An interesting tale following two friends' journey into the world of food trucks. Honestly, a very disjointed and confusing read.

I read about 30% of this graphic novel and then had to DNF. The art style just was not for me. It doesn't have much dialogue or description, so you're really just reading sparse images to get a feel for the characters. I really disliked the giant onomatopoeia words that appeared on most panels to emphasize what pouring soda or cooking sounded like... it took me right out of it. I also could not figure out the timeline of the two main characters who seem to know each other in flashbacks (or flash forwards?), but seem unconnected in another timeline. There's no "past" or "present" to orient the reader so maybe it was all just happening simultaneously? Anyway, the art style is gritty and punk and I am sure there are some readers who will like that.

Onion Skin did nothing for me. I found it very hard to get into and stopped about 50 pages in. Maybe it was my reading comprehension but I just didn’t get it or where it was heading. While I normally like graphic novels, this one was not for me.

This review is based on NetGalley ARC provided in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion.

Onion Skin by Edgar Camacho is a wonderfully illustrated graphic novel about friendship, adventure, chasing dreams, and finding yourself. Rolando and Nera are quite opposite in personality but meet by chance and realize that they have more in common than might first appear. This leads them to join together to run a food truck, where they find lessons in cooking and life along the way.

Onion Skin’s story is quirky and unique and the illustrations only add to the magic. I’m grateful to Netgalley, IDW Publishing - Top Shelf Productions, and the author for the chance to read the advanced e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. This is a perfect read for foodies and those looking for adventure!

Sorry, but this one was a mess. It's hard to differentiate between the flashbacks and the present day, and the main characters are two of the least interesting people I've ever encountered. I love the idea of a graphic novel centered around a food truck war, but the author spent way too much time detailing the backstories of a very dull couple, and not nearly enough time on the food truck. As this is an over-the-top plot, the tale also could have used a bit of humor. Who knows - maybe something was lost in the translation.

The only compliment I can give this book is that it did make me hungry for enchiladas . . . though I really doubt this was the author's intention.

When Reynaldo meets Nera, they find an instant connection and end up touring the country in her food truck. Onion Skin tells of their adventures--the illustrations are engaging and the story is interesting. It won Mexico's first Young Graphic Novel Award and is worth a look.

A guy whose just been fired from a job he hates cause he broke his arm because he hates his job meets, a girl who is spunky, daring, and lives life to the fullest each day. She also loves cooking and coming up with culinary innovation and inherited magic seasoning that makes food delicious whereas the guy can even make a decent omelet. They go on a drunken adventure and come to the realisation that they can fix up a broken van and use her skills and secret seasoning to start a food truck. It's a hit. Territorial wars ensue. The couple fight and prevail. The end.

As far as the plot goes it's pretty thin, like onion skin. Also just by that description, you can tell the discrepancy between the two main characters. All Rolando did before meeting Nera was binge tv and waste time. Why Nera never got the idea to start a food truck on her own given her assets is a mystery to me.

I get that this was supposed to be a coming-of-age sorta story with some spice, it had a promising beginning for sure, but somewhere along it fell flat. Maybe there's something lost in translation for me but I wanted more from the characters as well as the story. I get why the author put in the back-forth narration but I don't think it helped with the plot much. It just felt a little gimmicky.

The art was decent. Nothing too out of the world but I liked the action sequences.

To be honest, I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought it would.

The synopsis I read on Goodreads was promising and I liked it but once I started reading a graphic novel, it just wasn't it? I don't know...

The art style was nice and different than anything I've seen recently, I thought it was cool.

But I didn't get the story, it was kind of hard to follow with all of the flashbacks. At some point, it was just chaos. I didn't know if it was present or past and I don't like that in novels.

I don't know if the translation bad or whatever, but this was not my cup of tea, sorry.

Could have been interesting, but took a long time to get going. I didn’t feel invested in the characters and didn’t understand the point of alternating between timelines. It did not really add anything to the story, just made it this little more confusing. I felt it kind of missed an opportunity, there was not much narrative direction.

With a title such as ‘Onion Skin’, I was expecting a beautifully layered graphic novel with either contextual meanings or character self-realisations. Unfortunately, the book doesn’t live up to the promise suggested by the Goodreads summary. I see that this novel has won some Mexican graphic novel award, so it could be my taste is very different from the Mexicans or there is something lost in translation and the Mexican magic failed to recreate itself in English.

Though the story seemed to have promise (Rolando deciding to break free of his mundane job because of live-for-the-moment Nera and the two of them setting up a food truck – unusual and interesting), the haphazard structuring of the narrative makes it difficult to assimilate the story. There are flashbacks and current timelines randomly going to and fro. Even at the start, the story seems to begin midway because of this odd pattern of narration. I might have enjoyed it a little more if the story were narrated in a chronological order.

Saving grace: Quite a few pages have no dialogues, so the 162 pages go by much faster than expected.

The artwork is decent, nothing mind-blowing, not my preferred style of art.


Thank you, NetGalley and IDW Publishing, for the ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Not a great effort. The story is split into two timelines that happen simultaneously, for no reason, which makes for a confusing narrative. One minute we're in the future when the two characters have their food truck business, then we're back to when they've only just met - why was it made so unnecessarily complicated? The story feels childish as cartoony rival food trucks battle each other but there are swear words in here too so it's weirdly child-like but not suitable for kids either. Wasn't a big fan of the art either. The whole thing is a pointlessly garbled melange of uninteresting story. Like a real onion's skin, disposable.

DNF

For some reason I was unable to open this so I haven't been able to read it. It didn't have the option for kindle or the NetGalley app, and I even downloaded Adobe Digital Editions for the protected PDF but no luck!

I appreciate having had an opportunity to read and review this book. The appeal of this particular book was not evident to me, and if I cannot file a generally positive review I prefer simply to advise the publisher to that effect and file no review at all.

I really enjoyed reading this graphic novel. I liked how realistic the personal lives of the characters were, and how everything tied back and wrapped up beautifully at the end of the story. Both the story line and the illustrations were interesting and different. The beginning was a little confusing to follow because the jumps in timelines was not clear. Once you understood what was happening in the story and how the timeline jumps occurred, the story made sense and was no longer confusing.

Onion Skin is a very interesting story about feeling lost and finding things in unexpected places.. if you're willing to take a chance.

I really liked this story, but the back and forth between future and past events is very unclear most of the time. Which made follow the details and timeline, what's going on and when, confusing to follow.
A little notation of "previously" or "a few months later" would have been super helpful.

The art style is very unique and fits the story perfectly.

Overall I enjoyed this story, but I felt I could have enjoyed it with more direction.

**Thank you to IDW Publishing and NetGallery for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. **

While it had interesting and peculiar art, the story was a bit confusing and I wasn't really invested in the story.
The food art looked delicious, though.

I enjoyed both Rolando and Nera, and the idea of them taking a risk to truly live their lives. The over-the-top food truck turf war plot was silly but fun to read. I didn’t love the time jumps though, it didn’t add to the story in any way, and was a bit confusing at times.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I initially had a hard time following the story because there's a lot of jumping around. I personally like stories that are linear or for it to be clear there are different timelines happening.

The story really picked up toward the end, but I would have liked to learn more about the plants or the business and other information. It felt pretty short. It wasn't clear what kind of story this is or what I'm supposed to take from it.

Overall not really for me.

*This book was received as an Advanced Reader's Copy from NetGalley.

Onion Skin had an interesting premise; two people who find each other while they're kind of drifting and ends and open a food truck. Any time you say food truck, I'm generally in, I love food. This plot took that a bit different though, food was definitely not the main focus.

We meet our protagonist Rolando when we discover he's been let go from his job for a broken arm. He's a graphic designer, and needs the arm to work apparently, but he wasn't feeling satisfied. Not working leaves him a bit depressed as well though. Neera, our other protagonist, lives in an old food truck on a friend's property, and doesn't really have an aim in life. But she does have her grandmother's secret herbs. Together, they decide maybe a food truck is in their future; but the competition really isn't too happy about that.

First off, the artwork is the most enjoyable thing about this comic. It has a neat, sparse but colorful style and is really expressive. It reads quick; even though it's quite a few pages, but since the majority are illustrative the story moves along. With all that said though, this comic's plot wasn't really one I could connect with. I don't know if it was because something was lost in the translation (there were some odd idioms and other expressions) or because of the non-linear format. I was confused for the beginning of the comic, then when I finally realized what was going on, it kept jumping around in the timeline and there wouldn't be a warning, it would just be the next page was something else. There were so many unanswered questions too; what about the spices/herbs, why the vicious competition, did that dude die?

I enjoyed the art, maybe not the story, but it was definitely a deviation from my normal reading, so I appreciated it for that.

Review by M. Reynard 2021

This was simple, decently charming, and very authentic. However, it was a little hard to follow, both in terms of the action shots and the non-linear storyline. I enjoyed it, but I wasn't completely entranced. I think it's a nice look into Mexican graphic novels though, and I'm glad that more people will have the chance to read it!