"The Circle" is a gripping graphic novel that delves into both the supernatural and the emotional landscapes of adolescence. Damon Clark's storytelling, combined with Alyzia Zherno's haunting artwork, creates a compelling narrative that lingers in the mind long after the final page. The exploration of friendship, sacrifice, and the consequences of our choices makes "The Circle" a read that is not only chilling but also thought-provoking, leaving readers contemplating the weight of their own decisions and the darkness that can lie within us all.

A teenage boy named Christian moves to a new town with his father. He befriends a group of outcasts and they decide to mess with the occult. Unfortunately, the only way to stop the ritual that possessed them is by killing off his new friends, one by one.

I enjoyed the art (Alyzia Zherno goes off every time) and the story was mostly fun. "New kid gets into the wrong crowd" is one of my favorite horror tropes. At first I thought the story was going a different way because there was a nod to The Lost Boys when they first hang out.

Unfortunately, I feel like the pacing was a little off, and this is something that happens occasionally with graphic novels - the story and characters are not fleshed out and so the story feels rushed and by the time we get momentum and start enjoying the world, BOOM everything is off the rails and the end comes slamming into you. Also there's a bit of a problematic "gy**y" arc and this was created in like 2017 so c'mon we know that's a slur and we shouldn't use stereotypes of nomadic cultures to resolve plot lines, thank you.

Overall, I was disappointed because I went into this wanting so much more than I ended up getting, but I didn't think the story itself was terrible, Damon Clark just needed to build on it a little more.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy. Let me be the first to apologize for taking ages to get around to reviewing this book even though I received it before it was published. I am a bad little bean.

The first thing I noticed about this graphic novel is its cover illustration. I think it looks pretty amazing and mysterious too. Upon reading it, I was hooked after the first chapter.

I have to say, there isn't really anything out of the ordinary with the plot. In fact, I had already anticipated the rather predictable twist in the story.

However, I genuinely enjoyed reading this. It's a fun read, in my opinion. So if you're looking to take a break from whatever heavy stuff you're reading, give this a tr

With thanks to Netgalley and Action lab entertainment

The circle is a spooky but good graphic novel that I really enjoyed.

After his mother died, Christian moves to Shell Bay with his single father only to be bullied as the new kid at school. He finds friendship with the "Weird" kids and unknowingly joins them in an occult ritual that allows a darkness to possess each of them. A story about a new kid. He's mixed up with the wrong group of friends. After he gets in over his head, he asks his body neighbor for help.

A great, creepy graphic novel to be fully enjoyed!

After the death of his mother, Christian and his father moved to Shell Bay. Christian doesn’t seem to be destined for an easy life. As he starts in a new school, he becomes the target of bullies. When the group of weird kids help him, Christian becomes part of something that he doesn’t fully understand. Unknowingly, he joins them in an occult ritual that gets them possessed by darkness. Soon, they all start developing strange powers and Christian learns right after that it comes at a high price. Faced with horrifying truth, he has to make a choice if he wants to reverse the ritual: kill off the circle before they kill him or let the darkness take over him completely. Will he be able to make his choice before time runs out?

Both the story and the art are amazing and they complement each other very nicely. The angle of the drawings and the dark colours only bring out the horror of the story more.

The story develops at a steady, suspenseful pace and it ends with a dramatic climax. There isn’t a boring moment with this graphic novel. There aren’t any loose ends left when the story is over and I felt that the story should have a sequel. Damon Clark started and finished the story completely, but I think there’s still space to explore Christian’s life after his horrifying adventure. However, I felt that the deaths and the ultimate feeling of fear weren’t truly there. Everything happens very fast and I couldn’t feel or see the impact of the events on the characters. It would have given more depth to the plot.

This graphic novel is all about wrong choices; how bad life can get, especially when one thinks it cannot get any worse. On the contrary, of other graphic novels, the main character doesn’t have a single drop of luck. Every time he tries to make amends, everything just turns ever so darker.

I read this novel in one go, I couldn’t put it down. Even though it’s a horror story, I felt nostalgic and a bit like a kid again when I was reading it. I recommend it!

I fell for The Circle because of the nice cover. The art inside is slightly different, but still the strongest point of the graphic novel.

Christian has just moved to a rather boring small town and has some troubles adjusting and finding new friends. That is, until he’s tricked by a couple of teenagers with sinister plans to be a part of their circle. Things go wrong quickly from there.

It was a very quick read, but the story was not that interesting. It has all been done before and especially Christian is so very naïve. Also, it was as if a lot of the story was missing still because a lot happens in such a small number of pages that the events (and the ‘why’s behind it) stayed un(der)developed.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The Circle written by Damon Clark, with artwork from Alyzia Zherno and Sami Makkonen is a graphic novel. It follows Christian, a teenage boy, who moves moves to Shell bay with his single father after his mother dies only to be bullied as the new kid at school. He finds friendship with the "Weird" kids and unknowingly joins them in an occult ritual that allows a darkness to possess each of them. Through the help of his gypsy neighbor, Christian will learn that the only way he can reverse the ritual is by killing off his circle of friends before they kill him, or before the darkness takes over his soul. One by one he will face them all, and in the end he will have to make the hardest decision of his young life.

The Circle takes the typically hard time of moving and starting a new school with more specific issues like grief, loss, and bullying. It takes the non-unexpected route of the occult- and continues with some loosely explained motivations and reactions that did not quite resonate with me. Sadly, like the story, I found the majority of the artwork to fall short of my expectations. The cover art was nicely done, and is most of what had me request the title from Netgalley. However, the bulk of the book did not have the same appeal. It felt a little unpolished, but not in the dark Burton way that would have enhanced the read. There is a decent amount of action, significant gore, and more cursing that I have heard from any teenagers ( even when I was one). I was hoping for something more original and visually stunning based on the cover, but was disappointed. Perhaps readers that are a little younger, and not ones that have seen The Craft and read a large variety of books and graphic novels that have already covered similar ground will enjoy the read more than I.

Follows the trope of the new kid moves to town and gets picked on by the popular kids. He hangs out with the Goth kids who trick him into killing people to gain demonic powers.

The Good: There was a nice twist at the end.

The Bad: The pacing was really off. There was a nice slow setup for the first few issues, then Christian gets powers and has the big showdown in like an issue and a half. I felt like no one told the creators this would be only five issues until they were working on issue 4.

The Ugly: The art while nice and stylistic was so generic that I couldn't tell a lot of the characters apart, especially Christian's friends.

The illustrations were perfect - had the same amount of chill and grittiness as the storyline without becoming gory or outright horror. The storyline was engaging and interesting. Definitely going on my wishlist!

Dark and comic, but that is all.

Okay. That's literally what this graphic novel is.

The illustrations and art were undoubtedly beautiful and gripping, especially the way the characters were designed, had such a Burton feel to it which was great to see. The book also revolved around bullying, which as a theme in a graphic novel, is unique and it's wonderful to see this issue being represented, I just wished it would've been in a better way.

However, the plot was a pathetic disappointment, and the writing even more so.

"This book contains teenagers speaking like teenager."

This was a warning in the book. I should've taken it as one.

Apparently, according to the writer teenagers can't speak without cursing. Thus, the dialogues in this book were filled with curses for no apparent reason, other than the author generalizing a large group and painting them with the same brush. Yes, the author was maybe trying to make it realistic and that worked in the bullying sequences but not in every other dialogue. It was irritating and made the writer seem very amateur.

The plot even though creepy and with a touch of gore wasn't properly executed at all. The characters had no development or back story, nothing was expressed saliently. There were some things that were utterly disturbing like Christian's dad agreeing with him and telling him to kill just like that and then leaving, like what kind of parent does that?! Some utter non-sense right there.

The stars are only for the appropriate and captivating art as well as the action and gore in the book, with the addition of the plot twist and the crazy ending - the only things that made reading this bearable.

I'd like to thank the publisher for providing with a copy of this book through NetGalley.

The story revolves around Christian Reynolds, a teenager who moves to a new town with his father (Thomas) after his mother's death. Fast enough, he becomes the target of bullies (Chad and Brett). Being the new kid in town means he has no friends, thus when Daniel, Phoebe, Todd, Rachel and Justin approach him, he quickly starts hanging out with them. However, he doesn't know the secret they share. They need Christian in order to complete a spell where they summon demons to gain power and beat the bullies. The so-called Circle, succeeds and everyone seem to have a unique power, which rises from the summoned demon(s). They kill in order to gain more power and when the time comes they try to persuade Christian into helping them for a second time, in order to gain the power to control the demon within them and not let him take over. Christian doesn't want anything to do with them no longer, hence they kidnap his father and blackmail Christian into meeting them. Of course, Christian has other plans, but I'll let you read it and see for youself.

This comic involved everything it promised it would. It is within the fantasy and supernatural realm. It is a very dark, grim, scary tale of a teenager peer pressure gone wrong. Very similar concept, but it was well organized. It seemed rushed at points, so that is probably the reason I will give it 3 stars, but it was nonetheless a good read! The other reason, is that I found a particular Father-Son dialogue to be very unrealistic from the father's part. I found the design of the illustrations to be completely accurate, detailed and on point with the story!
I can also see the relation between Christian's name with Christianity vs the summoned demons with represent hell and Satan. Maybe that's just me though!

I definitely recommend this comic to anyone that likes comics (duh), but also supernatural tales with a dark twist, that are predictable nonetheless.

This isn't bad, but could have been better. The dark goings-on of a token group of goth types provides for a decent story, but in a too-cheesy manner at times, and the artwork really doesn't provide them with the necessary character. I looked at too many images of the hero at the beginning in doubt as to which gender he was, for a start. Worth a look, but not worth a purchase.

Seriously creepy-great artwork-really wanted to love this one-however, there was too much of the same color pallet used throughout the whole thing, nothing really jumped off the page at me and stuck.

I want to thank Damon Clark and Diamond Book Distributors for the opportunity to read and review this book.

'The Circle' by Damon Clark with art by Alyzia Zherno is a creepy story about a bullied boy whose life goes from bad to worse.

Christian and his father move to Shell Bay after the death of his mother. Being a new kid at school is never easy, and he is immediately targeted by the school bullies. When he is rescued by the weird kids and invited to join their club, he doesn't realize the dangerous things they are messing with. Before long Christian and the other weird kids start exhibiting strange powers, but these power are gained at the cost of blood and now Christian wants out.

I read it fast enough and it just spins into weirder and weirder. Things are not explained well, and innocent people end up dead in a story that makes their lives pretty worthless. When a character has to die, I want it to mean something. Here it just felt fake and cheap. The art is actually pretty interesting with a style that twists and exaggerates features like a fun house mirror. This works really well as the creepy shadows start showing up everywhere. But when it was done, I wanted something more out of it.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Action Lab Entertainment, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

So this my first graphic novel and may I just say that it is absolutely wonderful. Very dark and fantastically written. The fact that it's gruesome just makes it all the more better and the writer even made the teenagers speak how they would normally.

Christian and his father move to a new town to be closer to his grandparents after his mother dies. He gets into some fights with other kids on the first day at his new high school. Another group of kids notice him and invite him to go to their hangout in the forest. They say they need one more person to join their group to complete the ritual. They proceed to perform rituals, which involves killing people from their school.

This is a strange story. It was very unpredictable.

The art was confusing at times because of the dark colours. The style reminded me of Tim Burton. However, many of the characters looked alike so I couldn't differentiate between them.

There was a lot of unnecessary profanity in the story. The feelings of the characters could have been displayed in a more emotional way if there wasn't as much swearing.

Some parts of the story were inconsistent too. On one page, Christian's father tells him he doesn't have school because it's Sunday, but in the next frame he is heading out the door for school. I couldn't tell if he was dreaming, if his father was wrong, or it was a mistake in the comic.

I think this story could have been much more successful with some more editing.

This review will be posted on my blog on June 13, 2017.

So the initial premise for this book is lacking: the main character's mother dies, so Christian and his father move to a new town where he is an outcast. He is taken in by the other outsiders at his school and things start to get more interesting. They seem to dabble in magic as a lark, but it turns out to be real. Christian finds himself in over his head.

This book gets very dark between the magic rituals and the fallout that Christian faces. That darkness sets this book apart from similar books that I've read. And I like that Christian's progression through the book feels natural.

My favorite part of the book is probably the art. When the magic begins to show up, the art brings it out subtly. It adds to the tension and darkness of the book too. Aside from a few stumbling points related to the plot, this is a solid book worth picking up.

I haven't read a lot of graphic novels before, but this one was definitely one of my favorites even though it was rather short. It was creepy, sometimes even a bit relatable (apart from the demon-stuff..) and altogether just a really nice story. The characters were all kind of bad - I didn't even like the main character that much, but that's not necessarily a good thing. This isn't a happy story, so the characters don't need to be happy and perfect people. And the writing and (in my opinion slightly Burton-esque) illustrations really did a good job at showing that.

I won't go into the story too much since it's a very quick read and basically anything I could say would be considered a spoiler, but I can say this; "The Circle" is a rather eerie graphic novel that is over quickly. Maybe even a bit too quickly for my taste. The conclusion to the story came really fast after a longer introduction, so maybe some of the scenes should be a little bit longer.

But all in all I enjoyed this story and would definitely read more if I had the opportunity to do so.

4 Stars.