I was instantly drawn to the premise of this graphic novel. the concept itself (queer women, AIs, and a nasty breakup) was so interesting and the story didn't let down in that aspect. The illustrations are gorgeous and the color palette is so well done. It gave off an aura of a futuristic sci-fi world while still retaining some familiar pieces of modern life. However, around halfway through the book, I found the story slightly muddled and pretty confusing. By the end, I understood generally where the plot was going and I enjoyed the twists that happened, but the language tended to confuse me as the actual events were happening. Still a fun experience!

Lonely Receiver was beautifully illustrated. The storyline was a bit difficult to follow and definitely disturbing at times, but there were definitely parts that captured heartbreak and moving on from a toxic relationship beautifully.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The only good thing this graphic novel has to offer is the art, which is beautiful. Everything else, though, was horrifying, disturbing and terrible.
I wish I had something nice to say about the story or the characters, but after finishing this I just feel gross. The entire premise of the novel was horrible. The relationship was toxic and abusive and I didn’t care what happened to the characters because they both sucked.
I also think it’s very weird for this to be listed under “Teens & YA” when a lot of the art is incredibly graphic and definitely not safe for minors.

I loved how this comic started. The artwork is absolutely stunning. I did get a little lost and confused toward the end, but it was still very enjoyable and very relatable.

Confused about what was going on and not at all sure I liked it. The art was lovely (if more graphic than I expected), but the story was convoluted and confusing and ultimately didn't seem to lead to any clear meaning / ending.

I have really liked the description and the promises of this book, I like to read a lot of horror, but this was really chaotic, I dont even know what have I read. The graphics was cool, it fit the story, but the story and the characters were really off for me. Maybe I was not in the right mood.

This is purely a well descriptive sci fi graphic novel with horror elements. On another note you can psychoanalyse this novel.
A well read.
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lonely receiver is a strange horror-scifi graphic novel. i snagged it because i like the strange, because i love gay stuff, and because i'm a sucker for breakup stories.

at first i wondered if it was going to be a sapphic knockoff of the film HER. being abandoned by AI which was meant to be your perfect other, but which has complex robot needs that are beyond human comprehension? hmm.

this book is comprised of five volumes, and i enjoyed the first few. it explores the agony of losing someone who feels like a part of yourself. and for our protagonist, catrin, that's literally the case. years worth of her diaries, photos, and memories are stored inside her AI ex. intense, right? as catrin sinks into a post-breakup depression, the reader is introduced to the semi-dystopian reaches of technology in her world.

all this is interesting enough, but things go off the rails in the last two volumes. there's uncertainty as to whether the loss of catrin's relationship is "driving her mad," or whether her mental health is spiraling because of how she's been biologically altered to accommodate technology. the ending feels like a metaphor for finally finding oneself again after a breakup; particularly after reaching new heights of self-destructive behavior.

these are interesting and relatable themes, and i wish i could have enjoyed seeing them explored here. but i had a hard time engaging with the story emotionally. a story about heartbreak is supposed to feel heartbreaking, whereas this just doesn't go anywhere, and feels unnecessarily convoluted.

something that really bothers me is that there are pages and pages of odd, graphically-illustrated sex orgies that take place in the liminal dreamspace of catrin's altered mind. why the hyperfixation on sex? why do we see pages and pages and pages of catrin's naked body? this made me uncomfortable, especially considering that this is a sapphic story written by a man.

jen hickman's art beautifully done, and the color palette is vibrant. author zac thompson's earnest introduction indicates that he put a lot of heart into this story, and i'm sure some people will enjoy it. but for me, it pushed too far into the realm of weird, bewildering, and icky.

Thank you to NetGalley and AfterShock Comics for providing me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I liked the art style of this graphic novel most of all. Much of the content is relatable to anyone who has had or is struggling with a relationship that is toxic in many ways. While I could relate to many of the experiences in the story, I wasn't particularly pulled into the world that was created as I am not a fan of body horror or gore. I was hoping for there to be more of a horror aspect, but it was merely a footnote in the overall story. Also, it is categorized as YA, but I would put this more into an adult category. Its content can overlap between YA and adult, but some of the subject matter is more mature.

like many people already pointed out this is definitely not YA idk if its just at netgalley or the book is really being marketed like this

i really like the premise but the story felt really rushed and/or confusing most of the time so it was hard to connect to the story.
but it was creepy (in a good way) and the art and coloring is gorgeous

The Lonely Receiver is full of beautiful art work but unfortunately the story falls flat. I found the story to be confusing and not easy to follow. The art work helped with some fo the confusion but it just had a hard time keeping my interest. I think there's a really powerful metaphor in this story somewhere but its not quite easy to find.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Now a days I am searching the Read Now section more than requesting, so when I saw this cover I was instantly intrigued. Now I don’t read reviews often for books, but this one I did just because it felt right. It didn’t take me very long to understand why people didn’t really care for this book. I also agree that this doesn’t belong in the YA section, it would have been better in New Adult just because of some of the graphics.

The concept of the book was good and the artwork is really what sold it, but the writing just didn’t do it justice. Also there was just so much pink and white that my eyes started to hurt at some moments.

I gave it two stars for the beginning, but the ending I don’t even know how to describe it.

this is a graphic novel set in a (near?) future where artificial intelligence is able to create the perfect partner for you, with which to have otherwordly sex, thanks to body modifications and an organic phonelike device. catrin is bonded with rhion, her AI until they're not; and it sends her on a long spiral to rock bottom.


still unsure about how i feel about this. although the art style is gorgeous, i thought the narrative was lacking. I was expecting to be horrified by this but i was just perplexed. the sci fi elements are interesting but underdeveloped as is the central relationship.

it could've worked as a character study if we were given any insight into who this character is. i am very pro unlikeable/unreliable main character, but besides her neediness, possessiveness and lack of direction, we learn very little about catrin. she just felt like a conduit for the writer to explore ideas about technology, relationships, and codependence within them, with a side dish of porn/sex addiction? idk it felt like it lacked a cohesive, human anchor, but maybe that was the point.

i think what contributed to it was the fact that a lot of the text felt stream of consciousness and there wasn't much in the way of worldbuilding. there was a lot of gratuitous nudity and disturbing visuals but i don't really hold it against the authors, however this book was miscategorized as YA which is something that should be fixed.

to come back to the illustrations, i really liked the character design choices and the overall colour palette, even if at times i felt overwhelmed with visual information, i think this is the downsides of reading a graphic novel on a screen.


it wasn't for me, but i would recommend it for people who liked the movies "her" and "ex machina", although it is not as tight on plot and suspense but more on the side of emotionally troubling. i would love to read a story set in that universe that dives more into the world building, maybe even the divide between people who have embraced this technology and those who reject it.

I received an eARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

In this graphic novel we see our main character Catlin as she goes through a breakup and decides to get an A.I. life partner to cope with her loneliness. T
his plot was so trippy! I would classify this in light horror, its not scary but it does go into a very terrifying plot. I honestly couldn't guess where this was going and I really liked a lot of the aspects of this. It takes place in such a unique setting where we see the public so reliant on technology, even replacing genitalia to have a virtual, sort of other plane of existence, sexual experience. The messages about self-love, accepting yourself, learning to be alone, and realizing the truth behind the lies we tell ourselves was shown in such a unique and terrifying way that, its something that will definitely stick with me.

I am also a huge fan of how the illustrator played with color and texture, especially with Catrin's skin. It was a very cool and shocking way to show her journey. I also loved the idea of her shadow showing us how corrupted her mind was throughout her journey. Catlin definitely descends into a very dark place and it's really creepy how far she goes for love. I liked it a lot.

Not exactly my thing but it's definitely someone's! I absolutely loved the art style & the overarching message of the story as a whole. I guess I was just expecting more horror? Like I said - not for me but there are so many people who love this kind of psychological tech future horror who I'm sure would love this.

This was weird and creepy (which is a good thing), and the art was gorgeous and different. I have to admit that I had no idea what was going on most of the time. I don't necessarily think you're supposed to understand everything, but personally it got a little too abstract and deep for me.

I'm very much torn on this. It's not YA, so thanks for that, NetGalley. It's a strange graphic novel (comic book?) in the sense that it attempts to be erotic but mostly is repulsive because of the base main character and her... weird and vaguely abusive relationship to her A.I. While the ending sort of redeems that, it takes most of the book to get to a point where I could figure out if I even liked it or not and if there were any redeeming features. The introduction made matters only worse, as much as the author probably thought it helped; if you deal with grief and loss and heartbreak like this... that's not very healthy.

read the first issue and i don't think this is the title for me. the artwork is great but the story seems very disjointed and also very ....melodramatic i guess? granted you can probably hang a lot of that on me being aroace and thus not really invested in such over the top relationship drama, but the premise sounded very unique so i did want to at least give it a try. from what little i read i would say you'd probably like it if you're a fan of stuff like black mirror because the scifi aspects seem very reminiscent of that to me, but i just don't want to muddle through the rest of it since i'm not feeling it.

Lesbian goes crazy, turns into a stalker, and don't forget to sprinkle in some sci fi. This was a mess and it lost me in the final issue. I liked the artwork.

A clever way of using sci-fi to discuss an important topic, albeit in a rather graphic way that may not be palatable for everyone. Reminded me of Ex Machina, but without that film's restraint. Not sure if it worked for me, but it is certainly unique.