Much like "Faithless", Maria Llovet's "Eros/Psyche" is gorgeous to look at. But like the comic it springs from, it suffers similar plot and pacing issues. That said, it remains a beauty to behold while being slightly confused.

Maria Llovet's Eros/Psyche by Maria Llovet
Thanks NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors, Ablaze for this copy
This grafic novel goes about a strange school and the relationship between 2 girls that attend it.
Love the mitical aspects and the mistical air this story has.My main criticism is that its very brief so i wasn't able to empathize with the characters as much as i'd like.
It remains me of someting alse ive read/watch but I still cant put my finger on it.
3,5/5
Maria Lourdes

The artstyle of this comic is gorgeous. It is spooky and witchy and magical. It was minimalist and the colors were just haunting. I loved the sapphic aspect of this and the romance between the girls was beautiful. My problem with it was that the plot fell really short. It seemed pointless and I honestly just didn't know what was going on.

Fantastic graphic novel with gorgeous artwork and incredibly poetic story.

I wish I knew more about this as I think I may have gone in a little too blind, but from what I saw it was an incredible sapphic story about more than just romance.

I wish I'd gotten to read more about the school itself, but I look forward to deep diving

First things first, the art in this is phenomenal. There's not much text, but the pictures speak for themselves. I bet it would look even better in print and if you're interested, I'd highly suggest getting a print copy.

Unfortunately, the story didn't do it for me. The premise sounded amazing, with a mysterious boarding school for witches and a lesbian romance. But I had a hard time understanding what's going on most of the time. I missed a proper intro, some explanation of how the school works. I guess this was omitted for a reason (to make everything more mysterious), but it didn't work out and left me really confused.

The romance itself was very cute and soft and I enjoyed it, but it couldn't carry the whole book. Lots of things remained unclear until the very end, and even then the explanations were shady.

I'm really sorry to say this, but the art alone doesn't justify a better rating for me. I guess I'd only recommend this if you want something pretty to look at and don't care about well developed characters or an exciting story (which I do, hence the low rating).

When I saw the cover and read the title/description, my greek mythology loving self came out and I had to read it! Sadly, I was a little underwhelmed. It terms of art style, it´s usually my favorite one but I loved it here, so it was definitely one of my two favorite parts of the graphic novel. My other favorite part was the ending, i felt like it wrapped up pretty nicely and the plot was at its strongest point. My problems were that the relationship was under-developed, in my opinion, and that the plot felt confusing at times. Still, I think it is a very solid read, specially if you´re just looking for something enjoyable to read!

While I did think the premise was interesting, and I enjoyed the allusion to greek mythology, a lot of the story felt extremely underdeveloped. The story was often times hard to understand and I found the romance uncompelling. I almost wish the book was drawn out a little more to truly drive the story in better. The whole plot twist at the end left me unsatisfied due to the lack of plot it was built off of. The plot twist was really the only clear understanding of the plot I was given.

Other than the story, the art was fantastic. The style really matched the feeling of the story and was an informed choice for this particular setting, The art did manage to keep me interested in the book, even if the plot itself was somewhat lackluster.

The art style is usually not my cup of tea. The background is often empty, the characters themselves look pretty flat and almost always the same. I'm glad that this comic is released as a coloured version, because the original black and white one I wouldn't have liked at all.
But I must admit 'Eros/Psyche' has a very particular aesthetic, which I was drawn to. Though I would've liked to see more of the school and more world building overall, the ending paid of for me and I enjoyed some of the inner monologue. The extras, like character designs and alternate covers, are nice, too.
3,5 stars.

'I came to think that my only link with the earth was her. The only thing that grounded me and held me down from flying away.'

I got an ARC of this book.

What really caught my attention was the clearly sapphic cover in a dark color scheme. That is exactly the sort of thing I want to read. I am here for this.

Then the story started. It was weird. It made me think of Looking for Alaska. It felt like it was dark for dark sake at times and that there was not enough holding up the plot. It was a very loose and mild plot of attending a boarding school, but it appears that it is less than ten girls total. Those are the only people shown. Everything is done by letters and uniforms. There isn’t a lot to go by. There were punishments that were implied to be so horrifying and psychologically scaring that they changed the girls for life, but nothing was really explained. Why would they go to a school like this?

The magic was unclear. It was done at night and wasn’t really explored. Was it schools sanctioned? Is that why the school could get away with such harsh punishments?

The romance was something that made more sense, but it was still very mild and not really explored. Add in the huge secret that was being carried in that relationship and I should have been all over it. I love little intense details, but it just fell flat. Why was the scarf so important. It just felt like it came out of nowhere. Since so much about the school was unexplained, it made the relationship weaker as well.

The only thing I am not let down by is the art. The art was gorgeous through the whole book. It was what got me through it. I wanted to love this and I partially enjoyed reading it. As soon as I put any thought to the book though it falls apart.

I read this twice, two separate times and even right away when I've finished it, I struggle to find words to describe this book. It feels like a dream. When I reach out to grab something solid about this book I find myself coming back with nothing.

While this lack of solid memory of this book is weird, it honestly plays into the intrigue and mystery this book presents quite well.

I also can proclaim: It's Gay and IT SLAPs!

thank you netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review. this book was alright, but it could have been better. i give it 3/5 stars.

I was very excited to read this but unfortunately was not able to open it on any of my devices. I will definitely be looking for it in the future to read and enjoy!

Sapphic goings-on at a weird school. Sara is the new girl, having passed the entry test – a coded letter, and a public vote. She's hooked up with the alpha female as well, the girl to have been at the place the longest. But boy is it the weirdest place – seemingly no tutors bar coded text books, exile for the lowest-scoring at exams, and rules enforced remotely, with a very severe form of punishment promised. Life there is so weird it allows for copious wordless frames, of budding foliage, pills, and of course Sara and her flame passing by classical statuary and being – well, themselves?

Well, if not themselves, the epitome of Caspar David Friedrich paintings, and if not that then a variant on themselves as designed by this nutjob, oddball institution. The blurb says witchcraft and spell-casting is involved in the school, whereas the reader is just supposed to accept the boxing up of certain things, the collection of birds' eggs, and the floating downstream of small dolls in their dozens on rafts. Some people will definitely find all this too bizarre and unexplained, and equally a valid response at times is the feeling that the book has only now, and suddenly, discovered that girls might snog.

But I think I was able to get over such hurdles. I think it might have caught me in an easy mood, when I was not seeking relevance and a helping-hand through it all, as I might have needed elsewhen. For all its serious wackiness it's not doing anything exceedingly different – Florence Pugh fans will find a lot of this rather familiar from her film career – but it's not doing what it's doing badly at all.

This story wasn’t what I expected yet it grabbed me from page one. The story starts wih Sara reminiscing about her school days in the past and we see the entire story being told from her narrative. Sara does not focus too much on a story but rather her feelings and the people who were important to her in school. The eerie athmosphere comes from the fact that the school seems to be some kind of elite school that teaches girls magic and secret languages. Since this isn’t Sara’s focus we are left in the dark about the purpose of the school for a long time. She talks about her feelings for Silje, the so called Key Student at the Rose. Their relationship just like most of the story is mostly told in athmospheric montages focusing more on the feelings rather words, The illustrations and the pacing does most of the storytelling. Despite this the romance feels natural and well-built before the girls address their feelings. There is a lot of symbolism in the story as well, just like the blooming rose portraying their feelings for each other. I like that the story of Eros and Psyche was mentioned and explained in the story, since I wasn’t familiar with it. The ending feels bittersweet and a bit confusing - even though some of our questions are answered I have so much more. I would love another volume where we can dive deeper into the mystery and the purpose of the school and see how the girls’ story continues.

Lesbians? Boarding school? MAGIC? Maria Llovet? Okay... I am sold! I have no clue what was going on. I am here for the lesbian / witchcraft / dark magic school thing though. Also, its by Maria Llove who is my favorite artist.

This graphic novel was mysterious and unsettling from the beginning. I was drawn in by the character designs and wanted to find out what was going on with the magic rituals the characters were doing. The sparse illustration style added to the grim and beautiful atmosphere of the story, but sometimes the writing seemed a little choppy. Definitely an interesting graphic novel that I read in one sitting, but I'm not sure it was as successful as it could have been.

A queer spin on the timeless myth of Eros and Psyche, brought to light in such a wonderfully written way. I devoured this in one sitting!

I just read and reviewed another graphic novel and I think the exact same thing: some graphic novels have issues where they feel more like a short story than an actual novel. I went into this expecting a more fleshed out story but instead it was just a really short story that didn't really bring anything substantial. The storyline was decent but wished it was longer. Those who enjoy reading short stories may like this one, especially within queer representation.Moving on to the art, I thought the art style was okay. Nothing really wowed me. I loved the fan art that was included in the end though.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my review.

I was very confused by this graphic novel. I tried to look at some other reviews with the hope that someone could explain the plot to me, but it seems like lots of other readers were left confused as well. I loved the artwork and thought it added to the spooky and mysterious vibe of the story, but I wish I could understand the plot a bit better and know what was happening. I was in a constant state of wonder about what the Rose School was and what was happening to the girls there. I also rated this a 3/5 because even though I didn't understand much, I did enjoy reading the story.

Read this free on NetGalley. The cover immediately caught my attention. The blurb? Even better! It had a promising start too; a sapphic dark academia that has witchcraft in it? It's almost like they handpicked these genres for me... Sadly, it couldn't live up to my expectations. The art is absolutely breathtaking. It's beautiful! Perhaps the best thing about this book is the art, every page could be a beautiful artwork of its own. I loved the aura and the aesthetics of the world that was built here. However the storyline itself falls short... I would have given this 5/5 for the art alone but the storyline was hard to follow and a bit frustrating because of the fact. I felt as if the author had a clear image of the story in their mind and assumed the story itself unfolded in the readers' eyes the way they envisioned it. I'm saddened to say that this was not the case for me. I didn't understand most of the plotline and I still don't know what even happened in it. There were some side storylines that resolved right after they were introduced, ruining the point of side characters. I feel like there was so much potential that was ultimately wasted on confusing storytelling choices.

I would be open to checking other works from Maria Llovet out as I can see that the genres they work with seem tailor-made for me.