialogue is almost an afterthought to the idea of the piece. I would have almost liked it more if it had no dialogue at all. Don't get me wrong, there is a story, something to do with mental health, work culture, and human interaction. But if you go into it for the story, I think you'll come out disappointed. Instead, go into it for the experience. I think you might get something out of it.

This graphic novel wasn’t for me. I do like stories which have a clear journey and I felt this was more reflective, leaving the reader to find their own way. I think this works well in the novel if you like that style. The artwork worked well for the story.

I don't really know where to start with this one.

Initially, I picked it up because Werther Dell'Edera doing the art and didn't read much of a synopsis. This book follows a character named Stavros who hears voices. These voices only speak to him when there is water flowing but living in a city under the constant cover of rain, it seems to be plaguing him a little. We follow him through a lot of his darkest memories and secrets shames and desires that he has never told anyone. There wasn't a lot of dialogue in this book which made it a really quick read, which was nice but it also means I don't have a lot to comment on either.

I liked the sketchy art style and how without finese it seemed, it was different from other pieces of Dell'Edera's art I've encountered in other comics. It added to the bleak and depressing atmosphere of this story and pathetic fallacy was definitely drawn into this book. The rain really did bring the mood down even lower. This book also had quite a dystopian feel, there was a scene where aliens land, look around and leave again, and honestly, I don't blame them.

The non-linear style of this book did make it slightly harder for me to follow but it was an interesting look into a different way of telling stories in a graphic novel format because I probably wouldn't have ever picked this up.

A poetic, contemplative graphic novel about modern alienation, less "Swallow Me Whole" than the latter work of Will Eisner. The story, the loose journey of a middle-aged man's struggle with voices (which he hears whenever he's near water) and the people around him, is not so much the focus as it is the starting point. The main meat of the book is a showcase of Werther Dell'Edera's considerable talent. His striking, scratchy black-and-white art is a revelation for an artist mostly known for his color work. The pace is excellent and the tone is controlled expertly -a supernatural event in the latter part of the book fit right in with the rest of its more down-to-earth content. The dialogue is sparse yet witty, even if, at times, its more pessimistic observations can get a little blasé. Some of the additional digressions also don't fully work (such as the one with the professor's death in the book's middle). Nevertheless, the book is a quick, interesting read and a worthy addition to an adult comics library, particularly for those interested in European/Italian comics. However, I was unsure if a series of poetic passages in the first third of the story ("In Piazza Delle Erbe...", "In Piazza Boria...", "Images of ships...", "In the city of Lavinium..." etc.) were quotations of actual poetry or not. The italic font used was either an indication of a quotation or a stylistic choice (indicating that the person was shouting the words), but the momentary confusion took me out of the story for a second.