'Through Lya's Eyes' by Carbone with art by Cunha Justine is a graphic novel about a young woman who wants to find out the truth about the accident that has left her in a wheelchair.

Lya was left in a wheelchair. She learns that someone bought her parent's silence. Now she is going undercover at a law firm armed with her case number and the help of some new and old friends.

It's not a bad beginning to a story with likeable characters and some good suspense. The art was a nice surprise.

This was a pretty good graphic novel. The artwork and coloring were the best parts about it. I thought that it was very abrupt when it would change scenes. It was a little confusing. There were a few times I had to go back to make sure I hadn't missed a page somewhere. Overall this is one of those books I would say to check out from the library but don't buy it for your collection.

Beautiful art and an interesting story.
Lya is an intern at a law firm, a job she got herself after the terrible accident that cost her the use of her legs. She knows the law firm represented the man who ran her over and left her for dead, and she knows her parents covered up the fact that he paid them off so they would drop the charges against him. Problem is, her file is in archive that can only be reached down a spiral staircase - problematic for someone in a wheelchair. But with the help of her BFF Antoine and her new friend, firm receptionist Adele, she is determined to get to the bottom of who did this to her.
As others have said, the story ends on a cliffhanger, but that will just leave the readers hungry for the rest of the tale

Overall “Through Lya‘s Eyes“ was an okay read for me, but nothing really memorable. The art style was very nice though.

Lya has just started an internship at one of the top law firms in the city. However, she has another reason for being there. She found out that the law firm represented the hit and run driver who put her in a wheel chair. The driver came from money and was able to seal his name away. Now she's on the case to find out who left her for dead on the side of the road. It's a well written mystery for all ages with great art.

4.75 Stars ( I received an early e-arc from Net Galley)

Once again I read this graphic novel quite a while ago and I am finally getting around writing this review. But I vividly remember this story and how much fun I had reading it, I wish I had the second volume to keep going. Lya is a great heroine she is smart, determined and refuses to be treated differently just because she is in a wheelchair. The art style is great with some darker tones on some pages, a great relationship between a brother and sister, and side characters that support the plot by being well developed. I am patiently waiting for the next volume with that cliff hanger ending.

The art style in this was cute and vibrant. I found the story overall enjoyable and liked the disability representation. The cliffhanger has left me wanting more.

I wish I was able to review this. Unfortunately my copy was lost and the graphic novel was archived before I could download it again. I really wanted to give this a read.

I have read this a while ago but what I remember is the amazing illustrations. I enjoyed the story too, but oh my, those colors.

3.5 stars rounded up!

This was a good introduction to the characters. Loved the disability rep in it and the mystery was very intriguing. I just wish that it would have been longer. The book was less than 70 pages and didn't go into a lot of detail about a lot of things. We didn't really get to learn about the other characters in the book, we had a little drama with the partner that was resolved really quickly. And it ended on quite a cliffhanger, with no notes in goodreads about a sequel coming out soon.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance digital copy of this book.

Lya was in a car accident, is now in a wheel chair, and wants answers. She has a plan her mother doesn't know about. It is bold, and a little bit crazy. But will it work?

Lya is a great character. This is both because of and in spite of her use of a wheelchair. Her chair is independent of her strength and spirit, but it also helps drive her will and purpose in this narrative. In much the way a persons race impacts the way they move through the world, her chair impacts the way her character develops and interacts with other characters.

In Lya's search for the truth, she forms a friendship with a coworker named Adele. Some portions of that relationship feel very authentic, and others not so much, but the way that Lya is forced to rely on her help simply because the building is not fully accessible to people with mobility challenges is a really nuanced way of putting that into the narrative. It is a very real challenge that people face, and our main character faces it too.

The build of this mystery is a slow burn, and the very last page is the cliffhanger that you love to hate, making #2 of this series an event to anticipate.

Nothing at all sexual or violent, so content-wise appropriate for a large age range. With the focus on legality and morality, though, this will likely appeal more to teens and up.

I was long overdue to read this book, but I was just not feeling it and I wasn't interested in it at all when I attempted to read it later on.

Lya became paralysed after a hit-and-run, and neve discovered who was the person responsible for it. When she finds out her parents were bought to drop the charges on the case, she decided to investigate on her own.

Lya is a force of nature. She doesn't let the wheelchair to be an excuse or to steal her happiness. She is a character that you can easily fall in love with. And the art style is amazing.

I couldn't believe when I read the last page and all the question stayed unanswered. I most read the next book!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and cannot wait to read what the conclusion will be. I was inbested in the story throughout the whole read and the artwork was fantastic. Would recommend to anyone to read and the inclusion of disability, not just paralysis but also cerebral palsy was a bonus. Very enjoyable read.

I didn’t really enjoy this as much as I wanted to. I felt as if Lya was really whiny about certain topics, and well, I was just disappointed after I finished.

It was a quick read, however, and the art style is really unique, and those are two perks I admire in a graphic novel.

64 pages| Europe Comics| Graphic Novel, Mystery, Drama, Fiction

I received an electronic copy of Seeking the Truth in exchange for a review. The publisher has not in any way influenced my thoughts on the graphic novel and did not have access to the review before general publication.

The digest: a highly stylized graphic novel which follows Lya’s attempt to uncover the reckless driver who put her in a wheelchair the day before her seventeenth birthday. The story is good, the setting believable, and the artwork simply amazing. If you like lowkey revenge/investigative plots and/or diverse casts then this is for you.



From the book’s Goodreads page:

“The day before her seventeenth birthday, Lya’s life changed forever. Hit by a speeding car and left for dead, she lost the use of her legs as well as some of her faith in the world… Lya learned to live again with the support of her parents. But having discovered that someone bought their silence, Lya is determined to unmask the perpetrator and obtain justice. Her search for the truth takes her to a famous law firm… and down a dangerous path. With the help of her friend Antoine, she’ll stop at nothing to get to the bottom of it all…”



Seeking the Truth is only 64 pages long and in order to provide a spoiler-free opinion, this review will be similarly short. By now followers of my blog my know that if I enjoyed a book I put the negatives first (to get them out of the way). Here goes:

What was less than ideal in Seeking the Truth?

As is often the cases with first issues of graphic novels, this one did feel a bit slow, a bit like it was setting the scene for future instalments. The more graphic novels I read the more I realize that this is a necessity, but I do think that Seeking the Truth just missed the right balance between current events and what’s going to happen in the future.
I had a bit of trouble working out the order I was meant to be reading the text boxes in on occasion. I think this could have been easily rectified by simplifying the formatting a little (for example, condensing five or six boxes into two or three as found in other graphic novels). Not a huge issue but worth mentioning all the same.
Sometimes the dialogue is a bit… meh. This isn’t a constant issue, but there were certainly points where I thought that the characters were explaining things I little too clearly/obviously.
Character development is a little mediocre. Again, for a 64-page volume, one has to make allowances. However, I think that there were a couple of odd actions or decisions (particularly in the middle third of the book) which I don’t really understand (yet). Maybe the characters always act in these ways, but from the first volume, I was left thinking that certain character-led plot points didn’t make sense with the information we know about the characters.
A minor-ish plot point: part of the story revolves around the fact that the law firm Lya is interning at hasn’t taken her ID or bank details – an idea which I found problematic as from my experience such firms are very meticulous about ensuring that they aren’t hiring a criminal mastermind or someone on the run. The firm definitely would have made Lya provide ID at some stage, and this part of the plot was perhaps the most obviously flawed. It was also, for my money, the only real issue with it.


What about the positives?

I cannot stress how much I loved the artwork here. It’s clean and colourful and… yeah. Although I often write about how I enjoy the artwork in graphic novels, the design here is some of the best I can remember. The characters look great, the changes in mood are handled excellently, and the backgrounds are highly detailed. Check out Justine Cunha’s Instagram here (a couple of the images are NSFW-lite) and give her a follow.
Each character is clearly defined and noticeably different from the rest of the cast – there is never any confusion about who is who.
The translation (by M.B. Valente) is clear and without issue as far as I can tell – the mark of a good translation is that you don’t know it was translated and Valente has succeeded here.
Representation matters, which is why it’s wonderful to see that Seeking the Truth’s protagonist is a strong-willed female lead who needs to use a wheelchair at all times. Rarely do I read books about disabled characters (a mixture of my own fault for not seeking these out and their general lack of visibility in the market), but I think Lya’s interactions with other characters here (both retelling how she was paralysed and how she goes about daily life) prove once again that characters don’t have to comply with reality’s unfair biases to be realistic and believable.
Furthermore, at least half of the cast (and the majority of people we spend time with) are female, with one from a BAME background (please forgive me if that is the wrong terminology), too. Much effort has clearly gone into creating a diverse cast, and this is much appreciated.
The plot moves along at quite a pace. Above I said that I think there is a bit of a misbalance between set-up and current events, but when the latter are discussed they are handled very well and at no point was I left wanting. There’s no let-up in the story. Lya has a clear aim and she doesn’t plan on hanging about waiting for it to happen for her. The story is also genuinely interesting, and the end of this volume was very much like reaching the leaping off point in any Poirot story. We the readers don’t yet know who’s behind the plot, but soon enough we will surely learn that there is a whole conspiracy going on in the background. And I am flipping well excited to see how it develops.
There is real tension in some scenes, which had me a little taken aback considering how short this volume is. This tension is built by a combination of ensuring that we care about the character(s) concerned, understand the risk involved, and want the endeavour to succeed. Some reviewers have said that there is no real tension in Seeking the Truth, but for the life of me, I cannot see where they are coming from.




Conclusion: 4/5 – highly recommended to fans of all mystery graphic novels or lovers of great artwork. I will definitely be reading the next volume in the series when it is published – especially after that cliff-hanger of an ending! Although there are a few annoyances in this volume, I was definitely nit-picking, and wholeheartedly recommend this!





If you liked my review of Seeking the Truth (Through Lya’s Eyes #1), then you may also be interested in reviews for other Europe Comics publications. I’ve recently read and enjoyed the first two issues of Alcyon, Harmony’s Necklace and The Temptation of King Midas. Check them out if you enjoy Greek mythology!

3.75 stars. Great representation although it was a bit tropey. Really enjoyed that there wasn't a romantic aspect, so far, and I enjoyed that there was a lot of racial diversity and disabled rep, although I'm not a voice for disabled rep. Seems a bit iffy that the two bosses are both white and that there doesn't seem to be any sexual diversity, but the series is still in the beginning stages.

Seventeen year old Lya is a victim of a hit and run car accident which confined her to a wheelchair. She would like to find the man responsible. In order to do this, she gets an internship at the lawfirm which dealt with her case. Lya is friendly, intelligent and inquisitive. Will she be able to find the truth? This is the first instalment, so there is a cliffhanger at the end of the story.
The artwork is gorgeous, with warm beautiful colours. I am not a frequent reader of graphic novels, but this one stood out for me and I hope to read the continuation of Lya’s story soon.
Thank you to NetGalley and Europe Comics for the review copy provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

I'm glad I read this as my first graphic novel. I loved the mystery in it. The pictures really help the story come to life. Someone tried to kill Lya leaving her in a wheelchair and she is determined to find out who. I can't wait to read what happens next.

I enjoyed this book. Seems to be one adventure after another. I would recommend the book.
I received an ARC of thisi book in exchange for an honest review from Net BGalley.