The Arca was supposed to be the way to save humanity – and so far, it has, taking them to the new planet of Eden. The rich and powerful created it to escape the burning Earth while still having the luxuries they were used to. Persephone is part of the enslaved group of children and is about to graduate her servitude on the Arca. But as she gets closer and closer to her graduation, she begins to discover that not all is as it seems aboard the ship, and that they may never reach Eden after all.

While the concept for this work wasn’t the most unique, I felt that it was executed well. I enjoyed that the work started out with a quick overview of the different classes of people and definitions of the terms that would be used throughout the work, which made the sci-fi aspect more engaging. I did feel that the pacing was a bit off, though. Towards the last quarter of the book, things are revealed at an intense pace that made it all feel rushed. The ending also left many unanswered questions, which either means there’s a sequel or it’s supposed to be more open-ended.

As I received an ARC, most of the novel was in black and white – assuming the published version is going to be completely colorized, I enjoyed the art and its simplistic style overall. This was an easy, quick read that I found entertaining although there were many questions I would have liked resolved or some more explanation for. My thanks to NetGalley and IDW Publishing for allowing me to read this work, which will be published in July 2023. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

2.5⭐️
Thank you Netgalley for sending me a copy of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review.

In this story we follow a society that is on the ark, (yes alluding to Noah's ark) to seek Eden, the promised land for mankind, but The High Command have secrets that they hide from other people.

It is an interesting story, the drawing is good and it hooks you but I think it is the same formula of the dystocic stories where the end is to look for the new land to inhabit.

It was entertaining, but that's as far as it goes.

arca review

thank you netgalley and IDW Publishing for an e-arc of arca by van jensen.

plot:
the plot line of arca is very easy to follow and has many twists, but still stays fairly consistent, and i found the ending to be absolutely perfect for the way that the characters involved had been developed across the story. the pace of the story is also done really well as it fluctuates and gets faster towards the end at the climax, and the ending

style:
i personally love the art style that arca is drawn in, it has many elements of the traditional dystopian graphic novel, and i love the way that the citizens faces (especially the men) are wrinkled and stylised.
the heavy black used in the fight scenes is also very effective in adding a dramatic layer to the art.

overall:
overall i really enjoyed the plot and aesthetic of arca, and found the characters relatable and believable, whilst being developed and complex enough considering the length of the book.
4/5 stars :)

Thank you SO MUCH NetGalley and IDW for this beautiful digital arc!!

Just, wow. This graphic novel had me gripped right from the first panel. The art style is perfect for this story, and I loved the muted colours, I hope the final version will be full colour all the way through!

THAT ENDING THOUGH. Mind blown. 10/10. Can't wait to see this in print!!!

Arca follows Effie as she investigates what's really going on aboard the starship that is carrying her and several hundred others to a new world. Effie is a servant who is about to turn 18 and will then become a citizen. But there's some weird stuff going on.

This is an enjoyable enough story. The art services the story well and has a fun line to it. Arca doesn't really break a lot of new ground, but I found myself involved in Effie's story. Her journey is well plotted but lacks some tension. A lot of the twists and turns are predictable, but not in a bad way.

All in all, this is a decent read and I would recommend it to people who like sci-fi and dystopian fiction.

Rounded down from 3.5 stars.
Arca follows the journey of Effie, a slavegirl, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world, aboard a spaceship bound for Eden, after the Earth becomes inhospitable for humans. Effie is strong, sharp-minded and very observant. This is a world where nothing is how it seems and Effie must uncover the truths that lie beyond her reach.
The book deals, most primarily, with the class system and the manner in which the rich exploit those without the privileges that they have. This book couldn't have screamed "eat the rich" any louder. Its dystopian vibes are very reminiscent of The Hunger Games and the manner in which the rich from the Capitol treated the people from the Districts.
The sci-fi bits of the book are pretty straightforward, with no complex ideas that would seem too tough to understand for a novice to the genre. No throwing "quantum" or "nuclear" in front of every damn word just to complicate matters.
The art is pretty great but the copy that I read still has a lot of colouring left to do and that certainly affected how much fun I had... but the bits with colour were gorgeous and I'm sure once the colouring is finished for the entire book, this would be a great read.
I will say this, the number of questions that still remain unanswered in this book is pretty high. None of those questions I can mention here due to the heavy spoilers that they would give away. I don't think this is a series, but if it was, I would've really liked to know why certain things happened, why they happened, and what happens next... too many questions.

On the Arca, teenagers work as slaves for the rich with the promise that they will graduate and then be moved to a good life of colonization afterwards. This is, of course, a lie. While there is nothing wrong with the story itself, it doesn’t really do anything new. This type of story tends to go a certain way and is fairly predictable because of that. Overall, it is a good graphic novel, but not very unique in its plot.

Note: ARC kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for honest review.
4 stars

Arca follows the story of a soon-to-be eighteen-year-old Persephone "Effie" who starts to find cracks in the establishment of Arca. A large vessel that harbors the survivors of a deadly aftermath leaving the earth uninhabitable.

I was hooked from the get-go what is not to fawn about this book, the art, the storyline, and the characters? Despite its short length, the pace makes it easy for one to connect to our protagonist early on. The slow unraveling and cracks she discovers in the lies are conveniently packaged by the citizens to keep the rest at bay.

We follow Effie through all the trials and tribulations in uncovering a facade of the people above them and finding the truth. It's quite hard for me to describe the excellence of the story without giving away a lot of the plot but safe to say it was a great read.

Good read! There were twists I wasn’t expecting and a genuine message. The artwork is beautiful and the story flows really well. Any fan of Sci-fi will absolutely love this.

3.5/5
Was able to read this on Netgalley, and it was a fun read! The story feels familiar to others I’ve read, but still has a lot of new unexpected twists. The art is great, and the colors used so far are as well. I love dystopian stories, and this is the first dystopian graphic novel I’ve seen. I can’t wait to see the finished art, I’m sure it’s going to be gorgeous!

The only thing is that there are a few unresolved subplots, and I feel like I didn’t care as much about the characters as I was supposed to. There’s a lot of things that are hinted at or mentioned once, but then not explained or mentioned again. I’d love to know more about the characters!

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free graphic novel*

"Arca" was a fascinating read. It's a dystopian future in which young people have to serve the rich until they come of age on a spaceship. When you think that this starting point sounds suspicious, you're exactly right. Not everything is as it seems on this "Wall-E" like space cruiser. Earth has been ruined and humanity is on the run, but social order / class / money still rule and there are secrets to uncover.

I enjoyed it yet it was quite predictable. Maybe I do read too much though...

3.5 stars

Although this story had an incredibly cool concept I thought it dragged a bit. The beginning was hard to get into but the second half really picked up. I’d recommend this to people who enjoy sci-fi and thinking about what the future holds when the earths resources run out.

ARCA was such a cool revolution of a book! It starts off introducing the key players and the structure of the ship, then dives right into storytelling. I love the protagonist, but I do wish we got more time with the rest of her friends; I think it might have helped us connect more closely to the stakes of some of the events in the second half of the book better. That said, I loved this book and had a lot of fun going on this adventure!

3 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and IDW Publishing for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was such a fast and enjoyable read. The plot was easy to follow and the illustrations were beautiful. The only thing lacking was that the plot was sometimes predictable and the "twists" were quite transparent. There were also many characters and subplots that could have been expanded on throughout. I think that capitalizing on that would have made this even more enjoyable.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes dystopic reads or who enjoyed the movie Snowpiercer.

I received an advanced copy of Arca from IDW Publishing through Netgalley in exchange for a review.

Arca is a fast-paced adventurous graphic novel about a smart teenage girl surviving as a servant to the worlds last living people -billionaires of course.

Having finished this, I honestly think the synopsis is a bit too revealing. Personally, I did not read the book description beforehand so I was still left with a couple surprises.

The action scenes are done really well. Seeing the coloured scenes unfinished makes one appreciate how unique the art is.

I am very grateful for the chance to have read this before it 's publishing date, I would love to see it in completed form.

3.5 - 4 stars

This was a fast read! At times predictable, but ultimately compelling. I enjoyed the concept, and the pacing, and loved the twists and turns, including the final ones. I enjoyed this a lot! I had a bit of trouble telling some of the characters apart with the art style, but that could be just in the digital galley.

It was a little concerning to me that of all the named settlers, the ones with darker skin were the ones that did the manual labour (Don - food) or the undesirable jobs (Bet - Sanitation). I immediately noticed that, and the optics and racial undertones bothered me. I’m not sure if that was intentional or not.

Just finished this comic book and I must say, wow, the only thing that I can complain about is that half the book is in colour and half is black and white.

In this book we have citizens, the people with all the power in the arc, helpers, people that help citizens to keep all the power because they gain something in return, and settlers, people from 5-18 years old that do all the chores for the citizens and treat them as gods… and with just this we can see that something is really wrong in this place… because of a mysterious reason (that eventually we get to learn), people had to leave earth and try to reach Eden, actually I thought that the end for the 18 years old would be quite different but is still very disturbing.

Persephone, our main character, also know as Effie, she is very bright, someone that is destined to bring change, she is a very strong young woman… and I guess, sometimes enough is enough…

All things that I could say to end up in spoiler, so I will live the part of river song and tell you, spoilers sweetie, you’ll need to grab a copy and read for yourself, this comic was for me, one of the best I had this year, the story really makes you think, why people do the things that they do?…

I highly recommend this comic book to all fans of speculative fiction, dystopian, and post-apocalyptical stories, it kind reminds me of the 100 mixed with a bit of Voyagers with a pinch of never let me go, but way more disturbing.

Thank you NetGalley and IDW Publishing for the free ARC and this is my honest opinion.

I absolutely enjoyed this. It reminds me so much of snowpiercer and The 100. Arca is set in a dystopian post apocalyptic world where Earth has been destroyed by some disaster and the remaining survivors are on board this big space ship called the Arca modelled after Noah’s ark

The citizens are the ones who built the Arca and gave a chance for humanity to survive again and start all over when they reach Eden, some new planet where they can colonise. But something isn’t right.

Settler Effie begins to see signs that the Citizens might not be telling them everything as she nears her graduation date when she reaches 18 years of age. It gets even more suspicious because they aren’t allowed to read and are expected to stick to their chores.

But Persephone is determined to uncover the truth the citizens are keeping from them. I especially loved the plot, it’s fast paced, it’s dystopian, it’s scifi, there’s a huge twist that you wouldn’t have guessed at the end which makes you sit and question the lengths humans will go to survive or fulfil their personal goals.

The art style is different like every graphic novel or comic having different art styles to express and tell the stories, I loved the way Arca was presented by the illustrators, colourists and letterer. In all, I enjoyed this book

Thank you IDW Publishing for this amazing ARC. Hey guys, if you enjoyed my review, make sure to add Arca to your tbr and preorder your copy .

A big thanks to NetGalley and IDW Publishing for gifting me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

It's the end of the world as we know it. So let's all just go to space and get a healthy of dose of trauma.

Arca by Van Jensen is sci-fy graphic novel that follows the tumultuous voyage of Effie, as she she and other teenagers (and literal children) serve the many citizens of Arca. But things aren't as they seem, as the mystery unfurls around Effie and spirals into the madness that can only come with the sci-fy genre.

I don't know. Maybe it's just me, but at times the story fell a bit flat. Or just was too confusing to follow. All I know is, I don't want to go to space anymore.

If Ray Bradbury did Graphic Novels, this would be one of his short stories. Arca is about a girl name Effie who grows suspicious of the lifestyle on the ship titled “Arca” on it’s way to a better place of life, and the story develops well in the general feeling of desperation, although feels almost as though perhaps the story should settle down and dive deeper into the Arca world, expand into multiple volumes, until the final few pages in which the answer makes the feeling of the story and the pacing all feel exactly right.

Arca deals with fights scenes and chaos well, using panels to move time and feeling well through these tricky events to get right, although at times it can seem a bit confusing to follow the right pathway of reading across the page.

The plot of Arca is interesting and pretty well delivered, although a bit predictable. Arca remains interesting though through the variety of characters that briefly occupy space with Effie but quickly show other struggles that help make the world of Arca feel more realistic and rounded.

All in all, Arca is a delightful stand alone graphic novel for fans of Sci-fi especially Ray Bradbury. I would recommend it to YA and Adult Readers.