I enjoyed this title. The art is lovely, there is a good variety of stories, and a diverse cast of characters. Zanfardino's artistic style certainly stands out in this book. Definitely recommend it for adult and teen readers, especially or LGBTQIA readers.

I love when books give me an existential crisis and make me question everything I have or haven’t done!

Midnight Radio is an illustrated story that follows the perspective and stories of four vastly different yet similar characters that while they intersect at times, they’re entirely separate. There’s a man that’s a game developer that works for a corrupt corporation with blood on their hands; a queer woman with big dreams, bigger fears, and a lot of doubts; a Japanese woman blackmailed by cops into cooperating with a sting to keep her visa; and a selectively mute Instagram star with a sick sister and an overabundance of emotions that has led to his isolation from even his best friend. All four of these characters live in an impasse in their lives, moving without really going anywhere as they struggle with social and personal issues. When there’s a sudden disruption on a radio station, the hasty and passionate message left by an anonymous voice resonates with the characters and haunts them until things start clicking.

The artwork was done in a loose line kind of style, semi-realistic polychrome with strict color tones for each character that kept them distinct and separated. Rather than done in a spectrum of colors, each character’s chapters are done in a specific shade (Mike = green, Joanne = red, Seika = blue, Stephen = yellow) and I want to say this was an underhanded psychological thing, too, since *gestures vaguely* there’s a proven science to certain colors eliciting certain emotions so it provided a strange kind of depth to each character’s story.

Though it did tend to favor a cliché approach to the misanthropic view of social media so there was nothing unique there, I did really like this more than I was expecting to. Which really isn’t saying much considering I actually had no idea what I was going into (what can I say, I have the attention span and memory of a toddler on a sugar high so it’s like I never even read the summary to begin with), but my point stands anyway.

So all in all, this was a good plot with beautiful artwork that I would definitely recommend for a quick read.

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Warnings: nudity, homophobia/transphobia (mentions of parental abuse and homophobic remarks in general), gun violence, mention of a mass shooting (I think this is meant to be in reference to the Pulse shooting), use of racial slurs
Rep: POC main and secondary characters, queer MC, and a trans woman as a secondary character

This book is about four people and their interwoven stories. There is Robin Hood, the art thief, who is recreating paintings so he can swap them out and take the money back to his community in Mexico. Next we have Instaking, who doesn't speak anymore. The third story is Inner Pulse, about a young girl who was involved in a nightclub shooting. Lastly, there's The Woodpecker, a hacker who is trying to expose a corporation who may have killed seven people.

Of all these stories I really enjoyed The Woodpecker and the Inner Pulse story lines the most out of the four. I also really liked the fact that all of the different stories were different colors. It really helped keep all of the different story lines separated. The stories were all pretty good but I didn't really connect with the art thief or the teenager that wouldn't talk (it was never revealed why he wouldn't talk either which was kind of annoying to me). Overall though I think think is a pretty great read for anyone. Because of the multiple story lines I think that a lot of people can find something to relate to.

This is an incredible single issue comic featuring four stories that are basically about life.
The art is gorgeous. Each character has its own colour scheme which attributes to the feeling and atmosphere of each part. I was enjoying all the backgrounds of the places we explored, the author really took their time to create these real, lived in spaces. In general, all stories are very real and I could see myself meeting them on the street by accident.

I was invested right from the beginning. Mike (the green story) was probably my favourite just because his facial expressions and outlook on life resonated with me. Steph's story was just as beautiful even if I am still not entirely sure what it all means.
I was missing a more conclusive ending but I was generally satisfied.

I received this book in exchange for a honest review from NetGalley.

I was surprised how much i loved this graphic novel. The art is fantastic and it beautifully addresses some of the major issues of our day including lgbtq+ rights, racism, social media, and much more. The lives of these people are beautiful on their own but really shine when intertwined in the way they are portrayed here. Overall excellent read!

This was both interesting and well drawn. It is four different stories set within an overarching story. The four main characters of each story are each facing complex challenges and difficulties some of which seem impossible to resolve. Each character hears a mysterious late night pirate radio broadcast which both inspires and pushes them to think beyond their circumstances and when they do they find that they are able to surmount and undermine the barriers facing them.

The characters are as diverse as the problems facing them. A young man has stopped speaking because his sister is ill. He only communicates through social media and this means of communication both hampers and frees him raising questions about love, support and life.

A career man finds himself working for a profitable company but his job means working against truth, freedom and courage. A young woman face grief and fear as she seeks to break free of a painful event and a family who don't understand her. Another woman is threatened with deportation if she refuses to do some undercover work for the police.

I think the way the stories are told is engaging. At first I couldn't understand that each story is separate and I was trying to see what held them together. It is the radio broadcast that holds them together but in very different ways.

It is an interesting novel and nicely illustrated. One that requires quiet reflection to truly appreciate it.

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

Four distinctive, and distinctly coloured, stories are in this graphic novel – how could they possibly combine? You get a young waitress who could have been doing something else, and who hates her parents. You get a pillock fixated on selfies and insta-likes, and not so much on his ill baby sister. You get a bloke suffering with blocking hacker/saboteurs off his bosses' homepage concerning lethal slimming pills. You get a woman inveigled into providing wire-tapped evidence of some people who want to swap real artworks for forgeries. The problem, unfortunately, is that they don't really combine at all, beyond the titular entity and a go-get-em message over the airwaves. What we have then is four very unusual looks at how modern American youth may be going and getting 'em, whoever 'em are, but not much else. All the same, however, with its many monochrome segments, its fresh artwork and its non-corporate feel, I did quite like it. It's just not as superior as it thinks it is.

Midnight Radio is a short, thought-provoking graphic novel that is beautifully illustrated. It follows four characters who currently find themselves lost or in difficult social and personal situations that they're struggling to navigate or deal with. Each storyline is rich with emotion and the issues that the characters face are very relevant to modern times; especially with how easy it is for people to pretend to be someone they're not with the use of social media and the internet, and the pressure to conform to society's idea of "normal" (whatever that is), instead of just being their individual selves. I really enjoyed Stephen's storyline (yellow!) and I probably liked Seika's (blue) the least, as it felt the least genuine (imo).

To be honest, I found it quite difficult to follow the storylines and to keep up with what was happening with each character, but the "Oh!" moment towards the end was very well done. Everything clicked into place without me even having to look back at earlier pages. I liked that despite the characters all living very different and separate lives, there was one element that connected them all, and it wasn't done in a contrived way.

I thought that the illustrations, while not the clean sharp lines that I usually love, added a sense of fluidity to the movement of the characters. At first, the use of the bright neon-colored boxes for the different characters was slightly jarring, but I ended up appreciating how it made it easier for me to follow the storylines--I am also just generally a fan of bright colors! I have to say that there is a lot of text in these pages, that initially put me off because I find it tiresome to read such small text cramped together in a small space, but I'm glad that I kept reading! Perhaps the concept of the storylines weren't anything new or extra special, but I was still able to enjoy it because I haven't seen it done in this format before.

A review of this book will be posted on my blog (http://dinipandareads.home.blog) closer to the release date.

A short, thoughtful, and diverse story that follows the lives of 4 characters--each dealing with their own share of life's problems. The colour changes were somewhat jarring at first but became super useful in keeping track of who was who. Some of the storylines were a bit cliched, but overall the writing was fine and the characters enjoyable. Recommended for those looking for graphic novels with PoC characters and LGBTQ+ themes.

Midnight Radio follows the stories of four people, all at a crossroads in life. The volume looks at identity and the reality of falling into a version of yourself you don’t recognize. It’s a deeply personal set of stories with real issues at heart. We see a young man who no longer speaks, who sees the world as a fake version of itself filled with disgust and inner hatred. We see a woman struggling with a past tragedy who can barely cope with living through each day. We see a man who has sold out to a major corporation, abandoning the dreams of his youth to work a job he detests. We see a woman constantly in trouble with the law who makes a decision that haunts her. These are powerful stories filled with life-altering decisions, and that intense narrative makes it a meaningful read.

I was most impressed by the amount of raw emotion packed into the volume. We see so many deeply emotional issues, with people cut off from each other and just living through the motions. We’re an extremely connected world that has become disconnected due to social media and the obsession with career advancement and general conformity. This volume seeks to break down that conversation, to show what those societal expectations do to people. We see depression, self-loathing, and a lack of direction. We see a group of people who desperately want to be a different version of themselves. Each comes to a crossroads and each takes the step necessary to realize who they really are. It’s heartbreaking at times, uplifting at others, and entirely inspiring.

The art follows an interesting aesthetic, painting each character’s story in their own color. That contrast shows how unique everyone’s story is, even when they feel like they’re just part of a faceless herd. The characters grow into their individuality by the end, and choosing this kind of art style drives the importance of those decisions home.

Overall, Midnight Radio is a great piece of storytelling that’s deeply inspirational. It may even cause you to look at your own life and identify how you can get back to the person you were meant to be.

Review will be published on 6/6/19: https://reviewsandrobots.com/2019/06/06/midnight-radio-book-review

The messages that were discussed throughout the book were definitely hammered in. I liked the variety of social issues that were covered. Everything came together at the end despite the gradual start.

Netgalley gave me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Since this is a short graphic novel, I won’t discuss any particular plot points because they’d be spoilers.

The art was nice. Each character’s story had a different color. Each story was memorable, distinct, and would form a great stand alone book. I liked the themes of each section. All protagonists were sympathetic and dynamic; I enjoyed their stories. Subtle story telling adds more excitement to the plots.

I do wish the radio played a bigger role in the story. Since the summary mentions the stories are interwoven, I would've liked to see more intertwining as the stories are mostly independent. My final complaint is that the ending of Joanne’s story confused me.

While Midnight Radio is a brief story, I’d recommend this well illustrated and characterized book.

I really enjoyed this graphic novel because of its diversity and the fact that the concept was thought of amazingly and executed in the best way possible. I would buy this for anybody with it on their list.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for this early copy.

I was surprised how quickly I read this 100 paged comic, it flew by. The art style was interesting and so were the various story lines.

Warning: nudity.

It looked like it would be a great read, but the file I downloaded was not able to be read. It opened, but had nothing view-able on the pages.

The novel:
Overbearingly preachy about social media. This book does a lot more telling than showing, and preaches too much for me to truly enjoy it. It made me not want to finish, but I did. I liked certain aspects of the other stories, but found it hard to read because the messages were so overbearing and preachy. The whole, 'working a job that isn't your passion?? Just quit!!' theme is overdone and unrealistic to me.
The art:
The art was beautiful and I liked the idea of assigning one color per character, especially because you have 4 different perspectives. I normally would find the different perspectives hard to follow, but the monochromatic color schemes really helped me keep on track.

The art was very good. I had a hard time keeping track of each protagonist's story because there were just so many, but it was clever to draw each in a different color palette. The thing I struggled with in this book is that there's nothing new about this misanthropic view of social media where it isolates people and makes us forget how to communicate. I was incredibly bored by that, though I was surprised to find that Stephen's arc ended up being my favorite. Still; how hard is it to write empathetically and lovingly about social media? We all use it! There's value in it beyond the instant gratification of notifications! Also boring and overdone: the idea that giving up your dreams to work an office job is bad and soul-sucking. Obviously the corporation in the hacker arc was morally corrupt, but people need to pay bills, dude! Even when I was working office jobs, I always found time to do that AND feed my artistic hobbies! So, 3/5 stars. I did legitimately enjoy it, but I also kind of wanted to yell at it.