When Seong-ji leaves her small seaside town to start college in Seoul, she hopes to maintain her close friendship with Ji-won despite attending different universities. However, their bond weakens, and Seong-ji finds herself balancing college by day and working in a supermarket by night. Her life feels lonely until she meets a peculiar young woman who also navigates the loneliness of the big city by spending time in empty homes, painting and photographing the lives of the absent residents.

Seong-ji is drawn to this woman, and as they explore the darkness of Seoul together, Seong-ji realizes the depth of her feelings for her lost friend. However, as she comes to this realization, her new friendship begins to unravel.

The graphics are haunting, capturing the mystery of the city at night and the realities of gaining and losing friendships throughout life, as well as the universal challenge of loneliness.

While the artwork is beautiful, I felt a deeper resolution for all three main characters was lacking.

This graphic novel may not break new ground, but it combines familiar elements in a fresh way and rarely fails to deliver. The story follows two teenage Korean girls who are best friends, with the protagonist slowly realizing she wants more from the relationship. After their high school exams, they end up at different universities, and their promises to sustain the friendship falter. Predictably, the protagonist finds another woman who helps her discover more about herself and likely Sapphic love, though the nature of this new character is worth discovering on your own.

The story's gentle predictability is enhanced by the main character's night shifts at a mini supermarket, effectively conveying her dreary evenings, even if her study hours are not depicted. For a specific audience or general readers, this is a pleasant read, offering a look at a character who, despite her naivety about the city and herself, has enough strength to make it endearing rather than a flaw. I liked her, and I liked this graphic novel – a solid four-star read.

Absolutely loved the artwork and the plot! It was such a heartwarming and comforting read as an adult who has to deal with everyday adult life. Thank you for this manga!

This graphic novel explores a topic that is timely for all ages. The illustrations were absolutely stunning and seemed effortless. The characters were well developed and the story flowed easily. My only drawback was that I wished the author went more in depth with the story. I understand that with a graphic novel you may be limited on how much you can get into. But this graphic novel left me wanting more and disappointed that I didn’t get it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you NetGalley and Humanoids Inc and Life Drawn for sending me this ebook for review consideration.

When Seong-ji leaves her small seaside town to start college in Seoul, she hopes her best friend Ji-won will stay in touch and that they will still be close friends even though they are at different colleges. This doesn’t happen and Seong-Ji finds herself juggling college during the day and working in a supermarket during the night. It is a lonely existence until she encounters a peculiar young woman who also navigates the loneliness of the big city by spending time in the empty homes of other people painting and photographing the lives of these people.

Seong-Ji is swept up by this woman and as they explore the darkness of Seoul together Seong-Ji realises the depth of her feeling for her lost friend but as she does, her new friendship begins to unravel.

The graphics are haunting and convey the mystery of a city at night and also the reality of gaining and losing friendships through life and the challenge of loneliness which can be experienced at any time and anywhere.

The artwork is beautiful but I was left wanting a deeper resolution for all the three main characters.

Copy provided by Humanoids via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Thank you NetGalley, Humanoids Inc, and Life Drawn for this arc!

2.5 / 5 stars rounded up

This was an interesting and melancholy story. It held my interest all the way through, even though it made me really uncomfortable at times lol. The art style was unique and fit the dreamlike quality of the story. The text was really difficult to read digitally though; I had to zoom in on every page.

I both liked and didn't like this. The story was interesting but sometimes confusing, the art was sometimes too rough for my taste, and the text boxes hard to read. That's why I'm giving it such a low rating, but it could be more of a me thing and someone else might like it a lot more.

This was a really deep and philosophical manga. I still don’t know if the “ghost” was a real person or not and I kinda love that it’s a mystery at the end. I like the misty and water colored feel of the manga. It matches the main character’s angst and moods. I loved how brave the message was to convey and how vulnerable it makes the characters. It takes a lot of courage to confess your unrequited love.

A graphic novel that doesn't really do much that's new, but does it in new combinations, and rarely fails to do it well. Two teenaged Korean girls are best friends, but the lead character is someone who slowly realises she wants more from the relationship. However, when they take their final exams at high school they end up in different universities – and their promises to sustain the friendship don't last. You just know our lead is going to find another woman to more-or-less teach her about herself and probably Sapphic love, but the nature of that character is something worth finding out yourself.

A gentle predictability is here, then, flavoured by the MC being a night worker in a mini supermarket – you really get the halfway-to-the-doldrums feel of her evenings, even if her studying hours are closed off from us. I get the feeling lesbian fiction doesn't get to focus much on South Korea – it seems a society where it's still close to a taboo, as the nocturnal nature of the second friendship seems necessary to allow it to happen. But here from a certain audience or as a general reader this is a pleasant read – a look at a character who neither knows nearly as much as she ought about the city her shop is there to serve nor even her own self, but who still has just enough strength to stop that naivety from being a flaw. I liked her, and I liked this – a healthy four stars.

I found this just to be a bit odd, I don’t think the story was for me. I found the artwork absolutely gorgeous, I loved the harbour view and the convenience store shelves panels particularly. I thought it had a good ratio of words to page and the art panels were formatted well. And I appreciated the coming of age/self discovery aspect but I prefer more lighthearted books so it’s probably my personal preferences that stopped my enjoyment of the book vs the actual book itself.

Seong-Ji is a young lady who is both nervous and excited about starting college in Seoul. She and her best friend Ji-won promise to keep in contact despite being in different colleges, but the days stretch with no word from Ji-won. This leaves Seong-Ji feeling very sad and lonely.. During her part-time job, she meets a strange woman who shows her the true wonders of the night.

This book was a quick read. I was very impressed with how much deep meaning was woven into the pages despite the short length. I was also captivated by the stunning, hand-drawn artwork. It was so enjoyable to turn every page. It was very interesting to read the thoughts of Seong-Ji, especially because I saw a lot of myself in those thoughts. She developed a lot throughout the story.. I was also very intrigued by the woman that she met during the night.

To conclude, I would definitely recommend this to someone seeking inspiration in their life. While the ending left me a bit unsatisfied and slightly confused, the stunning artwork satiated me overall. I look forward to future work by Samir Dahmani.

A BIG thank you to NetGalley for giving me this opportunity to read Seoul Before Sunrise for free in exchange for an honest review.

Seoul Before Sunrise is a beautifully quiet story about loss and self discovery. The artwork was beautiful and really captured the atmosphere of the story. The narrative was a little underwhelming, but I still enjoyed the experience.

*ARC provided by NetGalley for honest review*

I only got maybe a third of the way through, but this graphic novel was not for me. I would call this a coming-of-age, sad girl drama based in Korea. Meh.

The story is about a girl who lost her life long friendship along the hustle bustle of life. She then get extremely lonely and gets sad over it and cannot help but reminisce things as they were before. She then start working at a convenient store where she meet this accentric woman and starts a weird friendship with her who shows her the side of the city she was not looking at.
sounds cute right? except it wasn't! The concept was so beautiful, the art is just amazing but the actual execution is so bizzare and not to mention illegal. I appreciate the themes of loneliness and lost friendships but honestly there has to be a better way to execute than this. I cannot say more without going in spoiler territory.
Lastly, thanks to #NetGalley for a free copy for an honest review.

Seoul Before Sunrise talks about loss and finding yourself. Loss in order to find yourself. Finding yourself in losing people. Accepting that some people just cross your path, spend some time in your live and then leave. Accepting that sometimes, you meet someone for a delimited amount of time. Not knowing how long you'll get to spend time with them, and still they leave this enormous trace in your life. That sometimes, you can meet the right person at the right moment, the one you need to understand who you are. Seoul Before Sunrise sums up this feeling, with magnificent visual art. It was soft and beautiful. A bit weird sometimes and nos always understandable, a bit too open to interpretation for me. But overall, that was a really beautiful read.

The story was beautifully drawn and painted, but I couldn't feel its emotion. It wasn't very impressive for me. The color usage and painting were especially good from an artistic point of view.

I don't regret reading it. I enjoyed it.

Thank you NetGalley for this eARC.

In this graphic novel, a girl experience the loss of friendship when she and her childhood best friend both move to Seoul for college. She begins to explore the city at night with a newfound companion.

Overall, I liked the idea of this but wanted more depth. Since there wasn't a lot of plot I was expecting a bit more character development but it didn't give me as much as I wanted -- loneliness and friendship were both touched on but since they were the central themes I wanted more.

The description also called it dream-like but honestly the only dream sequence felt quite out of place.

I really liked this book. I wasn’t super keen on the ending. I don’t particularly like open endings. The artwork was spectacular. I would recommend this.

The artwork is beautiful. The story is a coming of age set in Korea.

Two friends who promise they’ll continue to be there for each other in college. One pulls away inexplicably. The other is lonely and finding herself in Seoul at night with a mysterious friend. A “ghost” who explores the city and people’s unoccupied homes at night.

There’s a lot of self discovery and heartbreak. It’s a meaningful and sad story.

A soft, lovely, sad graphic novel about adulthood, change, isolation, and being. Dahmani's watercolors lent the story a dreamy atmosphere that worked well with the story.

I enjoyed this. It was quite poignant and I loved the thematic work that was explored. Seoul is also a character in itself, which is nice.

Hm... I love the mood the graphic novel builds - a little Murakami here and there, the little bits of magical realism. It felt, however, as if not a single topic prevailed throughout the story. The theme of the main character being queer kind of popped out like a Jack in the box after the slow buildup of those of friend separation anxiety and coming of age. The mysterious character of the house intruder also kind of fell short for me. I don't know... I do appreciate the atmosphere and the drawing style. Really felt surrounded by night reading it.