Mer is such an amazing comic book! Joelle Sellner captures the heart of the teen voice which pairs equally well with the illustrations drawn by Abby Boeh.

After the death of her mother, Aryn's dad moves their little family to Connecticut. A new school means Aryn has to start all over and make new friends and a new life for herself. She makes quick friends with Julia Silverglade. She also happens to move in next door to the ultra hottie, Adrian, who is a little more than human. He and his friends, Rafe and Tressa, are Mers from Atlantis.

The story progresses quickly and even so I didn't want it to end. Aryn is fierce and sassy, the kind of character I love to read about. She struggles with the grief of losing her mother, but the friendships she forges help her get through it. The romance between Aryn and Adrian is exactly what you might expect from YA relationships, gushy and squeal worthy!

I hope there's another volume coming after this one, because this story was not enough. The snarky, quirky characters made Mer a fun read that can't be missed. I recommend it to everyone, especially YA readers who love the mythology of mermaids and other fantastic sea creatures.

Angry-at-the-world redhead and creature of the sea find each other because of their matching necklaces. There’s some evil creature that looks nothing like Ursula out to get the merpeople, because a certain part of their anatomy goes well with wine.
This had possibilities, but all the high school drama makes it hard to like. I get how I’m supposed to feel sorry for her, but she and her friends act so stupid at times. This is probably for young teens, because with anyone older I imagine a lot of eye rolling. And the scene where someone is sneaking up on them just left me cringing; did the author really write such dumb characters on purpose?
As for the artwork, the bright colors make it looks like a vintage comic, like Archie or some such. At the end there’s some early designs and small articles about the mythology of the sea.

Fun graphic novel for teens about mer (mermaids). New twist on the typical mermaid fairy tale. Hoping there is a part 2!

This had every possibility of being very entertaining and original. However I found that this graphic narrative fell short. The first warning bell to me was the description of “Twilight meets the legend of Atlantis”, as I was never a Twilight fan to begin with. I was wooed in however by the beautiful graphics.

I will say that aesthetically Mer is beautiful. Boeh has a captivating art style that I find to be wholly original. The concept behind this story is also unique, as mermaids/men are an untapped resource in the YA fairy tale retelling market. Despite all this promise Sellner did not deliver plot wise.

Mer seemed to skip around, leaving out connecting scenes that would help the reader make sense of how the characters got from point a to point b. I was also disappointed in how quickly the protagonists Aryn and Adrian (there were several A names in this novel, which get’s confusing when you aren’t invested in the characters) began to develop feelings for one another. Now I know there is a certain degree of speed to the plot when graphic novels are concerned, but I’ve read good graphic novels with believable developments. This was not one of them. The love story progressed too fast for me. Also, once Aryn discovered that Adrian was mer there was no reaction from her, which I found to be unbelievable.

In short I did not form any kind of attachment to the characters in this story, so when *spoiler alert* one is possibly mortally wounded I did not find myself overly concerned. Sellner’s pacing was well done action-wise, but lackluster in all other aspects. The cliffhanger ending also left me uninterested, probably because I have no investment in these character’s relationships. However, despite my misgivings I will look for another installment, as Boeh’s artistic ventures will most likely continue to be stunning.

I greatly enjoyed this graphic novel. The story was very well explained and written. The art draws you in with its vibrant colors and creative characters. Upon first glance at the synopsis of this story, I wanted to know more. I wanted this story to grab me and hold on throughout the book but yet when you are reading about Mermaids and fantasy characters such as these you want to have some sort of "scientific" background or understanding of what you are reading. This book gave you all of that and more. It was a pleasure to read.

That should be 'meh'. There're teen-friendly comics, and teen-only comics, and this is definitely the latter. Clunky drawing, overly vivid colouring, and a pretty uninteresting potboiler regarding a legacy of a necklace, a bitchy pop star who's the step-mum to your best friend, and a merman. Now you know why I said 'meh'.

A delightful take on Atlantis, this is a great graphic novel for fans of the Lumberjanes, The Backstagers, and Zodiac Starforce.

Wasn't able to read this one before it was archived -- interested to check it out when it's available!

When I first looked at the title, I automatically assumed it was going to be a mer-person novel. The cover confirmed my thought.

The Good Stuff:
1. The story was quite captivating.
2. I loved the artwork!
3. I liked that it was full of action.

The Issues:
1. Some parts were cliché.
2. It was a bit too fast-paced for me.
3. The high school drama

Overall impression: I liked the novel and it was a good quick read. I think it could have been a bit better though.

I won't be able to review this one because I forgot too download it before it was archived, so I don't have it to read. I was really looking forward to it but because it didn't come out till April I was waiting on downloading it and didn't realize it archived so quickly. :(

Mer is an okay read. The art is amazing, I liked the way it was colored and how it had lots of blues throughout to keep tying it to the sea. However, I found the story a little jumbled up, confusing at times. I wish it was done a little bit better.

A great story for fans of Teen Wolf who want more beaches in their supernatural drama. Aryn moves to a new town with her familk after her mother's Death. Caught between the snooty rich girls, and friend whose stepmother is too interested in her, and the new hunk in school who has the same necklace as her. Oh, and the hunk has scales..

While the story has been done before, I liked the art, and the lead characters are sympathetic. The volume can stand on its own, but I definitely would read a follow-up.

I really enjoyed all aspects of this graphic novel. The artwork was bright and colorful which made each character really come to life. Some difficult topics are touched on through back story through Aryn's mothers demise. It made it easier to connect with her on an emotional level, especially when she had trouble making friends at school. I was less than impressed with the Dad. I get a bit tired of the cliche parents who don't seem to know how or even desire to listen to their teenage children. I disliked greatly how he forced both of his daughters into working for him without regard to how it would impact them. He also didn't really give much explanation or empathy for quite a while. On an entirely different note I've no idea how I feel about the romance in this story.

On an entirely different note, I've no idea how I feel about the romance in this story. In some ways, I really enjoyed it because it was intense and easy to get into. It was also insta love at it's finest and didn't really hold any depth. The lack of any true personal connection took away from the impact of the ending. I had issues with the ending besides that but it was cute enough.

Overall, it's an adorable story though a little cliche in some respects. I still recommend it because it's fun. The artwork really lends itself to the story and would be great inspiration for any artist.

I could not download properly. It had text bubbles, but no images.

I really enjoyed this comic volume! What an interesting, suspenseful and romantic comic! I really did feel like I was reading and watching a very cool TV series. It was a lot of fun to read and the art is truly beautiful. I would definitely recommend this to people who love mermaids, a good comic, great art and a drama filled story.

I decided to read this comic because the synopsis caught my attention. I found the art work to be bright, colourful, clear and visually quite pleasant. Putting aside the cringe worthy insta-love between the two main characters I enjoyed reading this comic. I found the villain amusing and her demise was entertaining.

I think girls between 11-13 would eat this comic up. What tween doesn’t want a sexy teenage Mer-person to instantly fall in love with them and offer them a new magical home and the chance to be a Mer. 11-year-old me would have loved the idea of running away and becoming a mermaid! Hell, 30-year-old me still thinks It might be kind of fantastic.

We follow Aryn as she navigates a new school, new friends, new love and gets herself caught in the villain’s clutches, then back out again, with help.

Aryn bugged me early on in the story and I can't decide whether I felt she was immature or unhinged. I felt quite detached from the story as she was going berserk at strangers in the school hall and at her father. Actually, her treatment of her father grated on me, but that’s the adult and parent in me. I don’t think the intended audience would feel this way and the younger teens would be siding with her.

Under the cheesy romance and friendship drama there was a deeper story with Aryn realising she loves and needs her family – so that was nice. The comic is only 66 pages long, so all in all it was a light, quick and entertaining read.

So, although this wasn't a terrible graphic novel, I had some problems with it that just overall hurt my enjoyment of it.
The first major issue was the fact that I couldn't really understand how to read it at first. I think it would have been helpful to have directional arrows every so often, like a manga might, to keep you on the right track. The main reason I found issues with the direction of reading was because I found that there was a lot of illustrated boxes on one page, making it unclear for me on how it should be read. This is an issue that may just affect me, but I thought I should mention it nevertheless.

The next problem I stumbled upon was that everything progressed way too quickly, causing me (right up until the end) not having made connections with characters. Sure, I felt a bit sad when certain things happened, but that emotion didn't run deep or last long.

It was predictable from the start, with a fair amount of plot holes. I found the realtionships in particular to happen too quickly, especially with the turn of events right at the begining of ''act 3''. I still don't know why it's not regular chapters... The act style serves no purpose to me. I felt that I had missed chuncks of storyline because relationships seemed to evolve so quickly, like I was missing major events.

The conversation of the mer people felt really stunted and didn't flow very well. To me this did give me the impression that perhaps English wouldn't have been their first language (as they would use full words such as ''I am'', ''I cannot'', as opposed to the quicker, more convenient ''I'm'' or ''I can't'' that other characters would say), but regardless, it still broke up my reading flow a lot.

Overall, unfortunately this book just didn't feel very unique or special and wasn't executed very well. As this is an unedited arc, perhaps some of the smaller issues can be resolved but as for the lacking of general entertainment, I don't think that can easily be fixed, I'm sad to say.

"Mer" is certainly banking on the current supernatural creature trend, just as all the witch and vampire books have before them but that is not where I find fault with this book. At it's core, the idea for this story was solid unfortunately it felt rather rushed. There was a lot of material that potentially should have been covered that was ignored or written off after a single acknowledgement.

There was a distinct lack of character growth in the main characters, Aryn could have been so much more than she was. Her interactions with other characters were stilted and the relationship that was supposed to have built with Adrian felt shallow. How their story ended in this volume felt inevitable but not upsetting. If there is to be a second volume these problems could be solved but that does not save this volume from the lack of world and character building.

I was left wanting more, not a sequel, just more from the characters and their reactions/emotions concerning the situation they were dealing with. There just wasn't enough of anything tangible to hold my attention.

Mer come to land to find a mate. They can choose to stay and become more human or go back, either alone because their mate is Mer too or because their human mate chose to go with them to Atlantis and become a Mer themselves.

Aryn's mother died recently. Her father only kept a few of her belongings before they moved to Connecticut where Aryn and her sister got a scholarship at a very exclusive school there. While going through her mother's belongings, Aryn finds a necklace and decides to wear it. However, on her first day of school, Aryn loses it and accuses the guy whom her only friend takes a fancy on.

Although full of stereotypes and clichés, Mer was quite enjoyable to read and the art was very cute. I like the mythos created and Sellner's take on mermaids so I'll definitely follow the series when the second volume is released. The insta-love bothered me a bit but, since it was mostly one sided and I guess the mate thing kind of explains why it was so, I got over it. The last scene gives me hope for the next volume, I can't wait for it to come out.

Interesting and intriguing with great art and a great storyline.. Love the twist on merpeople, atlantis and the siren like villain with a penchant for eating hearts!
Can't wait to read more - if there will be!