Cover Image: Elle(s)

Elle(s)

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Member Reviews

This graphic novel instantly hooked me with the first page. The art style is really cute and bright. We follow Elle as she starts at a new school and makes friends. But when her school life starts to become stressful, Elle's attitude changes. Active and loud one moment, withdrawn the next, until her friends can't make sense of it anymore.

There is a minor pacing issue since we jump very fast from Elle meeting her new group of friends to her first mood change, but other than that I really enjoyed this and am definitely eager to read more and find out what happens.

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2.5 🌟
I had trouble deciding how to rate this book. On the one hand, the art style, character design and colours (and colouring style, i guess) were amazing. It's what caught my attention in the first place, because I hadn't heard about this graphic novel before seeing it on Netgalley. The cover art looked so good, I had to download this and read it right away.
The main issue I had, is that they mixed up (real) personality and bipolar disorders with science fiction and they did not do a great job at it. I have never experienced bipolar disorder or multiple personalities, but I have read and heard own voices accounts of how it 'works' and I cannot believe even for a second that a psychiatrist would confuse Elle's symptoms with bipolar disorder, because she clearly has something else going on. If they hadn't made her see a psychiatrist, maybe I could have given this book a higher rating, but as it stands, it really made me uncomfortable. I am sure that in the following instalments they will explain what's going on, but this thing really bothered me and I couldn't not mention it in my review.
Anyways, this seems a series with great potential, so I am still looking forward to see how the authors will decide to make the story go. Give it a chance, but do not take Elle's "symptoms" as true symptoms, rather take them as a sci-fi plot.

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Well, there are books with promise and there are books with promise. I didn't think this would be the pick of the five Europe Comics review files this month, but it might well be, and going on March's selection even in the top ten for the year. It looked like being just some everyday teenage issue book, with yucky yacky teens, done in a TV cartoon style. It's so much more. Elle is the new girl at school, but what the kids who by chance become her circle of friends don't know is that there is more to her than first seen. She has a kind of multiple personality – the bolshy one, the silent one, the good friend one, the attention-seeker, all coming in some cool "Inside Out" way with their own specific colouring. This is evidenced by Elle having a different coloured Jodie Whittaker hairdo in each frame, but it's also relevant elsewhere. For all the Elles have an individually-coloured safe place, a mental hideaway to recover from the everyday thing of snogging the wrong boy, being too violent at volleyball, or whatever the issue might be.

So just who and what seems to be attacking Elle on all fronts, in all safe places, and why?

There is a chance this cosmic, mythological side to things might get a little OTT in books to come, but we can't tell – this is months old in the original French, and obviously the readers of that are as much in the dark (and impatient) as us waiting for the translations to come out. As it is, the book could be a marvel – the teens are likeable, even the cute, klutzy one with milk-bottle specs and the memory of an Amstrad 464. There is an element to Elle's backstory here that is very guessable, but it still comes out in an entertaining way, and it leaves no end of mysteries and questions for us to be finding out later. And the cartoonish artwork? Well, yes, the proportions of the faces and so on are really out of one certain school and one particular style, but they work perfectly fine here. And it would appear to be the artist's debut in book form. Like I say, a title of much promise. So much so, this gets four and a half stars, with the possibility the series as a whole gets a full house down the line.

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Beautiful, detailed illustration! Elle struggles with biopolar/personalities that is shown by her hair color changing which I thought was a nice touch. The story was short, ending on a cliffhanger. I can't wait for the next comic because it was super interesting. Elle was a fun character and so were her friends.

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It’s probably been about 30 years since I read a comic. It’s but something I pictured myself ever doing again except I was so pleasantly surprised by this one and I really enjoyed it. Short, fun, easy to read and with some important topics. I’d love to read the next in the series if there are more.

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[ENG]
Elle(s) It's a very interesting story with a beautiful concept design. If you're like me interested in TID and psychology, you would like to give Elle(s) a chance.

This graphic novel has a pretty way to show us how TID is from the pov of a teenager girl who isn't diagnosed. Elle knows that something is odd in her, know that her mind have some issues, but can't know what is, because she's very confused almost all the time and stressed and tired. Although she goes to the psychologist, they seem to didn't notice her switches.

Keep in mind that this the first one in a series so the TID it's not mentioned as well, but you can see Elle switching to an alter and other. And, If you have some knowledge about it, you would be able to detect who is the primary protector of the system, who is the persecutor, which is Elle's and Elle's alters places in the inner world.
Side note: All about the inner world it's beautiful, and it's where we can know a little more about Elle's alters. However, Elle is the host, so we know her more than everyone.

But I have to tell you, I don't know If the author has TID himself or If he knows someone with it, but as a first volume It's fine. I would like to keep reading it until Elle found about TID, because at that moment we can really see If the author have a good background about mental illness.

[I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.]

[ESP]
Elle(s) es una historia muy interesante con un diseño conceptual bellísimo. Si sos como yo y te interesa el TID y la psicología (Trauma complejo), deberías darle una oportunidad a Elle(s)

Esta novela gráfica tiene una manera muy bonita de mostrarnos cómo es el TID desde el punto de vista de una adolescente sin diagnosticar (y sé que "bonita" es una palabra extraña, pero el arte acompaña mucho).
Elle sabe que hay algo extraño en ella, que su mente tiene problemas, pero no sabe qué es porque esta confundida casi todo el tiempo, así como estresada y cansada. Además, aunque va al psicólogo, ellos parecen no ver sus cambios.

Ten en cuenta que esta es la primera entrega de una serie y que el TID no está mencionado como tal, pero podes ver los cambios de Elle de un alter al otro. Y si tenés algo de conocimiento acerca de ello, vas a ser capaz de detectar quién es el protector primario del sistema, quién es el persecutor, cuales son los lugares de Elle y sus alters en el mundo interno, etc.
Nota al pie: Todo acerca del mundo interno es precioso, es allí donde podemos ver un poco más a los alters y conocerlos. Sin embargo, Elle es la host así que es a quien más conocemos.

Pero tengo que decirlo, no sé realmente si el autor tiene TID o conoce a alguien que sí, pero como primer volumen está bien. Me gustaría seguir leyéndolo hasta que Elle reciba el diagnostico de TID, porque allí es donde se verá más si el autor tiene conocimiento de salud mental.

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I really enjoyed Elle(s), the graphics are stunning and the story is great, sucks you in as soon as you start and the characters are super! It’s really easy to follow, some comics I’ve read before can be very confusing especially when reading on an iPad this was super easy and really enjoyable. I love the story line of Elle having multiple personalities and im really excited to continue reading and finding out what happens next and who her real mum is?!?
I think this is going to be an incredible series and I can’t wait to continue reading!

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I was struggling the whole time because of the writing and images. The writing was too small and the images were kinda faded. So when I was zooming to read the POVs of the characters, I was struggling the whole time. Ugh! Besides, I think I'm to old for reading this book.

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Ah, teen drama. Or so I thought!

But then I enjoyed it more than I had anticipated. It was like I was watching an amazing anime while I was reading this graphic novel.

Well, it turned out to be too short for me. I can understand it's just the first volume yet I wanted a few more pages to understand some basic introduction to the characters, especially the main character.

The artstyle is so polished and so well crafted. I don't think I have come across such neat, eye-popping illustrations in a graphic novel.

The plot that's coming seems heavy at the moment. It seems about finding one's own identity and background.

So far as the first volume goes, I appreciate everything else except for the plot which I feel would be made clear in the following volumes. Waiting for them eagerly (fingers crossed!).

You won't regret picking up this one though.

A treat for your eyes.

Thank you Authors and the publisher for the advance reading copy.

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*contains spoilers*

A sci-fi/fantasy graphic novel with an absolutely beautiful art style, which reminded me a little of the Disney art style of recent years and I loved it. It's so colourful and just so pretty.
There is mental health rep as the main character has bipolar disorder linked to adolescence, and her mood swings were brought to life in the story through Elle being shown with different hair colours - pink, brown, yellow, green, purple, blue.
One of the things I loved most about reading this graphic novel was the friendship group; a group that is already formed when Elle arrives but one that she slots in with instantly. It was also refreshing to see that her friends didn't abandon her when she opened up about her mental health. I'm looking forward to reading the next instalment!

Thanks NetGalley for the copy in exchange for a review.

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