This was a very intriguing read that had me captivated even from the summary. I appreciated the characters and felt connected to them. This spoke to me as a potential coming of age influence for years to come.

This is a really smart, really engaging book about coming of age in the era of ubiquitous social media. It cleverly walks a careful line: it has lots of interesting and insightful things to say about the way constantly curating our lives and our image can impact our identity and self esteem, but does so without condemning social media and its users, and is even aware of its positive effects: connection and self expression. It's a nuanced take with relatable characters and beautiful busy artwork: I loved this.

That was a great quick read about an interesting subject. The message is quite clear and bluntly delivered, but the art style and insights into the image-retouching business that is part of the fashion industry made the story feel more compelling and enjoyable. Olive's a nice enough protagonist, although she's more driven by the plot than the other way around. I had a good time with this one and would read other works by this author.

My thanks to Lerner Publishing Group and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted a quick graphic novel to read and this did the trick. Olive works at an internship with a photographer who edits photos. She grapples with beauty standards and her feelings on that.

The art was just black and white and I thought I would miss the colors but it actually worked really well. There were also cute alternative names for popular brands (ie “google” was “google”’ so it was fun to see how the author changed the names.

Tw: eating disorders

I did not realize this was a graphic novel when I requested it from NetGalley so I was somewhat letdown because I was ready to sink into a novel. But once I got over that, I really liked Olive's story. I especially appreciated her attempt to detox from social media which is very difficult to pull off! The introduction of current topics regarding body positivity and acceptance are integrated naturally. I also like the graphics of this graphic novel. I sometimes find it difficult to follow the story in GNs because of the super busy illustrations but this story was supported by the graphics rather than having them detract from it.

Unretouchable tells the fictional story of Olive, a recent high school graduate who is gifted with the opportunity to intern for a faction magazine. Her internship as a digital imaging specialist involves helping on photoshoots and learning the industry secrets of how models look so glamorous. And it requires her to analyze her relationship and society's relationship with body image. Unretouchable will serve as a meaningful tool for encouraging discussions about the impact of all forms of art (including magazines), technology, and self-image.

Sofia Szamosi does a fantastic job of showing the realities of prints ads and now the more available all of the time social media ads.

I read this book in two lenses, first as a reviewer and secondly as a mother. Szamosi shows how easy it is "cut", "crop", and "paste" images. As a mother to tween girls on the precipice of getting their own social media accounts, I wonder how to best show them that images that they are seeing are not realistic. Szamosi does a great job to show the mental toll this playing God with ads has on a person.

***Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley in providing me a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.***

Featuring a teen just graduating from high school, I think that this is a read that would be a good addition to my high school library. It touches upon the concept of body image and body positivity with the particular lens of social media, digital retouching vs. reality, eating disorders, and more. I think it would be a good springboard for conversations about social media, how it functions, and its effects on our self-image and beliefs about others. It provides one model for finding balance with technology without fully abandoning it and yet finding a way to make it work for, rather than against, oneself.

Thank you Lerner Publishing Group, Graphic Universe, and NetGalley for providing an ARC.

It seems serendipitous that I read this just days after hearing an interview with Emma Lembke of the Log Off movement. I like how this book wrestles with these questions we're all asking about social media and image consciousness without offering any easy answers. For some, social media is important, especially if they are artists or entrepreneurs. But there is also a dark side. And as traditional media and advertising companies adopt social media, lines begin to blur. I was just as shocked as Olive to learn about the virtual models. I've heard of the virtual singers, but I wasn't aware of these virtual influences and models,. I felt like at some point this book almost became a horror story! I really enjoyed it. It had an autobiographical feel like Raina Telgemeier's work, even if Sofia's story is fiction. It also reminded quite a bit of Bryan Lee O'Malley. And those are both artists I love, so it should be considered a high compliment. I'm very much looking forward to Sofia Szamosi's next book!

As someone who recently graduated high school and starts college in the fall, I found this book incredibly relatable. This was an interesting take on the dangerous side of how we consume social media. As Olive is trying to feel confident about how she progresses through life and how she looks while at an internship based on retouching photos we get a unique glimpse of her journey of acceptance. I'm not sure that I would recommend this for people with eating disorders even with the message of accepting your body at the end since there was a main focus on body image issues and bulimia that could be very triggering.

Olive is spending the summer before college working as an intern at a fashion magazine. While she struggles to decide if she I going to be able to make a career creating art, she also struggles with her body image especially since her internship is teaching her how to retouch photos. As her internship continues, Olive learns that the models struggle with body image as well, and that more and more companies are using digitally-created images in advertising, not even real people. Olive starts to look into the body positive movement and how she can become more accepting of her own body...unretouchable.

The beauty of graphic novels is their ability to capture your attention and hold on to you until the end. This was no exception and I loved following Olive through the story.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own

Unretouchable was a quick, fun read! It follows Olive, an artist with an internship at a fashion magazine during the summer between high school and college. Olive learns how to retouch images of models and begins dealing with body image issues as a result. This is a very realistic view at the industry, advertising, and social media. The graphic novel does a good job of balancing messages of body positivity while still keeping the story mostly light. I loved the art style of this too!

TW for bulimia and eating disorders.

Miigweetch to NetGalley and Lerner Publishing Group/Graphic Universe for the DRC.

The art style is very bold, distinct, and reminds me of Marjane Satrapi's “Persepolis.” I absolutely loved looking at the pages, even if sometimes the formatting was a bit strange (this may have been due to the fact that I was reading in the NetGalley app.)

I appreciated the nuanced approach to the themes addressed in this story, especially in regards to the curated images we see on social media, and the importance of not comparing our real life to someone else’s highlight reel. I recommend this book to teenagers and young adults who are struggling with social media use, the fakeness of filters and the internet, body image, and finding their own way among the crowd.

I liked the art style and it was a fun and quick read. It was a relatable read and it sends a great message about how is import to stay your true self and don't compare your apparence and life so much to influencers and models because not everything you see on social media is true. And how the beauty standards are most of the times impossible to follow.

A highly engaging and candid coming-of-age story which explores the ramifications of the digital media.

This was a very entertaining graphic novel which centers around the summer internship Szamosi had before entering college. She works for a photographer/digital imaging specialist and peeks behind the curtain to see how those glossy, pore-less photographs for magazines and ads are made. Both a personal account and an examination into the media industry, Szamosi grapples with the modern issues of media in a digital age and the growing pains of young adulthood.

While the art-style personally isn't for me, I did deeply enjoy this graphic novel in terms of narrative and how Szamosi constructed the story structure.

Thank you NetGalley and Lerner Publishing Group for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Along with fun plot lines, dialogue, and illustrations, Unretouchable educates readers about retouching in media and how body positivity and self esteem are a stronger and more important force. The main character is interning in the editing department at a fashion magazine in NYC during the summer before college. She learns about the drastic difference between what is actually photographed and what goes into the print magazine. Meanwhile she struggles with her own feelings of being a young woman using social media.

The main character is very relatable as is her struggle with body image in the age of social media. The author does a good job of teaching about the dangers of photo editing and social media without it seeming like a lesson. It’s woven into the plot seamlessly. The illustrations are simple yet effective. It’s an enjoyable read while speaking about important topics.

A spiritual successor/combination of The Devil Wears Prada and Pen15, Unretouchable cuts straight to the heart of the struggles and anxieties that impact all of us in a world inundated with social media and advertising. Through her charming and expressive art and relatable protagonist, Sofia Szamosi leads us to think about how our expectations about beauty, bodies, and ourselves have been shaped and warped by the images we see and how we can participate in this system and share our art without losing ourselves.

This graphic novel was so good, it follows Olive, a teenager who’s doing an internship at a digital imaging specialist (basically, the people who edit and retouch images for social media and that stuff).
It is a well constructed analysis of social media and how that can affect body image as well as self esteem. The digital era is now and we are surrounded by media and images all the time so I think this made a great job at describing that and sending an important message about it.
The art style is simple and a bit classy, I really liked it.
TW: mentions of eating disorders.

Interesting read about a young girl named Olive who's takes a summer internship for a photographer. Primarly working with a fashion magazine to re-touch photos.

Olive herself struggles with her appearance and relationship with social media. Almost creating a false identity of who she believes she should be "to the world" versus who she is.

Being exposed to all of the overly re-touched photos complicates her views on these issues... but ultimately helps her work out a healthier expectations on herself and allowances to be more authentic.

Great read that tackles very common and current social views, expectations , and disillusioned realities for women in the world, online, and presented by the media.

Art style was a bit vague and chunky at times. Not exactly my preferred style but overall didn't effect the flow or my interest in the story.

**Thank you to Lerner Publishing Group, Graphic Universe, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.**