This was cute, if slightly underwhelming / unoriginal for adult readers. I did love the art style, although my download copy was very low resolution. The art was cute and colorful and I would recommend it to younger readers rather than adults. Simplistic, yet enjoyable.

This is a cute middle grade comic that I’m sure I would have loved years ago. The thing that comes to mind now is cute. The characters were fun and imaginative and I believe the art will be quite pretty judging from the cover but for me the story lacked, as I’m sure people over 15, or maybe even 12 would think so also.

Isabel has lived a very sheltered life - she's expected to be there, but not there, to be a proper little lady. Isabel's mother is distant and her sculptor father doesn't seem to have much time for her. But everything changes when Isabel inadvertently steps through the veil separating the human world from the world of the Fae, and right into the middle of a war between the Seelie and the Unseelie. Isabel must return a magical necklace to the Seelie before the war destroys not just the Faerie world, but her world as well. The artwork is whimsical, done mainly in soft pastels that give the story a dream-like quality. However, the story is thin and the characters underdeveloped. The plot felt as though it’d been compressed from a longer, multi-volume graphic novel series into just one volume. The story moved too quickly and at no point are we allowed to get to know any of the characters. Even Isabel was a fairly bland character, with very little personality outside of the sadness at her absent parents (who, likewise are not very well developed). It’s a shame, because the artwork is truly remarkable, and the story could’ve been captivating, had it been given room enough to breathe.

The City on the Other Side by Mairghread Scott is a graphic novel that tells the story of a war between the fae -- the Seelie and the Unseelie -- and the human girl pulled into their world. It's an interesting premise, but I just couldn't get into it. It was all very pedestrian. There weren't any surprises. I could guess where the story was going. And while I really liked Isabel, I felt she was a worthy main character, her arc was bland. It was basically a standard hero arc.

I didn't feel any sparks of interest with this one. It was a bit of a chore to get through and took me quite a bit of time to read which kind of surprised me as this is a graphic novel. They are usually a quick read.

The art on the other hand was a true highlight. The colors are wonderful -- vibrant and alive. I think if I were younger I may have enjoyed it much more. It's a book geared to young readers. I think this one is definitely right up their alley.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2154523100?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
http://thebookobserver.blogspot.com/2017/10/review-12-city-on-other-side.html

Fans of "Spirited Away" will enjoy this tale of two cities--a human-occupied San Francisco and mirror city occupied by the fairy folk, where a battle is raging between opposing fairy forces. Can a human girl help stop the battle before it causes more havoc in the human world? An imaginative story-telling adventure readers will love to experience!

"The City on the Other Side" is a cute story about a young girl, Isabel, living in San Francisco after the earthquake in 1906. She is on a quest to help restore balance to the world of the Fey by delivering a magical necklace to a person in the Seelie court. This novel has a cast of endearing and interesting characters. You don't see much of San Francisco, but you do get to see a lot of the Fey world. I enjoy stories about magic and the Fey and this book was no exception.

The strongest part of The City on the Other Side is the artwork. It is a really lovely book. Unfortunately the story is just okay. It is a pretty standard middle grades portal fantasy with a young protagonist living a sheltered life who is often overlooked and neglected by the adults around her. She discovers the barrier between our world and the world of fairies and unsurprisingly finds adventure there. It is enjoyable but predictable. I think young readers just starting out with fantasy would enjoy it though and the art really is great.
I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great story but not something that could capture and sustain my attention.

Bright and colorful - this comic is a fun read for those interested in fairy tales. I appreciated the San Francisco background, but I didn't love it. The story seemed too neat for me, but I enjoyed it none the less.

Great addition to any library. What I enjoyed most about this book was the vocabulary. Imaginative ride through a colorful world of fun characters.

I loved that this graphic novel included diverse characters and interesting setting: San Francisco and Carmel following the 1906 earthquake. Unfortunately, the setting wasn't used very effectively, and the plot was a fairly predictable and straightforward Fae story. Still, bright, fun artwork and diverse characters make this an overall pleasing middle grade read.

The City on the Other Side is a graphic novel set both in 1906 San Fransisco and the fairy world. San Fransisco is still recovering from the Great Earthquake, and the fairy world is at war.

Isabel, finding a necklace, accidentally travels through the barrier between worlds to the fairy world.

The story was fine, if a little predictable, and seemed to rush onward at an unnecessarily fast pace. I was not a fan of the artwork. I also did not feel a connection with Isabel.

The artwork on my review copy was low resoltion, but from what I can tell the artwork looked gorgeous and it has obviously been crafted with a lot of love and attention. I found the writing, however, to be a bit awkward, and there is a fair amount of info dumping. That being said, there's enough here that I would give it to a kid that's a fan of Amulet; it's visually appealing and it's got a similar kid-goes-through-magical-doorway-and-must-save-the-day theme going on.

A wonderfully drawn graphic novel. The story was engaging and the characters were fantastic.

Lovely little book about a war of the fairies that has spilled over into the real world. I enjoyed this, and the girl at the heart of it. She is pulled into an unknown situation, but she doesn't balk from the challenge she's presented, she takes it on with nothing but a mushroom to guide her. She's strong, and gets stronger as the time passes. Would love to get this for my girls to read.

The city on the other side is the land of the Seelie, and the Unseelie. Types of Fae. A magic messenger accidentally crosses over to the human world, leaving a necklace that must get to the Seelie Queen to defeat the Unseelie and bring peace to their world. The story is nice, but it has holes. It moves too quickly. Plus, as a galley copy, my view was blurred. I know it’s done on purpose, but from the cover you can tell the illustrations will be beautiful and vibrant. I just wish as an early reviewer, we got to see more of it. With a graphic novel the story is as much about the art as the words, and in this copy, they are both lacking.

This book was enjoyable, diverse, and action-packed and will be an awesome addition to many kid's libraries.

The story follows Isabel who lives in early 20th century San Francisco (following the Great Earthquake and Fire) who ends up finding on accident a secret fairy world that mimics the human world. There is a great war going on and Isabel must help rescue the Queen. Through her adventures she travels through both the human and fairy world and meets a host of characters both good and evil. Though they are fairies, they are not stereo-typically girly, nor would they be only enjoyed by girls, which is one of the main standouts of this graphic novel. Another is the diverse set of characters in both the humans and fairies that are meant to represent all the cultures that were present in San Francisco at the time this story takes place. The illustrations are also beautiful and the world built within the story is enchanting.

Overall this was a very enjoyable read that I think will be very popular with both avid graphic novel readers and as an introduction to the genre.

Why does the art work look so terrible? It looks like it was made on an Apple 2 from sometime in the late 80's all pixelated and ugly!

An intriguing comic with a thrilling plot involving a young girl, a boy thief, a magical necklace and a missing Seelie queen. The diverse mix of myths made the story all the more unique.

The San Francisco of humanity is threatened by unrest in the San Francisco of the faries--the other side of the Veil, as it's called, a world where the balance between opposites, the Seelie and Unseelie, has been disrupted--and it's up to Isabel, a wealthy girl who feels abandoned by both of her parents, to save the day and protect the City of the faries from nefarious Unseelie who would see the Seslie, and humanity, destroyed. Cute story, if a bit shallow/convoluted.