This was a short but enjoyable read. I really enjoyed the art style and felt that it fit the cosy sci-fi vibes perfectly. It was pretty unique and reminded me of 90s cartoons in a good way.

The story itself was interesting but I think having it narrated by a relatively emotionless creature made it fall a bit flat. There wasn’t a lot of tension and it was very matter of fact. I would describe it as “I did this and then this and then this” storytelling rather than truly allowing the reader to absorb themselves in the story.

That being said I was intrigued and not entirely sure where it was going. I would actually love a sequel about what happened to the creature at the end of the story, it felt open to possible future adventures in a way that got me excited.

Jed McGowan has crafted a visually unique story which very human themes. One of the best science fiction comics I’ve read in a while, and palatable for readers young and old.

Title: My Life Among Humans
Author: Jed McGowan
Published: 2023

Through Netgalley I was given the chance to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

My Life Among Humans is a humorous graphic novel. It provides a quick and entertaining read. It’s an endearing story and I greatly enjoyed reading it.

An alien worker is sent to Earth to observe humans. It’s task is to report back to its manager, which wants to have clean data. This eventually results in a dilemma, after the alien is discovered and takes over the subjects it is supposed to be observing. From this point on, the manager tries to cover up its error as well as to prevent the other humans from discovering its existence. Eventually, the manager arrives on Earth to discover what is going on.

In a sense, it’s a classical ‘alien invader horror story’. An unknown force is slowly taking over people in a town and a small group of humans need to find out what is happening and prevent others from suffering a similar fate. The twist is that the story is observed from the point of view of the alien and that the alien has no hostile intent. It just wants to do its job and stay out of trouble.

Surprisingly, the comic has a depth that I had not expected at first. The alien has a larger background than anticipated. Another thing I liked was the humor! For example, when the alien tries to mimic being a human, it results in the necessary mistakes. There are some references to being a corporate employee and the accompanying issues that I could appreciate. It’s a easily accessible story and provides a light-hearted reading.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this book.

What a lovely book and story about what it is to be human, loneliness and (human) connection. The art is absolutely beautiful and kept me engaged throughout the whole story. I felt for the little alien and ended up rooting for him to be happy. It’s a sweet and short read, but its impact on me was quite big. I definitely recommend taking time to sit down and live this story. You won’t regret it!

What if aliens were watching your every move, thought and feeling?

An imaginative and visually appealing graphic novel that follows an alien who has been sent to Earth to monitor humans. I loved the representation of a m/m family unit. Not only does the book examine free will, it's also a beautiful story about human connection — something that technology will quite possibly ever be able to replicate.

Super cute and heartwarming read about a little alien who is tasked to study humans but accidentally gets mixed up in mind control. A great way to look at free-will and what makes humans so resilient and interesting. I like the way the alien is a tool for greater connection for the humans, thus helping it find connection in the end as well.

The art is simplistic, stylized, and colorful! It gives me very late 90's nickelodeon late night cartoon style.

I think this is a great read for all ages. I also wish that story was a little fuller/longer.

This was a quick and interesting read! I liked seeing how compassionate the alien became over time. I enjoyed this!

Thanks NetGalley and Oni Press for this digital arc!

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

"My Life Among Humans" is the surreal story of an alien life form sent to collect data on humanity.

I knew when I picked this up that it would be an interesting story, but man! In the graphic novel, McGowan takes a new look at the idea of alien interactions with humanity (even stretching into alien abduction territory) and I love the use and twists on traditional alien sci fi tropes. The story is a bit slow at the beginning, but there's a fair amount of build-up that pays off in the end, and it's worth reading through to get there.

There were a couple things that didn't really work for me with this book: First of all, the art style took some time getting used to. It almost feels like relatively low-rendered video game graphics (which actually works well within the story, after a while) but I wasn't sure how I felt about it until about halfway through the book. Because of this, I kept getting distracted by the visuals. Now, the book is a highly visual story (it's a graphic novel, after all) but sometimes it was more important for me to read the text on a page than to focus on the art, and this could take away from the story at hand. I also didn't like some of the passivity of the narration - I understand that the narrator is an alien life form, and likely has a different narrative voice than humans. At times, this came through very effectively, and added to the "Twilight Zone" feeling of the story. However, the narrator's passive voice frequently came across in a way that made reading the story itself boring. I feel like this could've been avoided if McGowan incorporated more visual spreads (without narration) in-between the long stretches of the narrator's monologues, to break up some of the stretches of time when it's just narration.

As I mentioned before, although I found the art a bit off-putting at the beginning, it came together in the end for me - like a lot of this book. I do think some of the pacing problems could be improved by breaking up the long stretches of narration with more art spreads. Overall, I think this would be a good book for fans of short alien stories or "The Twilight Zone" - I definitely got "Twilight Zone" vibes from this.

My Life Among Humans is a sweet story about what it means to be human. It's funny and entertaining, with quirky bits thrown in. I found myself laughing and cooing all within a few panels.

I wasn't entirely sure where this story would go as I tried to avoid reading too much of the description before going in and I'm glad I did!

For that reason, I won't give too much away either. The story is that of a robot alien who is sent to Earth to covertly collect data on humans to send back to its manager.

It was a really cute story with a lovely art style that I haven't seen in a graphic novel before and an important underlying message.

It was exactly what I want from a graphic novel and when this is released I will be picking up a copy myself. It's definitely something I can see myself going back to reread often and also recommending to others.

The only thing that I feel could have made it better is if it was a little longer!
I understand why the pacing was the way it was but I'd have liked a little more build up and some more time to learn about each of the characters.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this comic. This is an evocative, sad, but ultimately hopeful story of a solitary alien’s misguided search for connection among its human subjects.

We have a little nameless alien who came to Earth to collect data about humans and from here things are getting way more complicated. The general idea of this comic intrigued me. For me, this is not a unique concept and I was really curious to see how it was done. The alien was interesting and complex enough to keep me intrigued. I would love to know more about it's original planet and people. Because the concept (especially the plot) was not unique for me, I could guess twists; I just wished this comic would have been longer. I still want to find out more and I wanted more details about some of the other characters. I still highly recommend this comic.

This story is about an alien observer who is sent to Earth to observe and collect data and send that data back to his manager. The character was really enjoyable, and it was great to see their development from just hiding his mistakes to correcting his mistakes.

The art was gorgeous too and the detail was amazing. This was a quick, fun read and would be highly enjoyable for young readers.

Thanks to Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this graphic novel. The artwork was fine and the story was engaging. I liked the design of the alien and other charaters. I'd like to see a continuation of the alien's story.

A reflective story about an alien just following orders and trying to survive 😊 Cute for an alien too but would've liked to Know a bit more about the manager

I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher.
This is a story about an alien observer sent to earth to watch humans and report back to his manager about what he observes. He does this until one day he makes a mistake and must find a solution.
This was a cute, short story. The story is told from the alien's viewpoint. It gives the reader a basic idea of its background and why it is an observer. It also shows the reader about its chosen subjects, Will and his family. The alien tries to bond with the family and understand why humans are the way they are. It was amusing watching its mistakes and the expansion of its problem.
I loved how it ended and would even like to see further stories about the alien working to achieve its end goals.

A cute little graphic novel, you can read it in about a half hour. I ended up reading it twice, once focused mainly on the story and another time to really appreciate the art. This book is about the art first. It's beautifully done and has an interesting style. I'll echo other readers comments that the humans weren't designed as well as the rest of the world but that's not a big problem as the rest of the book is so well drawn. It has a simple style that I found adorable.

Recommended, especially for a young reader. I'd give the story a passable 3.5 and the art a solid 5. Call it a 4 star book.

I really enjoyed this little graphic novel, I thought it was really cute. I definitely felt for the alien; it’s essentially a slave and has no control over its life. The illustrations reminded me a lot of animation cells, so it’s a pretty accessible story, even if you’re someone who doesn’t read a lot of graphic novels like me.

Thank you to NetGalley & Oni Press for this advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Oni press for giving me this eArc in exchange for an honest review.
This is about an alien who is sent to earth to monitor and study humans and regularly send updates to his supervisor. He accidentally brings a human family under his control and he has to hide this information from his supervisor or risk being discovered. I loved the art style I thought it was simple but distinct. I also loved the theme of connection and overall I had a really fun time with this.

2.5 stars

Intriguing art, but it wasn’t my favourite. The plot was interesting, but didn’t really connect or flow as much as I would have hoped. A quick read, fun but a bit forgettable!

That's was adorable!! Don't mind you that the book is about a alien possession on humans. the art style is a bit different from what I'm used to, but I liked it. Highly recommend if you like softer, heartfelt sci-fi, with nuances to reflect on loneliness, voyeurism, control, connection, and the difference between watching and living your own life. Definitely looking forward to reading more books by this author.