Cover Image: Watersnakes

Watersnakes

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Member Reviews

I am amazed. This was incredibly imaginative, dark, with gruesome details now and then to add more colors to the story. Tony Sandoval has created a book that recovers the magic of childhood stories and combines it with childhood nightmares. Charming.

Full review to be published in my blog on December 21st: https://tintanocturna.blogspot.com/2018/12/resena-de-comic-comic-review-watersnakes.html

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So, yesterday I was searching for a decent book to read, and the cover of this graphic novel caught my eye: it seemed cool and I decided to give it a chance.
It's kinda creepy and macabre for the drawing style and the monstrous adventures that the two girls have to deal with. One of them is bisexual btw (fight me on this, unless you're the author), and it is narrated in a delicate way.
I love the drawing style and the colours used, they are so particular.
I felt sadness, surprise, emotional fragility.
If you want to give yourself a super cool gift, go get this graphic novel. I wish I had a copy too, I loved it.

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I honestly have no idea what I just read. It was so weird, but really compelling and I couldn't put it down. I liked that the author didn't really explain what was going on until the end because it kept me guessing and trying to figure out just what was going on. Overall, I liked that this was a spooky weird graphic novel with a very different plot than anything I've read before.

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3/5 stars
I have no idea what I just read. The plot of this graphic novel was beyond bizarre, and I had no idea what was going on for like 80% of it. The author chose to explain everything in the last 10 pages which left me beyond confused. On the other hand, Watersnakes was a very quick, easy, and interesting read. The art style is beautiful, if not a bit strange (but that goes along with the peculiarity of the book). I think anyone who has a taste for the strange and unusual would love this.

*Thank you NetGalley, for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review*

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This author is Mexican and this graphic novel was first published in Spanish, French and some other languages. I'm very happy it got translated to English this year. The plot is a bit hard to explain without giving away to much. It's a pretty small and contained story. I would've liked getting more and an additional volume actually. Especially since not much of the world or what was going on was explained, that's also why I didn't rate it higher. Is was also a little bit confusing at first, but I really liked it the ending.

We follow Mill, who meets Agnes during a boring summer. I really liked the relationships that were formed in this story. This story is very surreal and fantastical and it also has some horror elements. It has absolutely gorgeous art that fits the story so well. Especially the battle scene was incredible, both the writing and the art were amazing there. I don't think this story is for everyone, but I was definitely impressed.

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This was my first graphic novel ever and I have no clue where to start!
I think this is the darkest, creepiest and most twisted thing I’ve ever read. Octopuses, foxes, lesbian fantasies, spirit warriors and an unhealthy teeth obsession in just 140 short pages? Safe to say my head hurts lol.

While this is a very macabre and plain weird short story, I can’t say I disliked it though. I absolutely loved the art and the pacing!

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Hokey kid's story about two girls who become friends and one of them - but that would be telling! Cheesy as hell though, I expected better from the Doomboy dude. Art's really something though.

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Confusing and flat story, that was too rushed. Some of the dialogues were really bad and weird. The illustrations were nice, especially parts during fight filled with blood, but you'll become overdosed with that art in time.. I was looking forward to it kind of too much and in the end it really wasn't for me.

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'Watersnakes' with art and story by Tony Sandoval is a weirdly beautiful book, but somewhere along the way lost coherence for me.

Mila is a loner. One day during summer vacation she meets a strange girl named Agnes. She is attracted to Agnes, but Agnes is a ghost who has a mouth full of teeth that used to be the guardian warriors of a king. Mila follows Agnes on a quest to return a strange octopus back to the sea and fight off other evil.

The book has a sort of dreamlike look and story, and if I'd been able to stay in that place, I might have liked the book a bit more. I think the story loses it's way, then tries to be more important than it is. Still, that art by Tony Sandoval is probably better than anything else I've seen him do, and that's saying something.

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

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I love this artists' other work, so I was really looking forward to this, but it just didn't quite work for me. The artwork is beautiful, but even then, I felt myself flicking through at drawings that seemed to just be filling in pages rather than supporting to any narrative or character. The storyline is a little odd, which I feel done well, graphic novels can pull off really effectively, but this was weak, self-indulgent, and any narrative ideas seemed to be thought about and crammed in towards the end.
Giving this 3 stars as I really wanted to enjoy this more, so just for the moment I'm just pretending I did.
Thanks to Netgalley for providing the opportunity to read this, in exchange for a honest review.

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Watersnakes features beautiful artwork and a subtle story that builds to a fascinating climax, featuring strong fantasy elements and a bridge between our world and one of magic. I love the artistic style - it’s both subtle and incredible detailed, tending toward a darker feel for the novel.

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I didn’t know much about this book or the author going into it, but thought the title and the cover made it seem like I’d love the illustrations and the creepy vibe the cover gives off. It’s true that I loved the Illustrations and there definitely was a creepy vibe throughout that kept me interested initially. Unfortunately this overall didn’t impress me. I wanted to love it, but the story and the characters just lost my attention. Then there were some truly odd details included that just left me confused and weirded out. I wouldn’t overlook the author in the future, however, I probably wouldn’t have such high hopes like I did going into this one.

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This was a very odd and creepy graphic novel, but the art was AMAZING! I loved the facial expressions and movement the illustrations portrayed. Definitely need a hard copy for my shelf!

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Perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Watersnakes by Tony Sandoval is a brilliant and strange tale that will keep you asking what was real and what wasn't.

The illustrations were gorgeous and the story was very unique. I enjoyed it so much although some parts were a bit confusing at first.

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This graphic novel is honestly a bit trippy, but that’s definitely the style and the intention. And I will fully admit that when I read graphic novels, I’m all about the artwork, and I LOVE the style of the artwork in this book. Some parts of the story were … strange and a little disturbing (for instance, there’s a bit of a weird tooth fetish thing going on that I didn’t quite understand—and an army of teeth creatures that … yeah, I’m not sure). Still, I found myself compelled to keep reading, and while I was sometimes confused and a little disturbed I was entranced by the story. Definitely an upper/mature YA graphic novel, though. If you like dark and creepy and a little bit weird, you’ll definitely be a fan.

***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***

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I haven’t really read a lot of graphic novels for me to evaluate the true merits of this book. However, from the standpoint of a consumer I would say that I enjoy the story towards the very end.

At the start of the story I did not have a clear idea of what each character stands for. However, as the story unfolds things began to reveal itself. The illustration is somehow unique as well, not a typical comic book I’ve seen before.

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I chose this book because I wanted to explore Mexican literature, and I must say I had a general first good impression after all.
I loved this story, it's both quirky and disturbing but also sweet in some way, very emotional and there's a lot of introspection. It also made me feel very sad though, but in a good way - it was more a sort of empathy or melancholy rather than true sadness.
But I feel a little bit mocked. I was truly being interested and captured in a special way by the lesbian or questioning plot behind the paranormal/horror one, it was described with a particular gentleness and softness which are honestly not common at all. Hence the reason why the final part and the octopus' story didn't satisfy me. At the end I found myself a bit disappointed.
I loved the coloring too, but I must say I'm not a huge fan of this kind of traits. The general styling looks a bit childish, whilst the story is a very deep one, so a little bit more of accuracy would have been more appropriate. Some panels are freaking scary, perfect for someone who is in a mood for a creepy reading.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the author for a free preview of the book.

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A tentative queer romance entangled, dreamlike, with magic and mystery, where an octopus can be a prince and a girl's teeth his soldiers? This should be right up my street, especially when the art recalls Dave McKean, Shaun Tan and whoever illustrated that picture book Elena Ferrante did. But while the animals and landscapes are gorgeous, the people have such stick limbs and round heads that they seem off-puttingly anorexic. Also, I think the Netgalley file may have been missing some pages early on, though TBH the story didn't become noticeably more linear once that stopped.

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Creepy and odd and lovely art about sums up this story of girls, teeth warriors and a magic distant shore octopus.

Thank you to the publisher for extending an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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"Watersnakes" is about a girl named Mila, who rides down to the river one day and meets Agnes. The two girls become fast friends. Mila is intrigued by Agnes' teeth and all of her wild stories. After an incident occurs between them, Mila finds out from Agnes' brother, Julien, that Agnes has actually been dead for 11 years.

I'll be honest - I picked up this graphic novel because I loved the cover artwork. I wasn't sure what to expect from Tony Sandoval as I've never read his previous work, but I was incredibly impressed with his artwork. This is a beautiful book. The characters have large heads with thin bodies and spindly arms and legs. The color palette is often black and white with other neutral tones, then you'll be shocked with a bright spot of color. The style emphasizes the idea that sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish between dreams and reality. Some of the scenes are quite visceral and disconcerting.

I would give this book a solid 4 stars. I found some parts of the story to be confusing and lacking in development, but overall, I found the concept eerie, unexpected, and magical, and the artwork was mesmerizing.

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