Interesting mix of illustration style that owes a bit to manga, juvenile teenage characters and dark moments. Sometimes it's tender, sometimes it's odd or perhaps overly cruel, but it's certainly memorable.

I thought the concept of this graphic novel was... interesting. A bunch of kids trying to get lifetime passes to a theme park by taking elderly people with them, hoping one of them would die at the park. Not going to lie, I was prepared to hate all four of the teens we were introduced to. Luckily, the story took a turn and I ended up really enjoying it.

The art, unfortunately, wasn't great but that was mostly due to me having a review copy. The finished version will of course have fully coloured art, and I am considering buying myself a copy when it comes out just so I can reread it with the finished artwork. So yeah, didn't take off any points because of that!

Definitely recommend this one!

The short version: A heart warming story about what’s under the surface when we care to look a little deeper that aims straight for the feels and mostly succeeds.

The long version: First off, I have to admit it, I’m a sucker for judging a book by its cover...and the short blurb describing it. When I came across this graphic novel, I thought the premise sounded ripe for wacky shenanigans and your classic things got way out of hand moments. If I had read the elongated description I would have had a better expectation going in. So, considering I was a little disappointed this didn’t go off the rails (in a good way), I was very pleasantly surprised how thoroughly enjoyable it was overall. I wasn’t expecting this one to touch on so many deeply emotional themes, but it does a nice job in being straightforward without crossing over into forced. The main character, Jackie, is very well developed and even in the short span of a graphic novel I felt like I got to know her very well. The plot pushes along at a good pace and overall the dialogue is nice and tight, though it is a bit on the nose at times. The copy I read wasn’t finalized so the artwork wasn’t fully colored or finished but from what I got it looks like it will be very good bringing the magical kingdom to life.

The main drawback is that in its description the humor of the graphic novel is oversold. There were some mildly humorous moments, but I wouldn’t put this in the humor category. To me it was primarily a drama, and a well done one. I would recommend it to any lover of graphic novels.

Overall a 4 out of 5, mostly because
Component Ratings
Theme/Idea: 4 out of 5
Characters: 4.5 out of 5
Dialogue: 4 out of 5
Character Develeopment: 4 out of 5
Artwork: 4.5 out of 5 (Based on how I assume it will look finished)
Humor: 2.5 out of 5
Theme: 4.5 out of 5
Ending: 5 out of 5

I received an ARC of this book on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Rating: 3.75 stars

The premise of this graphic novel is absolutely fascinating: a group of teenagers start bringing senior citizens to the local Disney-esque theme park in the hopes that one of the old folks will die on park property and the group will be awarded with lifetime park passes for their trouble. While Lifetime Passes is marketed heavily as twisted satire and black comedy, this description is way, WAY off base. Instead, LP is a deeply moving story about intimate multigenerational friendships, letting go of toxic relationships, and finding the strength and the courage to overcome unimaginable adversity. I really enjoyed watching Jackie and Phyllis' friendship emerge over the course of the novel, especially as both of their personal connections to Kingdom Adventure come to light.

From what I could tell, the quality of the art itself is top notch and I appreciated the authors' note that the final version of LP will be in full color. However, the scanned quality of the ARC PDF was absolutely terrible and at times made it difficult to read or figure out what was happening. I'm definitely interested in checking out a final version of this work.

I received an e-arc of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5/5

The concept of this graphic novel was very intriguing. I loved the idea that if someone from your party ends up dying at the Adventure park that they would provide them with lifetime passes. It's definitely something I could see a park doing to try and keep it under wraps a bit.

What I like most about this graphic novel was that it was really so much more on the inside then this fun and silly plot. There was real hurt and lessons in this as well which to me really brought it to life and made it so believable. By the end I really enjoyed our characters and the changes they all go through.

The ending just really brought everything together so nicely and was just such a good ending that left me feeling very satisfied with the journey I went on while reading this.

Before I start, I'd like to say that the images/artwork were very well executed, but the quality of the PDF was rather poor. It was hard to see the details, and the black and white aspect of the ARC didn't help.

I felt like the story was rushed, that you had to rush to get to the end and as a result I had a very hard time getting interested in the story.
As for one particular aspect of the story: the park pass, and the fact that this group of friends spends entire days there I found it almost impossible to believe and very little depth on the why and how. After the announcement that the pass is coming to an end, the group comes up with a ploy to get guaranteed access for life in the hope that an elderly person will die on the spot. I was expecting some dark humor, a dark story, why not an act of repentance or even better, characters who feel no remorse. In the end, none of that, in my opinion we even forget very quickly the initial goal of the group.
A group including two atrociously detestable and rather caricatural characters, but that the author makes them explicitly say their motivations rather than letting them show us by their actions.

Overall, I agree with another person : "it feels like all the potential of the story has been wasted, the story contains no surprises, no plot twist."

TW: Death, Serious Injury

I love a unique graphic novel concept, and that’s exactly what Terry Blas and Claudia Aguirre have created. Lifetime Passes is about a group of friends who spend their summers at a local amusement park. But Jackie, a DACA kid being raised by her aunt, is devastated to learn that her aunt can’t afford the season pass this year. Desperate to spend the summer at the park with her friends, Jackie hatches a plot to earn a lifetime pass. If someone in a park-goer’s party dies whilst in the park, the entire party may be given lifetime passes for their silence. Jackie uses her aunt’s position at the Valley Care Living facility to take some of the residents on field trips to the park, hoping that one will die during the visit and earn the group passes.

The most compelling part of the story to me was the connections that Jackie makes with some of the characters. She really learns a lot about herself and life by talking with others and learning about their struggles. It doesn’t take long for her to understand how selfish and shallow her plot to get lifetime passes is.

The graphics in Lifetime Passes are very good – I can’t wait to see them in full-color.

I really enjoyed this graphic novel. Though the basic plot was dark, there was also hope, growth, and love. I look forward to reading more from Blas and Aguirre.

Lifetime Passes will be released October 5th, 2021.

I received an advanced review copy of this book for free via NetGalley, and am leaving this review voluntarily.

Terry Blas is an incredible illustrator and storyteller, so I was excited about Lifetime Passes, a graphic novel about a teenage girl who decides to take a bunch of seniors to her favorite theme park in the holes that one of them will die and she will get a free pass for life. The premise is dark but fun, and I was pleasantly surprised to describe some of the themes around mental health and belonging that were woven throughout the story.

My sister used to worn for a theme park, and there were several elements of this story that revealed common unsavory practices of theme parks while also celebrating the nostalgia that they bring up for families across generations. However, for a book that seems to focus on kindness and understanding, the ending seemed quite dark.

I was lucky enough to get an early review copy, and the color wasn’t finished yet but I have a feeling it would be super colorful. This will be great for anyone who has enjoyed Blas’ work in the past, loves theme parks, and isn’t afraid of a little dark humor.

Hmmm... The premise of this was a knockout – friends need old people to die in their company whilst at a theme park so the whole lot get free admission for life as compensation, which makes a potential heroine out of a girl who works at a care home. But you have to get through some right waffle before the blackness of that even gets mentioned. There's the history of the theme park, even the geography of the there park, there's the yacking the teenagers have to do before anything halfway decent can happen, there're the lacklustre efforts at creating character (one guy's whole being is just Has Youtube Channel, and little else), and more.

So for many this 40pp hurdle will be too much. Others might care more for the details of the multicultural gang, and whether the channel is doing well (it's not) and how being a Korean-American makes you shy and lonely. And before too many trips to the park, peppered by the teens being far too insolent for us to care a toss about them, we find the book is about something else entirely. It's about being as well-meaning, as well-intentioned, as possible. And while that's a virtue in people, it really doesn't make for a worthwhile read. I think even if you're in the better position right now, of not expecting this to be at all blackly humorous (it's comedy-free throughout, in fact), you will still feel let-down by the mawkish heartfelt Life Lessons 101 these pages present.

trigger warning
<spoiler> trauma, deportation, grief, mention of racism and antisemitism and bullying </spoiler>

The plan is simple: Take old people to a park, and if one of them happens to die, all of them will get lifetime passes. Simple means nothing can go wrong, right?

It starts out as dumb shit teenagers would do, and moves on to multigenerational friendships, a theme I really like. The oldies, who live in the residence the protagonist's aunt works in, and the young people befriend each other, get to know each other, and are able to help with different problems.

The characters are three dimensional people, apart from two of the four teenagers but they are very shallow people, so it could be that. There just isn't more to them for the time being.

I liked this very much, especially the resolution at the end appears perfect.
The arc was provided by the publisher.

Wasn't able to read it, disappointed. because it looked cool. The file type wouldn't download. The cover looks amazing though.

I received a free e-ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'm going to keep this pretty short. The premise was interesting, but I feel like marketing it as 'darkly comedic' is perhaps setting it up to fall short of readers' expectations.
I wasn't a fan of this work for a few reasons:
1) The quality of the images wasn't great and I didn't love the art style - this is partially just a digital ARC issue, but was exacerbated by the fact the entire thing was in grey scale. It would have been easier to read if it was presented in full colour, or more in the style of manga/comics with line drawings and limited shading/screen tones.
2) The group of young characters grated on me - the way they spoke varied between irritating, inane, and sometimes just downright rude. It was hard to enjoy the story when I wasn't gelling with the characters, who lacked depth.

I did like learning about the elderly people living at the nursing home, but it wasn't enough to turn this around for me.

It was a little bit hard to read because of the edition had not the best quality. It was about some friends who wanted to get lifetime passes for a park, but they realized that friendship is way more important than that. It was a good read, I really liked Jackie, and her story, and the two old people were really nice in the book.

My mother worked for Disney during the Depression. They did not let woman become animators. They could be betweenness and paint the cells, but they were not real animators.

This graphic novel is based a little bit on Disneyland and the animation studios that flourished at that time. The only problem is, the impractablilty and impossiblity of a woman somehow keeping it secret that she was animating movies, somehow by herself, but ok, I can suspend my disbelief for the moment of this odd story.

The premise is that this secret animtor grew so popular that her animations made enough money to build a type of disneyland in the 1960s, that is still around to this day.

The second part of the premise is that teenagers love to hang out there every day that they can during the summer. I find that hard if not impossible to beleive, but once again, I will suspend my disbelief over that as well.

The teenagers want to go to the park every day, so much, that they come up with a scheme where they take elderly people for a care facility in the off chance that they might die while there, and the lawyers would give them season passes to hush it up.

The bits I liked where was when we got to meet the elderly people who had, of course, lived interesting lives. What I didn't like were the teenagers who seemed to be so callous and mean.

It is an ok story, even if the teenagers all seem to be caricatures.

<em> Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. </em>

'Lifetime Passes" is a YA graphic novel. The images/artwork are lovely and the style is immersive and easy to look at.

Despite being advertised as 'darkly comedic' the actual story is not as dark as I first thought. There are a couple of instances of dialogue between characters that can lead a reader to think the overall story is dark humour, but the overall plot is actually quite positive and sentimental. The plot itself is relatively predictable. This does not necessarily take away from the story but could lead more capable readers to be bored as they will not need to finish the text to know what happens at the end.

Some characters feel a bit flat and tend to speak in ways that I could not imagine a teenager or young person speaking. There are some relatable parts of dialogue but it mostly feels as if the author has attempted to write characters that are caricatures of teenagers today.

Overall, I do think this book will be enjoyed by readers, if the purpose is a lighthearted and fun read.

I would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. I have read a few graphic novels now by Terry Blas and always enjoy them, especially the art. This one was no exception. It was an interesting read about a teenage girl working in a nursing home and how she interacts and gets to know the people who live there and the interesting life stories they have.

Jackie is living with her aunt and working with her at a elder care facility because her parents were deported. She spends her summers with her friends at the local amusement park, but that will soon not be possible as her aunt can not afford to renew her season pass. Jackie comes up with a plan after overhearing some employees say that if someone dies in the park that the rest of their group gets lifetime passes. So begins a fake program volunteering to bring members of the elder care facility to the amusement park for their health. Jackie and her friends start out resenting bringing the elderly, but Jackie begins to enjoy it. She makes friends with Phyllis whose husband actually built the park. It turns out Phyllis has an alternate motive for wanting to go to the park also. Jackie ultimately learns that the most important thing in life is time.

With such an interesting premise and a promise of “Cocoon meets Heather’s”, I was expecting more dark humour from this story. Instead, the only dark comments come from Jackie’s two immensely unlikeable friends. Parts of the dialogue were stilted info dumps, and characters have a tendency to say explicitly how they feel and what their motives are, rather than to show us with their actions. Overall, it feels like the potential of the premise is wasted, and the story contains no surprises.