Full review to be posted soonish.

I would like to thank the publisher and netgalley for providing me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

As a teacher, I like to find new interpretations of classic literature for students so they can read about the same themes but in a form that is more comfortable for them. I love finding graphic novels that do this. Graphic novels are important for students for have reading difficulties, ELL or ADHD so they can experience a story in a much more comfortable way. Though I personally didn't love this graphic novel, I honestly can see that many students will get something out of it and would enjoy it.

Content Warning: Abortion, Abusive Relationships, Castration, Female Genital Mutilation, Gun Violence, Referenced Drug Use and Overdose, Characters being Drugged, Kidnapping, References to Prostitution, Racism, Torture, Transphobia, and the one thing that is implied by the content warning Sexual Assault.

Heads up! This Book is also 1 of 2!

Let's start from the beginning, I think that they did themselves a disservice with the cover design, especially as it doesn't really represent the art style that is contained within the book. Which I guess is also a boon as this book is in no way marketed for anything other then a Mature Audience.

I liked the premise of this book, I haven't read A Picture of Dorian Gray, but lines in Net Galley's synopsis like "white men don’t always win, how the powerless can find justice, and about how a murderous demon and a law-abiding detective can be soul mates." had me hooked. what I took for granted was the "violent fantasy" part earlier in that same sentence.

This gave me the same feeling that watching clips from Saw does, violence for violence sake. Especially later in the book, upon my initial read through my brain unconsciously had me skim over a page, but I ended up going back having realized I didn't know what happened to that dude. I have REGRETS, that image will be haunting me at least for the rest of the day, quite possibly for the rest of my life. (Additional Content Warning for Possible Animal Abuse? Like what the fuck was that.)

I am all for Morally Gray characters, this crossed that line. It didn't even really feel cathartic in the way that revenge stories often do. And I have to wonder if some of that comes from the fact that this is a man writing a story about Women's Revenge.

This book is very interesting. I went in expecting it to be kind of similar to The Picture of Dorian Gray but in fact it is more distantly related. I did enjoy learning more about Ms. Gray and can't wait for more information about her in the next book because I feel like we missed a little bit of her backstory. I love how she doesn't argue what is right or wrong and instead just does what she needs to do and doesn't ask for opinions.

A wonderful crime story in which central character is a survivor gurl who seeks to take revenge from violent men who torture their wives and girlfriends. A detective novel inspired by book picture of Dorian gray. Artwork is great with fast paced story. Captions are insightful and captivating. A great graphic novel. It ends at an interesting point and story will continue in second part.

**Disclaimer: I received a free early access copy of Gray by Arvind Ethan David through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for this opportunity.

Gray by Arvind Ethan David is a Dorian Gray retelling set in a modern era in a graphic novel format.  It's set to be published on July 13th, 2021.  I rated it three stars on Goodreads.


Here's the summary from Goodreads:

A contemporary reimaging of the classic Oscar Wilde novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray," Gray is a supernatural revenge thriller about an alluring but violent woman, Dorian Gray, who seeks vengeance on a cabal of powerful men who wronged her years ago; and of the straight-laced African American detective with a past of his own, who is tasked with stopping her.
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde's only novel and one of the classics of gothic literature, is the tale of the most beautiful man of his age, who sells his soul and his conscience in exchange for eternal youth, beauty and power - and who spends his life murdering, raping and corrupting. All the time in his attic, his picture degrades and rots.
GRAY takes that basic idea but flips its moral framework and gender archetypes: our DORIAN GRAY is a Millennial social media princess who drifts through the coolest cliques of NYC, breaking hearts and turning heads wherever she goes. But Dorian has secrets. For one thing, she's a violent criminal. For another, she's an immortal creature of magic, who commits violent burglaries and assaults some of New York's most powerful men.
30 years ago, whilst an innocent student, Dorian was sexually assaulted by these men. In that moment that she became something both more and less than human. 30 years later, but not a day older, she's ready for her revenge. Then Dorian meets Detective HANK WUTAN, the African-American NYPD detective assigned to stop these crimes, struggling with his own loyalties as a Black cop in the era of Defund the Police. Despite the fact that Dorian is his suspect number one, and he is effectively working for her abusers, they fall for each other, hard.
GRAY takes Wilde's classic novel and reinvents it as a tale of cathartic revenge for the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter era, a violent fantasy about how powerful, super-rich white men don't always win, how the powerless can find justice, and about how a murderous demon and a law-abiding detective can be soul mates.

I will admit that I haven't read The Picture of Dorian Gray, however, I am a sucker for a retelling. I was intrigued by the premise of this graphic novel, and it seemed like it was going to do a lot.  I was really exciting about all of what it was promising.

It was a really interesting story.  I did enjoy the way that the art was drawn and the way there were details layered and revealed slowly and subtly.  It was a little confusing at first as to what was going to happen and what exactly was going on.  However, it did pretty quickly become clear in some aspects, though not in others.

This was clearly on it's way to being a series, and so while it had huge promises in the summary on Goodreads, it didn't really live up to all of those because it's the first in the series.  There's nothing really wrong with that, but the Goodreads summary/page was misleading because it doesn't indicate that it's going to be a series.  I wanted more to happen, and was left disappointed with the cliff hanger ending.

I liked the main detective character, and I was intrigued by the character of Dorian Gray.  However, there wasn't enough time to build up their characterization.  I just really wanted more.

That being said, I will definitely want to continue with the series.  I like the premise a lot and I really want to see how the mystery turns out.

If you're at all intrigued, definitely check it out.  However, remember that it's the first in a series and there will be more to come with it.

This book is not complete on its own. Part 2 would make it complete probably.
Graphics were good.
The story seemed to alternate between timelines, but the switch was not made obvious to the reader.
Technology – wise, the book was slow to scroll through, thus the reading experience was not great.
Can be recommended to young adults who can relate better with graphics.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance look at this title in exchange for an honest review.

A nice modern twist on the classic "Dorian Gray" character. The illustrations were good & the story was enjoyable. Gray can also be used to describe the tone of the novel & the hues of gray add an extra element of depth to the tale.

NOTE: I received a free preliminary, and likely unedited copy of this book from Netgalley for the purposes of providing an honest, unbiased review of the material. Thank you to all involved.

Inspired by the classic 1890 novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Gray by Arvind Ethan David takes queues from many revenge thrillers and brings them into the modern age by touching on many social topics such as #metoo and Black Lives Matter. In many ways, the story (at least with book one) is one part Saw, and one part The Count of Monte Christo in many ways. We don’t know much about Ms. Dorian Gray in the first volume, but we can assume she was sexually assaulted by a group of powerful men that ultimately became powerful men in various government and political positions. She has some sort of network that is collecting these men and getting revenge on them one by one. A couple of detectives are assigned to the case, but ultimately appear to have more in common with Gray than the powerful men they work for.

“A contemporary reimaging of the classic Oscar Wilde novel, “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” Gray is a supernatural revenge thriller about an alluring but violent woman, Dorian Gray, who seeks vengeance on a cabal of powerful men who wronged her years ago; and of the straight-laced African American detective with a past of his own, who is tasked with stopping her.”

While the story, so far, is fairly removed from the original novel the book is inspired by, its an interesting story full of thrills and shocking ends to some very despicable men. I have a feeling that we’ll learn more about Ms. Gray in book two, and what exactly happened to her that caused her to apparently dabble in some sort of magic (as with the original, she hasn’t aged for years) and set her plan in motion. With the introduction of an artist from her school towards the end of the book, I’m assuming the infamous painting itself comes into play at some point.

This book is very well done, and held my attention. Despite being a book about social issues, it’s not as “preachy” as one would assume it would be. Rather than trying to prove to the reader that whatever these men have done was wrong, Gray does away with the subtleties and just gets down to business. As you can surmise from my description above, this book could very well have triggers for people that don’t want to read such an intense story, so be warned.

I picked this one up, since it was placed under teen/YA category. But this is not a young adult novel. It's not even a new adult novel. This one is pure adult in every way. That said, I'm reviewing this one as an adult novel.

As a fan of Dorian Gray, I was curious to see this rewrite, and a graphic novel form is, of course, an even more interesting twist. The story is grabbing and pulls right into the action and mystery. A criminal is at large, one who seems to be targeting rich men. A detective is on their trail but isn't having much luck until finally something clicks. Taking the lead, he tries to lure the criminal in but ends up in the last place he expected or should be. Now, catching the criminal isn't his only worry.

This one has a very interesting criminal, and I enjoyed the high tension and well done mystery aspect. This is definitely original and takes a hard look at the treatment of women and other social questions, which are often heard in today's society. So, it is timely too. I did find that some things bounced around a bit and some of the dialogue and characters didn't quite resonate with me completely, but to say this wasn't done fairly well would be wrong too. It will grab the right person.

The graphic end of it is well done, and I found the scenes and characters nicely portrayed. It brought over the personalities well and added just the right quirks and twists to make every frame sit.

While this wasn't what I'd hoped it'd be from the Dorian Gray rewrite side and not all of the characters were quite my thing, the graphics were well done and the story is intriguing. So, it's a decent read.

I received an ARC through Negalley.

The premise sounds interesting and something that I would enjoy, but I'm not able to download or access the file to be able to read the book, so I can't give an actual opinion at all. Sorry.

3 stars. I don't really have a lot of opinions on this one. I loved the art style. The story was hard to follow (I haven't read Dorian Gray). There will be a sequel, doubt I will read it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors for the opportunity to read and review "Gray by Arvind Ethan David.

This graphic novel should be read by mature young adults; it is not for children. The story tells of a woman named Dorian Gray who had been raped by several men. Revenge is the driving force of the novel which derives its inspiration from Oscar Wilde's "Picture of Dorian Gray." I hope you enjoy the story as much as I did as you follow Dorian's path of vengeance

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

Gray is a gender-bent retelling of The Picture of Dorian Gray for the modern age. It's really hard to give a description beyond that as this honestly felt more like a prequel/precursor rather than a graphic novel all of it's own. My biggest gripe is that we only got bits and pieces of Dorian. I would have loved more time with her, but perhaps that's part of the allure to read book 2. Other than that one gripe this serves as a great foundation for what could be a gripping and compelling series. I will definitely be looking for book 2 so that I can continue unraveling all these characters have to offer.

I recommend this graphic novel for anyone 16+ as it has some adult themes that I wouldn't feel comfortable recommending it to a younger age group. Nothing super graphic, but enough that a warning should be stated.

Definitely an interesting take on the classic, it does flip the original and does take on more of a different approach. The story follows Dorian Gray, but as a gender bent version, and instead of living life in sin, this Dorian Gray is a criminal and is also hunting down men that had assaulted her when she was in college. This story is drastically different than the classic and is mostly a revenge story.

*Thanks Netgalley and Diamond Book Distributors for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

I'm honestly just disappointed.

GRAY is marketed as a retelling of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” with some contemporary twists, but it lacks Wilde's signature wit and charm.

In this version, Dorian Gray is a vigilante hunting down the men who wronged her (the blurb states sexual assault is the reason for her revenge, but the book just kind of implies it). Gray has the support of three other women, who have been hurt by the actions of these men.

Then we have Detective Hank Wutan, an African-American NYPD officer who is convinced that the disappearances of several prominent men are connected and somehow the illusive Dorian Gray is behind it.

There's a ton of TW/CW in this: sexual assault, sexual abuse, torture, nudity, shooting, drug addiction.
Honestly, I almost stopped reading it because it's a lot.

As a fan of classics and crime procedural shows (NCIS, Bones, Criminal Minds, The Equalizer), I thought this would be something that I'd enjoy. But it wasn't. Gray struggles with its identity and evidently sold its soul for the pretty cover art (the actual artwork in this graphic novel is reminiscent of retro superhero comics not ). Gray tries to be a reimagining of Dorian Gray, a vigilante superhero story (think "MeToo Batwoman"), have Hank tackle police brutality, have one of the female vigilantes tackle female genital mutilation. It's just too much too fit into a 120 page graphic novel. This book got so lost in the side tracks that it lost the illusive Dorian Gray. She shows up in the beginning, middle, and end of the story.

Truthfully, I can see this working as a TV show (probably TV-14 or TV-MA depending on how much of the torture is shown), but I don't really think it worked well as a graphic novel

Thanks to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors for an eARC of this.