The premise of this book sounded exactly like my cup of tea. Witchy dark academia graphic novel with sapphic romance? Yes, please.

Unfortunately, the execution wasn’t as great for me as I hoped. The story is told retrospectively from the perspective of the main character Sara who was accepted to an elite and secretive academy for witches. As a concept, it’s really interesting, but for it to be well realized it was too short for my liking. The life at the academy as well as romance which I thought would be the main focus of the story was told only in short episodes, plot twists weren’t very surprising. The dialogues and descriptions are very scarce even for the graphic novel, lots of panels are silent. That on the one hand helped build a mysterious atmosphere, but on the other hand, it also made lots of stuff a little bit confusing, at least for me. Overall, I would like if the story would be a little bit longer and more detailed. The characters were, too, (maybe except two main protagonists), quite one-dimensional, and served only as a background. I didn’t even know which one is which most of the time.

An artstyle of the graphic novel is quite simplistic, which didn’t specifically bother me and it accented the dark academia vibes rather well, however it also isn’t something I will particulary remember.

In conclusion, I would say that this graphic novel was quite average. I don’t think it was a complete waste of my time but it also wasn’t something that will stick with me for long.

I want to thank Netgalley for the digital copy of this book for the review.

ARC From Netgalley for review.

Review submitted to Diamond Bookshelf for potential professional publication.

I'll come back and add the review once Diamond has released it.

This was a very odd graphic novel. I wasn't really sure what exactly what was going on a lot of the time but I enjoyed trying to work it out as I read. The narrative really added to the mystery and creepy atmosphere of the story. I'm not sure if this is really for everyone but if you are into odd creepy stories then this is definitely for you.

The cover of this book intrigued me because it looks so cute. Unfortunately, this book wasn’t compatible with my device or the kindle app and so I wasn’t able to access. 4 stars for the cover!

Honestly...this didn't feel like anything new. Despite it being about sapphic witches in a dark academia-like setting with beautiful art and mysterious going-ons, it just felt really lacking in a lot of aspects. Maybe it's because of how short it was, but I couldn't really connect with the characters or feel anything for them, even during the big reveal. The romance felt meh. There was a semblance of a plot, but I feel like it could've been better with some more work to make it solid. The characters all felt the same. I came away with more than a few questions about the Rose and I feel like during the reveal nothing was explained that well. Overall, great concept, not so great execution.

A tale full of love and beauty for a new generation of comic book lovers. Maria Llovet uses classic style comic art with a modern story to entice and astound readers with this lovely story.

I was very interested in the plot behind the story so much so that I dived right into it. Something I ended up regretting since it felt like I was missing pieces of the story. The story needed more time in order to create a better romance and characters. I absolutely loved the artwork. I could stay for hours just looking at every drawing.

Eh… What just happened?

Extremely underdeveloped story. 140 pages of confusion. Dven the art was disappointing. couldn’t differentiate between characters at all. It was boring and bland and… just confusing, very very confusing.

I have no idea what this was about, but it's awfully pretty. This comic is mostly pictures. A few eerie things happen, like students being mysteriously expelled from school for unknown reasons and one student commits suicide. There's a vague lesbian romance. It was pretty. I don't really understand the comic. The synopsis said a lot more than the contents or I would have been even more lost. Would I buy this and flip through it again? Probably. But I feel like the reader has to invent the story in their own mind because there's not much to go on in the actual book.

I love when any book is set in a school or a boarding school. I don't know what it is that just draws me to the book but I instantly buy a book set in school and always love it. This book was no exception. I also love retellings and I've never read a story based on Eros and Psyche but this was a cool take on the story. I also love that this was with two female leads who have a romance going. This was a great story and I can't wait to read the other books in the series!

Eros/Psyche is a strange, surreal, lovely, and deeply enigmatic work I expect I'll be thinking about for some time to come. While I cannot say I fully understand what it is about, I am not at all certain that is the point.

Maria Llovet's delicately pretty artwork makes this comic enjoyable even while its plot sometimes vanishes so far into mystery that it stumbles into confusion. Ultimately, the combination of mystery and beauty adds up to something that matters more than pure logic or explicable events, and it does not really matter that much of the story's world remains mysterious--if anything, in the end that feels like what the work has been getting at all along.

I'd recommend this for anyone in search of a beautiful and deliciously queer comic with appealingly stylized art and poignant storytelling.

I received a free digital advance copy of this comic from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my review.

Official title: Eros/Psyche
My title: The Bloody Rose
Author: Maria Llovet
Publisher: Ablaze
Fav character: Siljie
Type: Graphic Novel -Series
Will I read the others: Probably
4.3/5
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A hue-full graphic novel of a young woman at a mysterious all-girls school, learning how to navigate its society, her growing obsession with another student and the story of Eros and Psyche.
▪️

There is a new girl at school, Sara 3, and she has found a scarf and the spot Silje loves to escape to. Naturally, this means they should become blood sisters, to keep the secret of the location of this special place at the Rose.

Tests and envelopes signal departures and arrivals at this slightly off-kilter school. Order is kept by the students, who operate through a form of consensus to exit appalling students. Days are spent gathering herbs, making freaky dolls and hanging coloured ribboned scissors over planted seeds…💁

There are rules with consequences too great to mention and suicides when you least expect them. There is clearly much more to the school than we’re initially told. Friends and enemies abound, love grows, and rules fall on the heads of those who refuse to listen.

When the rules are revealed, they will provide more questions, and mysteries to be solved, than answers.

*I wish more had HAPPENED though.

If you love eerieness, witchiness, and weirdness, I recommend you give this graphic novel a try.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing this ARC!

I choose this arc because the style of the cover was cool, and because lesbians + magic, I mean, who can resist to that? I loved the art style, the colors and the use of symbolism is really, really cool. It has a lot less dialogue that the graphic novels and comics I'm used to, but still I really enjoyed it!

The story itself was... weird, but interesting. I liked the themes that were explored and the mystery of the Academy and of what was going on. I felt like we knew very little because the main character (Sara) knew almost nothing, that was -I think- a very intentional choice of storytelling and I honestly really liked it.

The ending was... I don't know what to feel about the ending. I want Sara and Silje to reunite and be happy, but I don't think this dark world would allow it.

If the kind of sapphic graphic novel you’ve been yearning for is of the creepy-horror vibe, this might be the one for you! There are creepy activities throughout, blood, and recurrent statues. The colors fit the dark mood well.

I was a little confused about how the girls were learning anything at the school, as there aren’t any adults, and there is so much weight on exams. Who is checking these exams, anyway? But I liked the tension of the mysterious rules and the eerie ending regardless. Something about what is left out really adds to the ominous feeling of the whole book.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this story. The illustrations and expressions were so vivid and stunning to look at. I feel like pieces of the story were missing but that could be what added to the level of dread throughout.

TW: Blood, Suicide

The artwork in Maria Llovet's Eros/Psyche is stunning. The art is done in a very distinct style that is lovely. The color palate works really well to give the story an appropriately dark feel. The story, on the other hand, is a little lacking.

The premise is very promising. Magic, mystery, secret societies. What's not to love? Except, when you get down to it, there is little of what was promised. The story has inadequate exposition to actually see many of these things beyond minor allusions. In fact, it has a shortage of dialogue at all, making it jerky and hard to follow at times.

The relationship between Sara and Silje, the two main characters, is extremely subtle. It is sweet and isn't graphic or over the top. The ending felt very "M. Night Shyamalan plot twist"-ish. That's not always a bad thing, and in this case it worked well to tie it all together and wrap it back around to page one, but it still left as many questions as it answered. Overall, despite it's flaws, it was an enjoyable read. Thank you to NetGalley and Ablaze for the digital ARC of Maria Llovet's Eros/Psyche.

The illustrations were nice and colorful, but the story is a bit convoluted and hard to follow. The characters feel bland and not once did I care for any of them. The colors are a bit distracting as well, it made me confused most of the time about who's who and what is happening in the scene. I wished the dialogues were told better since I really did not feel any ounce of emotions from the characters within their dialogues.

Don’t read the synopsis, go into this story blind. You just need to know that it’s a about a girl who goes to a strange boarding school and falls in love with another student.

The art is what made this book stand out for me. The background is often empty, the focus is on the characters’ faces and their gestures. The drawing style in general is not overly complex, it doesn’t distract the reader from the story. In fact, the art is used to narrate most of the story. There are very few dialogues and a lot of pages in which just a few images express what’s going on.

Overall, the plot revolves around the romance between Sara and Silje. We can see their relationship develop in little moments they share, like snapshots of their time together. I really enjoyed the symbolism of the blossoming flowers and the thread to represent their growing romance. It’s cute and somewhat bittersweet.

Throughout the whole book there is an eerie vibe and a mysterious atmosphere. An older Sara is narrating the book, and even though she gives us some hints of how badly everything will end, we know little to nothing about this weird boarding school called The Rose. What is happening there? What are they actually studying? Magic? What does it mean to be the “key” student? There are so many questions.

My main critique is, actually, that I was left with too many questions. It is not exactly an open ending, but many of the mysteries I was expecting to know more about are left unsolved. I have too many theories about The Rose and not enough concrete answers. If you don’t enjoy feeling slightly confused, this is not your book.

All in all, even though the plot is not memorable nor very well-developed, it was a fun reading experience. I loved the mysterious vibe, the romance and the art style. I will definitely keep reading more Maria Llovet’s books.

Amazing graphic novel with interesting story. The Greek mithology was a good addition and the ending really got me.

Cw: Violence, blood

Sapphics with some Greek mythology thrown in? I was so excited to read and dive into this, but I kept waiting for this to pull me in like I was expecting and well… It never did.

The premise of this really captivated me, but I do feel like the execution wasn’t quite there. Everything felt underdeveloped to the point where often times I felt like I was missing pages or had missed reading something because I didn’t understand what was going on.

Due to being underdeveloped, it did leave the romance to feel a little uncompelling too. This story needed to be longer to really develop the story and the characters to create the compelling story that I feel like this could be.

While I struggled with the story, I loved the art. It really set the mood and tone for the story which made up for the lack of plot to really set it.