I’m sure I would have enjoyed this more if it hadn’t been so long. I get that there were a lot to tell - a whole life time, basically. But the drawn out story made me lose interest. Mostly because I expect other things from a graphic novel.

I also think it’s because I found it difficult to read, with lots of text and had a hard time with the illustrations.

The overall story is heartbreaking, of course, because it’s about people getting hurt because some can’t live the kind of love they want and need. It’s just a chain effect of hurt. I just wasn’t entirely impressed with how it was told.

Graphic novels aren't just for kids! This is probably geared more towards an adult audience, maybe due to the theme/nature of the story (& though the topic might be of a sexual nature, there is no overt nudity or bad language.) The art work was pretty easy to discern, although at times I might've guessed at what I was to be seeing....but I must've been right, as the story flowed right along! I guess GN's usually read pretty fast, as this 450+ pg book flew right by. It was good, the portrayal of this man's life....one could see how this might play out.....I thought the author did a good job of showing all the different facets of this life. I enjoy reading GN's for a change of pace.....& I liked this one.
I received an e-ARC from Oni Press via NetGalley in return for reading it & offering my own fair/honest review/opinions.

A gripping and heartfelt story of a WW2 war vet dealing with his sexuality and what he must do to stay safe and keep his family close. Lehmann's art is inky and stylized and while it is beautiful could have benefitted from a clean up and added accents to better stage certain frames.

The story is a hard one, filled with regret and bitterness, but also one of hope.

Thank you to NetGalley and Oni Press for this e-arc!

Parallel is a story about a man living during the 1950s while grappling with his sexuality. I will say that I enjoyed the dual timeline in this story. It gives the audience a chance to see what happens in real-time while also having narration from the main character in the present. If the story didn't have that I think I would have disliked it a lot. I understood the main character was dealing with a lot of issues in terms of keeping a job and his family happy. However, I just couldn't stand how selfish he was in the past and present. I felt he wanted others to give him a pass while also treating them horribly. In the present, he has toned it down but is still selfish when it comes to his relationship with his daughter. Besides those gripes, I still think this is worth reading just to see how gay men were treated in 1950s Germany.

A bittersweet story of a damaged man looking for love in the eyes of society and within himself. Filled with tender moments, and heartbreaking moments, there won't be a dry eye in sight after reading this book.

Much emotion in this graphic novel. I loved the artwork - the watercolour-ish ink was lovely and worked really well with the story. There were some time jumps that lost me a little bit and the subject matter was a lot ...but I feel as though this is a really valuable contribution to the work of graphic novels.

While I enjoyed the plot of this graphic novel there were several times when the flow of the story and artwork did not work for me. The time jumps (both forward and backward) were hard to catch at times and were distracting to my enjoyment of the novel.

DNF - was ok but lacked pace. I put it down and never returned to it and probably won't return to it

'Parallel' is not an easy read. Karl Kling narrates his life story - it's ups and downs - to his estranged daughter, Hella, in an attempt to reach out to her one more time. And, in many ways, it's his last chance to be honest with himself, too.

In the aftermath of WW2, Karl is trying to live a normal life. He gets married, has a child. He has a good job and a relatively easy life, or so it seems. In reality, Karl is struggling to live with himself, and to balance his double life: the only chance he might really have to be happy.

Poignant and well-paced, 'Parallel' details is a life constantly in spiral. Karl moves from one broken safety to another, and often burns the bridges himself, driven to rage and confusion rather than acceptance in a society that doesn't even try to understand him.

Firstly, I’d like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with this marvel of a book.

We find ourselves in Germany, post World War II, a time of occupation, seclusion and fear. The story depicted in this graphic novel is one of yearning, confusion, hopelessness and finding oneself. We follow our protagonist, Karl Kling, as he retells his story in a letter to his long unseen daughter.

I wouldn’t consider the storyline itself anything groundbreaking, however, the craft of storytelling and illustrations is absolutely breathtaking. Throughout the story, as a reader you come upon numerous sensations, feelings and atmospheres. You’re met with despair, melancholy, longing for what once was but above all, hope.

The portrayal of the characters truly went above and beyond. Each character had a complex set of characteristics intertwined with how they viewed the world, how they interacted among each other and how they reacted to their environment. This book shows that there’s always two sides to a coin and how judgement based on outside appearances is unjustly biased and not right.

This mesmerizing ride through a journey of self discovery, alongside a historical yet not so distant setting was truly a ride worth experiencing. It was a delight to read and I would love to praise any and all that participated in the creation of this book, as I consider it to be a work of art.

“Back in the day, we were able to leave doors unlocked. Everyone knew everyone and we looked out for each other. But no one really knows me. Not even my daughter or my best friend.”

This book is heartbreakingly dismal. The black and white watercolor really sets the scene of Karl’s lonely, isolated life of fear in post-WWII Germany. The homophobia Karl experienced is gutting. I was so moved by human every character in this novel was. The pacing was difficult to follow at times, I couldn’t tell how time was progressing.
I am still processing how I feel about this book. It makes me feel angry and so achingly sad that homophobia was so rampant in Germany after everything gay men experienced at the hands of the Third Reich. Socially and politically, the world was turned against homosexual people. I see similarities in the world depicted here and the world I’m seeing develop in the United States. *spoiler* Such as how the factory workers spoke about their coworker who committed suicide because he was gay. I saw a news video just today where the news anchors said that being a homosexual was just as unhealthy and unnatural as smoking cigarettes, because the average queer person’s life expectancy is shortened by 20 years, due to health issues and suicide rates.
Does anyone ask why? Does anyone see that having no friends, no family, no support system destroys your physical health?
No. All they see is “being gay makes you want to kill yourself.”
Certain moments from this book will forever live in my mind. “Queer pig”, and “this would have never happened in Hitler’s time” are a few of them.

While I didn’t love this book, it is not awful either. Three and 1/2 stars, I’m rounding up to four for goodreads’ sake

This one is incredibly hard to rate. I cannot fathom what it must be like to be gay in a society that criminalizes your sexuality. I can understand, however, the internalized shame, the denial, the struggle to fit in even at the risk of hurting others, lying to yourself and the people you love out of fear, how hard it is to come clean. I understand all of this and yet I couldn't like the main character at all. There were many points where his behavior was just malicious and selfish and, while I'm glad he found peace and could start healing in the end, I got so frustrated with Karl during the flashback scenes that I literally had to put my tablet down for a while.

Of course Karl is human and makes mistakes, but they happened so often that, after a while, I had a hard time sympathizing with him any more. The scenes in the present made it easy, but the scenes in the past made it so incredibly hard. I didn't really feel like Karl felt torn between his two "worlds", but rather that he just wanted the stability of married life with none of the strings attached - no matter if he was gay or not.

The art was okay, nothing to write home about but definitely not bad at all. I liked the premise and am always here for queer representation, but I couldn't enjoy the story itself as much as I had hoped. The timeline in the present was very enjoyable imo, but the one in the past left a sour taste in my mouth more often than not. All in all, I think Parallel was a good endeavor that I just personally didn't like as much. I would still recommend it to some of my friends.

- ARC provided by NetGalley -

First of all, thankyou to Netgalley, the publisher; Oni Press, and the author/artist; Matthias Lehmann for my review e-copy of Parallel.
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Parallel follows Karl Kling, a German man, from the end of World War Two to the 1980s. Leading a double life as a gay man in this time period, we watch as Karl struggles with his sexuality, and societal expactations of the atomic family unit. Deeply sad, with brief sparks of hope and joy, Parallel is incredibly moving. A tale of persecution and loss against the backdrop of economic and cultural instabilities in a post-war Germany. Beautifully illustrated and poignantly written, this story is incredible, and deserves to be spoken of.
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This really made me feel something, sadness for the lives of all the queer people that were so ruthlessly destroyed not too long before I was born. An excellent read, and highly recommended.

I really enjoyed the art of this book. This was an incredible, heart-wrenching read-- I will definitely be recommending this for LGBTQ+ booklists that go around our library system after its publishing.

Don't read it unless you want a high blood pressure!
Too many male gazes. And I get angrier with the devlopment of the story.

This comic is very depressing and misleading.
I don‘t understand why so many people give 4 or 5 stars.
I don't understand what author would like to tell us.

The main character (Karl) is a totally irrsponsible and selfish coward-gay-in-closet, who learned nothing but lives a peaceful retirement life in the end! That's not fair, given what he did.
Okay. I get that the society is not friendly, and the war traumatized him.
But that's NOT the excuse he kept lying and hurting people who love and need him.

They story doesn't make any sense.
I don't understand how his second wife became friend with him after all that.
And I don't understand why his daughter came back. That confession letter is not good enough. And it shouldn't take him decades to FINALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT HE'VE DONE AND WHAT HE REALLY WANT.

I wanted to see him arrested (or dead) actually.
How a bad person like him escaped all the suffers?

This was a fast and captivating read. Both heartbreaking and touching. I find it hard to put down, even though I felt confused about a few characters. Some looked like others from his past life and I found it confusing. But overall I found myself rooting for the main character to live his truth and be honest with those he loves.

Matthias Lehmann did wonderful with the duality of this man trying to suppress his own feeling and fight his "urges". I love the fact that he still was a decent father to his daughter, with the scene of them playing together.
The loneliness and void felt by the main character were so well portrayed. We could see the support of his found family and how it helped him to understand he wasn't alone. The ending brought tears in my eyes.

I would recommend this book to everyone. It is beautiful, sad and yet filled with little happy moment.

This graphic novel was deeply heartbreaking and reflects on how far we have come and how far we still have to go. as a society. The story was really deep, with many trauma and regrets. But there were some light points as well. This book hurt my heart and is a story that will stick with me for a while.

The only downside was the lack of diversity and the art style was a bit unique and at times made it hard to distinguish characters.

I wasn't particularly a fan of the art style, but the story and message was beautiful- great queer representation.

Thank you to Netgalley & OniPress for this digital copy.
This graphic novel was good, a little hard to read sometimes but overall a good story. Trigger warnings for homophobic slurs, hate crimes,etc.

A brilliant haunting story of a closeted gay man struggling to fit in during the 1950s.
A really interesting story and a difficult subject matter, as telling the stories of queer history is important and often not happy. But Matthias Lehmann does it really well. A story of understanding who you are, balancing your family, work and also the realisation that he’s attracted to men… A story about World War 2. The illustrations definitely fit in with the whole vibe of the story and gave it a unique twist compared to what’s on the market already.

Despite this at times the art style made it difficult to know who the characters were and on occasion, and when it switched from a flashback to the present, sometimes it was so sudden I didn’t realise. Also I feel like it’s a very long graphic novel that doesn’t give a lot of depth to the characters which makes it hard to sometimes connect with them, which may be a reason some people may find hard to finish reading it. I didn’t love it but didn’t hate it, a brilliant concept which I wanted more from and wanted to be clearer with locations, characters and more. Maybe adding colour or maybe using a different type of illustration may help.