The art was so unique from what I normally read but I loved it! The story is also fabulous and engaging....

Great Art, Disjointed Storytelling

The art here is top notch Sandoval - weird, surreal, touching, unpredictable, darkly humorous, and sometimes deeply moving. But, even more than with Sandoval's other books, the accomplished and compelling art diverts the reader from the otherwise muddled storytelling.

You could step back from the book after reading it and outline the story and it would seem to be a coherent tale. But that's deceptive. It's like when you remember a dream - you remember it in a way that makes a certain amount of sense. But during the dream itself things are more confusing, disconnected and complicated. Same here.

So, I enjoyed this as a series of loosely connected episodes. Lots of running themes pop up - budding teen sexuality, fear of the future, the search for independence, the confusion of first love, the search for the ineffable and for meaning of life, individuality, the nature of a life lived emphatically. Given that, if you approach this in a spirit of groovy life affirmation you could have a good time.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Interesting read, kind of weird but still interesting, for most of the graphic novel I didn't know exactly what the point of the book was, what the author was trying to say, the story is kind of confusing and the events are throw around and not properly flush out, I felt like something was missing, like some parts had been cut.

I really liked the drawings, I can appreciate their strangeness and the dark imagery, the lines and colors are also very beautiful and match the story the author was trying to convey.

Thank you Netgalley and the author for allowing me access to read this.

Honestly, the art style was strange and very different to what I'm use to, so that's why I wanted to go out of my bubble and read something different. I'm not sure that I was a 100% with this comic as it didn't grabbed me as much as I thought it would though 🤔

Thank you to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. <i>1000 Storms</i> is scheduled for release on July 20th, 2021.

I don’t really know what I expected this book to be, but I know I definitely didn’t expect it to be what it was. Even so, I actually loved it, a lot. The variety of art styles and mediums are beautiful and used in a very defined way that I think helped us as the audience understand Lisa’s feelings even more. It was concise, but a few more pages wouldn’t hurt it, and it threw a few good curveballs my way; I would read other stories about Lisa and her life without question.

Here are some highlights from my notes as I was reading that could probably tell you more than I could trying to write a nice and pretty ~review~
- i did not expect anyone to say the word “assholes” in this book
- how old is Lisa?
- TW blood, gore, violence specifically on pages 53 and 54 (more than the rest of the book)
- i was not ready for what happens on page 105; this is not the right time y’all
- i was even less ready for page 106
- <spoiler> BILLY, NO </spoiler>

Also, I wouldn’t classify this as a middle grade book as I originally anticipated, but the themes aren’t like hella mature or anything; probably best for ages 14+

There's a girl, Lisa, on the cusp of becoming a young woman, and she has the ability to enter a world that seems to mirror ours, but is filled with all kinds of humanoids and beasties. Lisa likes to collect bits and pieces (think small skulls) from that world, take them back to our world. Turns out she looks a lot like a kind of fairy-ish woman, who the beasties and goblins don't like.

At the same time there's a fractured coming-of-age story in our world. Lisa likes different boys, and different boys like her. Some children think she is a witch. Some of the children follow her to the mirror world. The worlds start to overlap, and this doesn't surprise a lot of the locals.

The story isn't completely coherent, it doesn't totally work, I feel. But this book is about the art, which is a queasy mix of really beautiful drawings, with dollops of a certain kind of curious obsession with dollike drawings of prepubescent girls (reminds me of Trevor Brown's work).

3.5 stars

I liked the description of this book, and it does deliver. The art is often gorgeous, and the characters intriguing and relatable. I had a bit of a hard time following along, however, in part because I found the way the art style changes disorienting. I have also read a lot of similar books in terms of content, so while the way the characters acted and the way the story unfolded were unique, the overall setup sometimes felt a little too familiar.

I would still recommend this book to those who enjoy the fae, gorgeous art, and stories about people who have trouble fitting in.

Like usual, Sandival’s illustrations are wonderful. He switches style to create a better world crossing atmosphere. His watercolours are ethereal and Full of fantasy and marvellous things.
The story is very much about atmosphere. He always manages to create impressive worlds that we want to know more about. We follow a wild girl, of undetermined age, he’s illustrations always have that in common that it is difficult to tell if characters are children, teens or adults. He likes this awkward age between teens and adult hood.
But the plot is a bit lacking, The characterisation is very late, and I feel like I don’t really know or care about any of the people in the comic. If you like his style you will love this one, I’m still yet looking for one of his comics that I love. I just need a little more story.

I really loved the artwork for this book. My main critiques are that the story seemed to jump around without explanation and it felt like a lot of information was missing. Since this seems like the first book in a series, I really wish the author gave more time to *show* us character traits and flesh everything out rather than simply using dialogue to explain things quickly.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors for allowing me to read this piece in exchange for an honest review!

Tony Sandoval truly outdoes himself in this piece by showing his amazing talent as an illustrator and writer. In this one graphic novel we are given may different styles of artwork, all surrounding one main character. The story is an imaginary tale following a young girl, leading into a fantastic world within our world. She can see things a lot of us might not be able to see.

By the end of this piece I wanted more! I have so many questions that I would love to have answers for! This piece is a great stand alone graphic novel, but Sandoval did an amazing job giving justtttttt enough to want to see what happens next.

1000 Storms is a great spin on growing up, being "child like" and learning to become an adult. A great coming of age story that also leads into the fantasy world, combining both to bring you such a lovely experience for your mind AND your eyes!

A huge thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this piece of art.
I'm not sure what I just read, I'm a bit confused, but this graphic novel is a piece of art for sure. The drawing it's so amazingly beautiful and artistic, it's so charming and wonderful, that I didn't mind to no understand the whole story.
Lisa is a girl, that lives with her godmother. She's different, she loves collecting all kind of curious stuff like bones, skulls, rocks... One day she found a tree through which she go to the different and magical word full of creatures and demons. Also she try to find herself and live her live quietly, but the folks of this little village can't understand her, and some of then treat her badly.
I think the whole story is a big metaphor, like reading one of the Mathias Malzieus's books. I can't reach all of the meanings, but besides of that I've enormously enjoyed the story.
Maybe the big lesson of all of this is, that if you are different from the others, it doesn't mean that you're a weird person. It means, that you are special and you need to live your own life as you want. It's OK to be different, because you're unique and beautiful. Be yourself always and follow you own path.
The boys that died, I guess, it's an other metaphor. You can't living the life without deciding, or making stupid decisions because of the others. You will die metaphorically, because you will not live you own dreams and your own life.

This book was odd. I think I was interested in the story. But the art was very disturbing to be honest. And the nudity/sexual bits did not seem necessary.

thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.
I loved Watersnakes by Tony Sandoval so much, so when I saw his name I knew I had to read this. The art and weirdness was amazing like in the other book, but the story seemed a little more.. scattered or not complete in some ways. Watersnakes was also chaotic and weird, but it still felt like there was a meaning to the madness that this story lacked. In any case I loved the art so much that I'll let it go

I loved this so much that I really do hope there is more to it. I loved everything about this graphic novel. The plot, the characters, everything. And its left me wanting for more. more answers on Lisa and her future, her mother, etc.

This won't be for everyone.The art is beautiful and creepy. The plot is strange and disjointed. And as someone mentioned, the sexualization of the main character can be uncomfy whose a minor mind you. She's shown nude in the beginning and gets groped in another scene. I'm intrigued but I don't know if i say I liked it? I also didn't really connect with the characters. I don't know whose the target demographic suppose to be honestly.

Peculiar tales have and will always captivate me, and this one did not disappoint.

We follow a young girl with strange tastes as fae and monsters draw her into their world and lead her to a destiny that will have her face off against the devil.
The drawings in this graphic novel envoke both watercolour and sketch and capture the magic in both as this tale unfolds. Switching between the art styles as the magic world and real mix was genius and really helped the story.

This was incredibly strange and so, so, soooo creepy! But I liked it. It was strange that the art styles were so mixed, but this was strange altogether, so... I didn't get it, not really, but I did like and enjoy it.

1000 Storms had such a bizarre and confusing storyline. The art style really lent itself to creating a sinister and disturbing atmosphere. I was thoroughly discomfited by some of the imagery and confused as to the plot's progression. I do not think this graphic novel was for me.

This book has absolutely beautiful illustrations. I would have loved to have had more backstory, but Lisa is such a good character. You can't help but feel for her. It's both fascinating and devastating.

<i>I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Art style? 10/10

Aesthetic? This my vibe.

Story? Ehhhhh-- thin and disjointed.

Sexualization of children? That's gonna be a no from me, dawg.

I'm honestly not sure who the ideal audience is for this. The dialogue is very simplistic, the characters act even younger than they appear on page, and yet in the course of this very short read the main character: has a full frontal nude, has attention drawn to her breasts and gives a younger child permission to grope them in public, and on her second kiss in the middle of a dangerous situation her hand is depicted as going straight down the boy's pants.

I'm no prude, but it feels like there's a line between innocent/tasteful portrayal of children being comfortable in their sexuality, and voyeurism for the reader. (eg What angles they're viewed from, where the image is cropped, things shown in profile or shadow, etc).

And this was all very uncomfortably on the voyeurism side of the line.

4 stars for the art, but 0 stars for the everything else.