I don't really understand what's going on, but I'm fascinated by this story.

Radio Storm is a post-apo story focused on a teenager with special powers who has to find the person who's connected to him so they won't die from a virus. Or that's what I think this story is about.

The beginning has some explanations about how this world works and what the special powers are that some teenagers have. But we know as much as our main character, which is not a lot, because he lives a sheltered life in a school for kids with "cores" (special powers) even though his power is nothing special. When a new virus starts attacking students from his school, our main character Sak is sent out to the dangerous outside world so he can find the person he's connected to. And he finds Lima who doesn't feel the same connection. There's a lot of tension between Sak and Lima, and some scenes leave you yearning for more of them.

The art style is quite nice. It doesn't take focus from the story but compliments it nicely.

Conclusion:
Radio Storm begins with an intriguing dystopian premise: a never-ending war, a deadly virus spreading fast, and people with special abilities trained at a mysterious academy. The main character, Sak, seems to possess a useless power – the ability to smell well – until it becomes clear that his talent might be key in detecting the virus early. To find his “Caller,” the person who can awaken his full potential, he’s forced to leave the safety of the institute and face a brutal world where human life has little value.

The story offers a gripping mix of action, suspense, and dark world-building. However, the Boys’ Love element feels somewhat forced and interrupts the flow of the plot at times, making the romantic moments seem out of place.

Overall:
A promising start with a strong setting, impressive artwork, and a compelling story – hopefully, future volumes will keep the focus on the plot while balancing the romance more naturally.

The art was beautiful, the world building was interesting-- zombie plagues, core powers, the dystopian/science fiction set up was intriguing. Some of the character dynamics were a little too muddy for me, but overall this is a promising set up. Thank you for the advance reading copy!

The art is quite nice, but other than that, I have nothing else to say. There's no substance, there's nothing I really care much to know about. The characters are forgettable, almost seems like an excuse to have a random sexual scene. Disappointed. I will not be continuing the series.

This would appeal to fans of Low Tide in Twilight if they liked the power imbalance in the relationship and the toxic aspects of it. There is a audience for this, I just wouldn't feel comfortable getting this without a professional review to help defend it if someone challenges it. The school for the superpowered, zombie apocalypse, and unique system for increasing their powers would have patrons that would want to read about that.

Interesting to say the least. I thought it would be of a darker tone but not at all what I expected. Zombies? I think?? But the dynamic between Sak and Lima is very tumultuous right now. Interested in seeing where the story leads to in volume 2 and on.

This was am interesting story with lovely art.

The beginning had a great hook and I was excited to discover the background behind it. Unfortunately, I didn't connect with the characters much and the world was a little too convulated. I guess I expected something less dark or cruel.

An excellent start to a series.
Apocalyptic setting, fantasy elements and forced proximity, a hate vs obsession slow burn romance, lots of action and high stakes intrigue.
Can’t wait to find out more about these characters.

The Basics:
Art: 5/5

The art is soo good. I love that it’s primarily black and white with selective color—like in the eyes—which really adds to the dark, dystopian vibe.

Characters: 4/5

While the characters aren’t exactly lovable, they’re complex, each with a difficult and layered past. I think we’ll get some solid character development as the story progresses—but for now, everyone feels a little sketchy.

Story/Plot: 4/5

Honestly I loved the unique plotline. Certain people develop cores that give them a unique ability and they can then be used as weapons of war. Sak’s ‘core’ is that his body smells like plants and he has a strong sense of smell which is seemingly useless.

A major plotline involves a deadly plague that definitely gives off zombie vibes. There’s a lot going on, but it never feels overwhelming.

The pacing feels fast—though honestly, it’s always hard for me to tell with webtoons. Was it actually fast-paced, or did I just binge it in 10 minutes?

This is not a light or fluffy manhwa—it leans much darker in tone. That being said, this is a rare sci-fi dystopian BL manhwa that is overall well done and deserves a spot on your tbr.

Writing/Dialogue: 5/5

Nothing felt awkward, and the localization was well done. I’ve read this in Korean before, and while it’s been a while, the English version read smoothly and felt consistent with what I remember.

I think this was a good first volume; it set up the world and introduced the characters in a solid way. I like the art and think that this was a good way to set up the series.

A very attention-grabbing start to the series. I am excited to see where this takes us. I love a webtoon with pretty art, it makes it so much easier to pay attention to the story.

The world has been at war since before Sak was born, however, thanks to being a core user Sak has lived a relatively safe and even spoiled life at the Academy, a school designed to train core users to eventually assist in the war effort. While Sak's core ability is rather useless it has given him a heightened sense of smell, thanks to this Sak is able to detect a new virus wreaking havoc on the world while still in it's still in the incubation period. After smelling the virus in one of his classmates Sak is finally told the truth by his mentor; core users have a "caller" a person from whom the core user draws energy from to power their abilities and whole core users may be immune to the virus callers are not. Sak sets forth immediately to find his caller before the virus claims them both.

This was much better than I expected it to be! We've got a rampaging virus that creates zombies, weird abilities that don't seem to have any rhyme or reason for existing, what looks like a government cover-up, and a romance!

I really loved both characters in this. While this is an enemies-to-lovers thing it's an interesting take on it, Sak and Lima are complete strangers and while Lima completely distrusts Sak as soon as they meet it's completely understandable. Thanks to whatever this core thing is for Sak it's essentially love at first sight for Lima its random stranger starts stalking me in a world where I was a child soldier. Lima's distrust is 100% reasonable. Sak is also incredibly immature for his age and while part of this is due to being sheltered he just kinda seems to live in his own world. Even without the very weird way they end up meeting, I can totally see Lima disliking Sak almost immediately regardless.

What I really loved about this though is the Academy or the government clearly knows more about the Core Users and the Callers than they are letting on so we've got a good old-fashioned conspiracy. That alone makes it worth the read in my book.

The art is absolutely gorgeous as well. I loved the way that colors are used in this as well, only certain scenes are fully colored with the vast majority of the panels having just color added to certain parts of the characters. This emphasizes what is important in that scene.

I am definitely going to be continuing this series!

As always thanks to NetGalley and Yen Press for the eArc!

this first volume is rough, because the story/world isn't laid out very well. you play catch up in the later parts, but the establishment is...less than great. the relationship between the top and bottom is, unfortunately, my favourite kind--toxic. there's character development later on though!! very glad this is getting a physical print :') if you're fond of bl stories where the top is aggressive and obsessive, you will probably like this? it's one of my favs because of the relationship dynamic between Lima and Sak.

thank you to netgalley and ize press for the eARC!

Glad to see the zombie trope isn't dead yet.

Loved the setup of the first volume. We get a lot of clues sprinkled about the world Sak is living in, but not enough to satisfy all our curiosities, making me wonder what exactly is going on. Why is the Academy he's at giving me bad vibes? Can I trust the people he likes? And why do I feel more uneasy with them than I do with someone who is openly disdainful toward Sak? And the most mysterious of them all? Our MC, Sak.

The last page definitely had me yelling.

TW for the BL newbies: dub con ✨

Radio Storm, Vol. 1 is a story that presents some interesting elements, but does not stand out in execution, character development or artistic quality.
Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for this advanced reader's copy.

Not sure how to feel about this one. Parts of it seemed like it was going in a really good direction but every time we were in Lima's POV it was kind of awful. He did not care about Sak at all it seemed and like what happens on the end it really feels like he's forcing himself on Sak even though Sak seems to like him... I don't know the consent in this was very dubious.

3 stars.

I really love the art style for this story. The plot has great potential and I find the world building interesting. Although the relationship dynamic between Sak and his caller is hard to stomach, I honestly think his caller is his best bet. I get the feeling Sak has been bullied, passed over and used his entire life so maybe (fingers crossed) he’ll eventually find comfort with his caller.

I will say the story is a little difficult to follow and I would’ve liked more of an explanation to certain parts of the overall plot and set up.

In a world ravaged by war and plagues, where a select few have “cores”, aka supernatural abilities, Sak was lucky to end up in the protected academy for those gifted, the only problem is he’s relentlessly bullied by his peers because his gifted isn’t that special and to make matters worse the plague has infiltrated the safe haven of the academy, Sak must venture out and find his “Caller” a person who can amplify Sak’s gift before it’s too late, because if Sak’s “Caller” falls sick so does Sak, a sickness with no cure that only leads to death.

To start off, this book does contain some heavier themes such as sexual violence, bullying and the use of child soldiers. I wasn’t a fan of the relationships within this book. I am very comfortable reading books that are darker in nature, but this book wasn’t for me.

I recommend this book for people who like darker manga's, dystopian and supernatural elements.

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for sending me a digital advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have been anticipating this manhwa for a while, and after having read just the first volume, I'm excited to see this series continue. This story introduces us to a dystopian world where some people have powers called "cores", that are amplified by a specific person, called "callers". The main character, Sak, is sent out to find his caller. His caller, Lima, is reasonably skeptical when Sak finds him and tries to explain his role in contributing to the strength of his core. The two get closer as they try to survive in the crazy outside world. I do think their relationship progresses quick seeing as they've only known each other for such a short time and there's some smut at the end of the volume. I had no problem with this and I think it makes sense with the story as the people with cores feel an innate connection to their callers. Lima is kind of toxic towards Sak especially in the beginning, which may put some people off, but he does warm up to him. It was cool to see snippets of each of their pasts too, it gave more insight into their characters. The art is very nice, and the color scheme is mainly monochromatic, save for pops of color here and there. I think this was a strong first volume that caught and kept my attention, and I'm definitely looking forward to continuing this series. I'm really curious to see where the story goes and how the relationship between Sak and Lima progresses.

** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **
Copy received through Netgalley

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Radio Storm, Vol. 01, by Team S&S
★★★★☆
344 Pages


Radio Storm has gorgeous artwork and is a really interesting apocalyptic story with a sci-fi twist. The story itself was intriguing, with a young man called Sak struggling through a school for special kids with abilities. He's had to fight tooth-and-nail for every achievement, bullied every step of the way.

While I found the plot intriguing and clever, there was a kind of Divergent-esque concept with the addition of zombies and an airborne pathogen. The idea of people having abilities and a Caller who amplifies their abilities is really unique and clever.

In my ARC copy, there are a couple of editing errors in the text. There are some instances of words being repeated, other times where the text just doesn't make sense.
The story is a little heavy, in terms of content: there's the on-page death of a child, which I admit is extremely emotional and quite traumatic; and there's dubious consent between Sak and his Caller. The fact that it's inspired by the bond between them makes the consent a sticky issue to start with, but beyond that there's also the fact that his Caller is quite unlikeable until this point and he's literally intending to use Sak, taking advantage of the urges that come from Sak's unwitting use of his ability.

Overall, I'm intrigued to see where the story will go, however there were definitely issues, as I said. I also generally like to understand where the title comes from, but that isn't included in this volume.