Although I have not read the original Novel Hide by Kiersten White, I enjoyed the graphic novel. The artwork was very beautiful and well done, and was a quick read. I enjoyed the premise of the book and the unique storyline. I felt like some things we missing though, and we didn't get the depth that I am assuming happened in the original.

I loved the paperback version. This graphic novel version of this thrilling story gives a whole new aspect to the tale. It colors make you feel like you are reading an old school comic book, which lends itself to full emersion into the story. It's twisty and a smidge unnerving. A wonderful story told in a whole new way.

I highly recommend to any horror fans, and fellow fans of Kiersten White's stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this awesome opportunity. Five stars!

Most people would jump at the chance to win $50,0000. In fact, some people would do anything in their power, even if it led to someone else’s demise. When 14 people are offered the chance to win big money, they’re each in it for different reasons. People, like Mack, are looking at the money as a chance at a new or better life. Others are hoping it’ll launch their brand into the limelight. Then there are the people running the competition who are willing to kill to get what they want. However they are involved in the competition, they’re each about to be tied to an old and abandoned theme park for the rest of their lives.

I read the written novel last year, so I was extremely excited when I saw that a graphic novel adaptation was on the way. I could see how the book would translate very well as a graphic novel, so of course I had to check it out. I’m excited to confirm that it does work very well as a graphic novel! This time around, we watch the 14 contestants along with those running the competition come to life through the colorful artwork. Plus, the art style truly brings the story to life with its vivid colors and beautiful drawing style.

Like before, we follow an interesting cast of characters leading up to the competition until its end. We get to know some characters more than others, but we follow Mack the most. There was less suspense this time around, and the Seeker is no longer visually scary. However, I think it still worked out great for its graphic novel format.

Overall, this feels more like a young adult version of the story because there wasn’t much of a scare factor and it lacked suspense. Despite that, I really loved the story. If anything, I actually like that you can choose how scared you want to feel and then choose which version of the story you want to check out based on that.

The strong supporting characters are definitely one of Hide’s greatest strengths (at least in its new graphic format). The other is the distinctive look of the Amazement Park. As rendered by Fish and Fish, each macabre attraction should charm a lot of horror fans. Full review here: http://www.jbspins.com/2023/09/hide-graphic-novel.html

“Hide: The Graphic Novel” by Kiersten White (3.5 stars) (PubDate-THIS WEEK!) is the graphic novel release of the 2022 novel of the same name and without having read the original novel. This version is a solid and interesting story stylistically rooted in comic-book writing and art. It was a quick read, and one that I would recommend for graphic novel horror genre fans as well as fans of comics in general.. What it lacked in depth, it made up for with murder and thinly disguised religious metaphor. Always a fun combo!

Positives: The premise, a reality TV-like competition of Hide and Seek on the grounds of an abandoned amusement park, is super fun. The park itself was creepy, designed oddly, and after years of neglect, had more fear factor than any other story element. I also liked the comic-book art of the novel, even though I’m not a frequent pure-comic reader.

Wish List: I feel like the art was good, but not what would have been best for THIS story. The form and shape of the panels and the connection points lost punch with the comic-style and, while I don’t know if the original novel had more depth, this version definitely didn’t. Different artistic rendition could have helped to add depth and connection. I felt interestingly informed, not truly engaged. I also wish that there had been a few less characters to keep track of. In the brief format of a graphic novel, this many characters felt cumbersome. I didn’t get a chance to really care about anybody, because there was so little space to get to know each one. I believe though, that comic fans would applaud the intense and rapid fire delivery of an action-packed story without all the belaboring that novel-readers tend to enjoy. Eyes of the beholder, and all that.

As always, I appreciate the opportunity afforded me to have an early read by netgalley and Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press. The opinions in this review are expressly those of ButIDigressBookClub and are intended for use by my followers and friends when choosing their next book. #butidigress #butidigressbookclub #Hidethegraphicnovel #netgalley #netgalleyreviewer #clarksonpotter

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Publishing Review 9/09/2023

For me personally, I enjoyed this graphic novel version of "Hide" more than I did the actual full-text novel itself. I'm a visual person, and although I understood the plot the first time around, having the images right there in front of me and depicted in bright artistic renderings made the story much more alive. The art was fantastic, and the story-telling, although familiar, was intriguing and horrifying. I wish more novels were made into graphic illustrations.

I was one of the few people that really, really enjoyed Hide when it came out last year. So I was quite excited to see it adapted into a graphic novel. However, I think this just kind of ended up falling flat for me. I also think this got a bit too info-dumpey. I still think it's a very action packed story, but I liked the book MUCH more.

Hide strives to do a lot with an adaptation of an entire novel. I did not read the source material, but Hide itself stands pretty much on its own. I have several issues with its execution though. What is a pretty straight forward horror plot gets bogged down by overly verbose pages and too many characters to effectively make the deaths stick. It also does a disservice to the medium to have all the kills off page. The whole point of having so many red shirts or having a reality tv style cast would lend itself to really giving the pages space to breathe, but that is not achieved here. It’s greatest saving grace is the art, but the pages are so verbose that you get a headache from first glance.

I think it a bit of a disservice to the medium to result to inscribing full pages of a journal. Maybe one or two pages, but once it gets past 3 we might as well have not even done it. Add on top of this is completely ancillary to the plot because the character that gets the material never shares it with anyone else. If this is only for the reader wouldn’t it make more sense to tell the contents visually?? And this happens multiple times. In my opinion, a graphic novel is an opportunity to tell a story in mostly art, but Scott Peterson seems to think that we use as much text as possible and just illustrate the story. Don’t get me wrong when it works it works, but I think the ball slips more than it should’ve. Especially when the art is so good.

Then we have the problem of the kills. They develop this interesting monster and hide him which is fine but there are way to keep the monster hidden while also showing the kills. It really does nothing but add unnecessary confusion and save all the visually interesting material for the end. The trade off is unnecessary. Characters disappear on the page. We find out later that they are supposedly dead, but we end up unsure because we never had any indication that they had died. There’s a point in the narrative where a character remarks that it would be hard to turn this into a compelling show. The reader knows this all too well because so far it isn’t making an interesting book either.

Specifically when we have a visual medium, it is important to use that to keep the reader interested. I think we could have plus the interest of the book in so many easy ways that not doing it strikes me as lazy. It comes off that we were so interested in keeping the page count down that we ending making the pages overly wordy and cutting out all the things you’ve come to the book to see. What is a slasher book without interesting kills? The book saves itself in the end when it realizes it’s folly and actually starts showing you interesting material, but I don’t think many readers will get that far. Otherwise they may just skip till the end. Especially if they’ve already read the book and they only picked this up to see a visual representation of the story.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Recommended if you like: Creature horror, Goosebumps by RL Stein, The Ritual movie on Netflix.


✨Thank you Netgalley/Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press, Ten Speed Graphic for the eARC!✨

How far would you go for $50,000?

For everyone in the competition: just far enough to obtain the life-changing amount of money. Fourteen competitors go to an abandoned amusement park to play a high-stakes game of hide and seek but this game’s stakes are higher than anyone anticipated. Based on the novel of the same name by Kiersten White.
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I was REALLY excited to get this arc because the original novel has been on my TBR for MONTHS and I think this story translated really well to a graphic novel. The artists they chose, Veronica and Andy Fish, who took over the art for the 2015 reboot of Archie Comics as well as countless Marvel and DC series. Their art style is exactly what was needed in this story- the vibrant colors and deep shading added to the looming feeling that the characters have during the story and it was really effective in being reminiscent of old 40s/50s Batman comics as well.

I also really enjoyed how there was a narrator/narration boxes with background information in addition to the various character’s POVs because it allowed to reader to separate themselves from the character narration and allow for a feel of being a true spectator during the whole event.

In summary, I really liked this story even though there were some unanswered questions about specific plot points (spoilers on second page). I would absolutely recommend this title to anyone who wants to try the creature horror genre, but they aren’t 100% sold on it yet!

SPOILERS:
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One thing I felt like I was missing (and might be talked about deeper in the actual novel) was where and how the beast came to being. I read all the pages from the journal, and I still wasn’t 100% where the thing came from, and why these specific families were the ones to summon it? It honestly did not make a lot of sense, but I still really enjoyed the story. Also so was Ava (the good Ava) part of these families or?? Not?? That was not really clear to me. I just really feel like I lost a lot of context by reading the graphic novel before the actual novel.

I quite liked the nostalgic art style and coloring in this graphic novel. The characterizations were done well, which I always look for in graphic adaptations. The pacing in this novel was really well done and held the tension. The gore was a bit sanitized, and I wish there was more detailing for ambiance. I thought this adaptation was done well, but I found the overall story lackluster.

Hide: The Graphic Novel is a tense and exhilarating story of fourteen teens partaking in a hide-and-seek competition where the winner will receive $50,000. But there is something off-putting about the grounds where the competition will take place, and as they days go by, and people are "found", the truth begins spilling out of what this competition really is.

The main character, Mack was an enjoyable and fascinating character to read and learn more about as the story goes on. As she makes acquaintances, some reluctantly more than others, she can only hope that word doesn't get out of who she really is, and why she is so good at hide and seek...

The illustrations were so mesmerising and made the experience of reading this graphic novel that whole bit better! I haven't read the original book that this is made from (although I have owned it for a while... oops) but this take on it has got me intrigued and eager to read it!

The story overall was shocking to watch unfold. The images of the amusement park and what it truly hides amplified my interest and immersion of the story. I read it in one sitting.

There was also an lgbt+ relationship which surprised me and I loved it!

A huge thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for providing me with this eArc in exchange for my honest review!

zomg!!! I downloaded and read this the same day, which never happens, but that's how excited I was about it. I loooooved it nearly as much as I loved the original, and I would say the only misstep you made here was omitting the absolute baller author's note that is in the prose novel.

I think that the graphic novel for this worked even better than the actual work's writing style (in the audiobook, I should clarify, as I don't know if the actual book had helpful designs). It really helped differentiating pov, and there were some ULTRA cool horror shots for a book that, imho, wasn't scary

Hide: The Graphic novel was a lot of fun. It is a graphic novel about a group of people selected to compete in the ultimate game of Hide and Seek. To top it off they are playing in an abandoned amusement park. The graphics were very well done and easy to follow. The story was suspenseful and kept you guessing what was going on. I felt like the pacing in some areas was too slow and there were parts that were in the story that did not add to the plot.

Not what I had expected from the graphic novel. I had tried to read the book but that didn't go well for me but it was an ok adaptation.

I think this graphic novel is for those that loved the novel and want another edition.

I am honestly surprised at how close the graphic novel adaptation got to the source material. The narration style was purposeful and well-done. Although, I do have the background knowledge of having read the novel, I think the graphic adaptation did well in giving each of the characters a platform and emotional complexity. Obviously there was less depth, and much less background detail to the first few "losers" (of the Hide-and-Seek game - no spoilers) compared with the book, but that's just how the graphic novel format works.

I loved the art style and colors. I liked the way the Amazement Park was depicted, and the detail of the story as it unfolded. I do think I felt less emotional than I did when reading the original book, but again, this is likely because: A) I'd already read the book so I knew what was coming and B) There was less page-time for emotional depth so it wasn't built up the same as it was in the novel.

I really liked this adaptation. I'd even be happy to have it on my shelf next to the original.

Thanks to Netgalley for the digital ARC!

When I read the original book of this, I had enjoyed it but felt that it didn't quite hit the mark in some areas. The graphic novel adaptation fixed pretty much everything that felt off to me there. The format makes it easier to recognize characters, I loved seeing the horrors, there's faster pacing, it didn't feel like they tried to pull a very big twist, and it didn't feel like there were any unresolved elements. I think that reading the two together could be good (as the full book has more time to get into details of lore), but this is a very solid stand-alone piece that I enjoyed greatly.

Release date: September 12th, 2023

2.5, but rounding up. I read Hide last year for a video I did on my BookTube channel (https://youtu.be/XOF-m576OJA) and I did not enjoy it much. In fact, it was one of the lowest-rated books of the year for me. I wanted to give the graphic novel a chance though, because I did like the overall premise of the story and I thought that it would work better in a different medium. Soooo I decided to ALSO make a video reading this version of Hide to test that theory:

https://youtu.be/34eve7zkRbU

I did enjoy this way more than the novel. I think the imagery really helps the novel and I definitely was more intrigued and captivated by what was going on than I was while reading the same story last year. This shows how much format and medium matter when it comes to storytelling! I said in the video I think this would have done even better as a one season show where each night is a different episode. Unfortunately, as a graphic novel, it still wasn't anything exceptional. There were a lot of plot and character issues the book had that they sadly brought over into this adaptation that I just couldn't get passed. Overall, it works better this way and I did enjoy it, but it still wasn't a stand out for me.

See the video for my full thoughts and opinions!

Thank you to NetGalley and Ten Speed Graphic for an advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are, as always, my very own.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-arc for review!
I really like the art style. I think that if you liked the book, you will also like this one. I have to say this book was really good all the way until 60% I remember that towards the end I got really confused and thought that a lot of things did not made sense and the same happen with this graphic novel. This read very young and some moments seemed a little naive, It started to bother me a lot towards the end.

Honestly this's very boring, half thru the novel and they kept introducing characters. The story is a huge meh.
The two stars are for the illustrators Veronica Fish and Andy Fish.
Huge disappointment.

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Sinceramente me aburrio muchisimo, mas de la mitad de la novela y seguian presentando personajes. La historia es un enorme meh.
Las dos estrellas es por los ilustradores Veronica Fish y Andy Fish.
Enorme desilucion.