NetGalley ARC Educator 550974

Amazing graphics with a storyline that will keep you guessing. Trigger warnings: childhood trauma, kidnapping and forced experiences. This may not be everyone's cup of tea, it blew my mind.

I’m so sad, but I really couldn’t get on board with this one. The art style is stunning, but the story was a tough read. The plot and its delivery are very confusing and unsatisfying. This wasn’t for me.

I absolutely loved the art style and the idea behind this one. Reading it felt like dreamwalking, where you have little idea what comes next nor how to get back and your only option is to push forward. Wren was an unwilling participant in the grand scheme of her life and I enjoyed that. The puzzle pieces were all put in place without her knowledge and no matter which path she chose, it was already decided upon.

That ending though? Cruel! I need you all to see it through! What happens now?

Beautiful graphics, horrible story. Took a long time to read. Cared nothing about the characters or the actual story. Which was sad, cause the synopsis was eye-catching. At the end I was confused and so disappointed with what I read. It was about 20 pages to long. Even still, if you were to shorten the story, it still wouldn't have helped. The way the story was laid out, made no sense. The saving grace was the graphics. It was done beautifully.

#BLINK #CHRISTOPHERSEBELA #NETGALLEY

Really cool art style that blended well with the genre and the story. The art style really aided the story telling and the whole plot was engaging.

I received Blink by Christopher Sebela in exchange for my honest review. Its been a while since I read a horror comic and this one had an eye-catching, interesting art style. Then I saw that it was found-footage horror and I needed to give this a shot.

Content Warnings:
Blink is a horror comic and contains horrific themes including childhood trauma, cult-like scenarios, monsters, murder, war, stabbing, blood, extreme body modification and mutilation (both voluntary and forced), kidnapping and imprisonment, suicide, obsession, depression, agoraphobia, and more. Take care of yourself and remember, its just a story.

5 Star Read

Found footage is not my favorite horror genre but there are some real gems in this sub-genre. I'm always intrigued when I see a book or comic book written as found footage because its so often linked to movies or tv that translating that feeling of shaky camera and glitchy feed to paper is a task worth looking at. Blink certainly was able to do that and more!
Honestly, the first pages made me think of the first found footage movie I ever saw, Fear dot com. This movie was not great but it scared me as a teen and seeing the early pages of Wren staring at her monitor at the CCT feeds unlocked that memory so hard for me. It was great.

I couldn't put it down. Once I started reading Blink, I was glued. Like the main character, Wren, I couldn't leave until I had answers. (Note: I read Blink on my phone when my house lost power during a wind storm. This likely effected my mood and attention. While power outages are stressful, this was a great mood for reading horror.) The pace was steady and didn't let up. Each page dragged Wren and the reader further into the labyrinth of camera feeds and shadows.

The story is both unique and uses horror tropes that any fan will recognize. I was a particular fan of the way the story isolated Wren. It felt both frustrating and believable. Other tropes like obsession, childhood trauma coming back up, the monster in the closet (in this case, paralysis demon), and a twist that really jars the main character are all there to enjoy.

As far as artistry, I loved it. Not just the illustration style but the way the page twists and turns with the characters - it really helped to give the sense that the reader is tagging along with Wren as she makes her way through this labyrinth that is obviously tunneling and ripping its way into our world but doesn't follow our world's rules of physics and geography. It added to the tension as I turned my phone here and there to follow the words and characters. I felt afraid I would miss something, a phrase or clue and somehow missing that would mean that Wren also would miss it and that neither of us would figure out what was going on. It was great.

Recommendation

I highly recommend Blink for sci-fi horror fans who are into found footage and want to see how that translates to paper and/or are into psychological horror. Also fans of the darker side of American Gods by Gaiman or modern eldritch horror wherein gods aren't exactly benevolent.

I'll admit I definitely wanted to read this based on the cover and the art in this is stunning, absolutely gorgeous. Some formatting of the pages made things a bit confusing, but overall really well executed.

As for the story, I can't say I was a huge fan of Wren as a main character, and the story was sort of difficult to follow at time. I'm also not exactly sure how I feel about the end, it's left me with a lot of questions and very few answers, but overall I enjoyed the story. If you're a fan of stuff like the Matrix this will be right up your alley.

I'm particularly a fan of Cy and whatever is going on there. I'd definitely be interested in seeing a follow-up to this, it's gripped me!

ARC courtesy of NetGalley.

This book is absolutely remarkable. Stunningly visceral and impossible to look away from. An intimate (at times uncomfortably so) picture of obsession, focusing on one woman's obsession with knowing the truth about her past and then broadening to a more general obsession with knowing every detail about the lives of those around you. It absolutely had things to say about technology, society, and human nature, but not in a moralizing way - which is appreciated. I did occasionally have to reread text boxes because their organization on the page was not always intuitive (and it was occasionally tough to read on a computer monitor due to occasional landscape-oriented pages). Still, it was well worth it in the end.

ARC provided by NetGalley.
I thought the cover art of this graphic novel looked really cool and the concept is fascinating but I personally couldn’t get into it. But putting my opinions aside, i think the graphics were phenomenal, the creatures terrifying and it left you with a feeling of “wait what” that I think a lot of readers want in a story such as this. So although not my favorite, I can see a kid in my high school picking it up and enjoying the story.

This was insufferable honestly. I love me a good graphic novel but this just left me angry. It was confusing as hell and the ending amounted to nothing. Nothing was solved and nothing was gained. The only upside is I quite liked the art style and that is why I would give it a 1.5 stars. However, the story felt SO rushed and the beginning was so confusing and so fast that I wasn’t sure what was going on. I didn’t get to know any characters super well and so I didn’t care about any of them.

I also couldn’t tell where some scenes went. Thought certain scenes were in the past but they were in the present. Maybe it was more difficult reading a comic on my phone that was meant for print.

Beginning of the novel: hate Wren. like she is strung out on on her past and making it everyone else’s problem. Like her friend was literally killed trying to help her. And then after he’s dead, we literally only see him mentioned like twice and never again.

At one point she even says she has nowhere to go but didn’t she have a whole boyfriend whom she bought a house with? what lmao??? Like what do you mean?

The entire concept was literally like a fever dream. It was so confusing and so ridiculous that I absolutely despised reading it.

As always, thank you Netgalley for the arc!

Firstly, thank you NetGalley and Oni Press for the ARC!

The first thing I have to say about this graphic novel is... wow!! for the art style alone. The panel layout is unique and visually interesting. This does lead to a little bit of confusion at times about which order to read text boxes in, but not enough to really hinder the experience.

Now, the plot. There was a rather slow build-up for the first 60% or so, and then what felt like massive info dump for another 30%. The last few pages that should have given some sort of satisfying conclusion only left me with questions and really wishing for another 20-30 pages. The general plot beats are solid and surprisingly socially-relevant (cameras everywhere, every moment of one's life just a social media post away), but again. The pacing just felt... off? No other way to explain it, really.

If you're a fan of vague horror-adjacent vibes, social commentary, or just have a couple hours where you want to get briefly but heavily invested in a story, give this a consideration. Light-hearted with a fluffy, happy ending, this is not, so keep that in mind.

3/5 stars for wonderful art and an interesting story that felt both fast-paced yet not enough to be truly satisfying.

The art is beautiful, the cover is what first enticed me to start reading. But what could have been a good comic was just a confusing story that stayed at a superficial level. I couldn’t get absorbed because I had to keep flipping back a few pages to reread.

*Thank your to NetGalley and Onipress for the egalley review copy**

"Blink" is a thriller/horror story that keeps you on the edge of your seat until the very end. I am left wanting more after finishing this book. It would be perfect for fans of "The Nice House on the Lake". I would say the mystery left me wanting a bit more and the protag felt a bit one dimensional but the world the author built makes up for it.

2/5

Uff I really wanted to like this one but I unfortunately really didn't.

At half way through I felt so bored and confused that I basically dropped it and just started to read the essential things just to get to its end, which surprisingly even if super predictable I liked.

I was very interested and invested at first but then I started to disconnect with the story till I just couldn't get into it anymore.

The drawings are really cool and I liked how sometimes the panels were put in some innovative way, but that's it.
Sigh

The art is really nice but the story and characters just didn't grab me. I found myself bored and forced myself to get a little over half way through before I ended up dropping it.

I'll start by saying that the artwork is amazing. The choice of colour, layout and art style was perfection. I read the book digitally and I can image that a print copy would be even more engaging.
Unfortunately, the story was a bit of a letdown compared to the illustrations. I was much more interesting in the artwork than the story.
Thank you for allowing me to read and review this book.

I found this story to be confusing and hard to follow. Sometimes the story felt rushed but then other times it was lagging.
It was a very cool premise but the execution was not there.
I gave this 2 out of 5 stars.

Wren Booker was three when she was found alone and covered in blood on the streets of New York. Since that day, she’s been haunted by the childhood she can't remember…until decades later when she finds a cryptic website streaming multiple CCT feeds from strange rooms in a ruined building. Something clicks, setting off hidden memories that lead her back to a place she’s seen in lifelong nightmares. Hunting for answers, Wren breaks in and finds herself lost in the camera-filled dark mazes of a decayed social experiment known only as BLINK

Wren Booker has no memories. Found alone and covered in blood as a child, she has spent her life trying to escape her unknown past. That is, until she finds a mysterious website showing CCTV feeds that stirs her memories and leaves her desperate to find out more. After breaking in to a building with impossible dimensions, she finds herself lost in a maze of CCTV cameras and horrific creatures. In the centre, she will find out the truth about her past and finally discover who is watching the tapes.

The idea for this story is really interesting and there was some great sections but I felt like it was too short for the writer to really explore their vision. It was very rushed and I'm still not 100% sure who most of the characters were and what they represented.

The artwork really saves this one - the colours are so vibrant and it is so visually stunning! The panels are laid out in such a clever way that really reflects the story. It's just a shame that the story itself doesn't hold up as well.

What made me want to read this graphic novel in the first place was the cover. So eye-catching!

I was really impressed with the look of this graphic novel. Really gorgeous artwork and colors, the panel setups were interesting and unique, and the plot drew me in. I got a little slowed down by the exposition and would have preferred more dialogue instead of thoughts. It leaned a little too much on setup and explaining backstory and trying to create tension rather than keeping the reader interested and moving forward. But it was overall a really enjoyable novel and I would read a second!

The art style is both gruesome and stunning, and the story is interesting and creepy, though the organization of the panels can be a little hard to follow.