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In Perpetuity
It’s a surreal smuggling operation across the boundaries of life and death in the latest moody mystery from award-winning graphic novelists Peter & Maria Hoey.
In perpetuity, the Afterlife is just as the ancient Greeks an endless twilight where time stands still and shades have nowhere to go. For Jim, that means long shifts at a gas station, with only crossword puzzles and cigarettes to break the tedium.
One day, two criminal shades from Jim’s past show up at the gas station and his existence takes a dangerous turn. They’ve tracked him down for something he didn’t know he the ability to cross back into the living world. It’s a rare gift, and they intend to exploit it.
Just as Jim crosses back into sunny California, he meets Olivia, who is dying on an Echo Park sidewalk…and pulls her back from the edge of death, striking a connection that will run deeper than either can imagine.
Jim weaves back and forth between the Afterlife and Los Angeles, but the more he tries to distance himself and Olivia from the criminals’ plot, the deeper they're pulled in. What follows is a web of deceit and murder that reaches across A.L. and L.A., and ultimately, to Hades himself.
With a heady blend of film noir and Greek mythology, In Perpetuity reveals both the human capacity for self-deception and the endurance of love.
In perpetuity, the Afterlife is just as the ancient Greeks an endless twilight where time stands still and shades have nowhere to go. For Jim, that means long shifts at a gas station, with only crossword puzzles and cigarettes to break the tedium.
One day, two criminal shades from Jim’s past show up at the gas station and his existence takes a dangerous turn. They’ve tracked him down for something he didn’t know he the ability to cross back into the living world. It’s a rare gift, and they intend to exploit it.
Just as Jim crosses back into sunny California, he meets Olivia, who is dying on an Echo Park sidewalk…and pulls her back from the edge of death, striking a connection that will run deeper than either can imagine.
Jim weaves back and forth between the Afterlife and Los Angeles, but the more he tries to distance himself and Olivia from the criminals’ plot, the deeper they're pulled in. What follows is a web of deceit and murder that reaches across A.L. and L.A., and ultimately, to Hades himself.
With a heady blend of film noir and Greek mythology, In Perpetuity reveals both the human capacity for self-deception and the endurance of love.
208 pages, Paperback
Published April 16, 2024
16 people are currently reading
103 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
April 24, 2024
This wildly original graphic novel imagines the afterlife as a vaguely mid-20th century liminal space that is perpetually overcast, and which everyone lives and works in safe, but also very routine and soulless ways. Unsurprisingly, a black market has popped up in which residents seek to reconnect with the land of the living. When it is discovered that Jim has the rare power to pass between worlds, he gets mixed up with some very dangerous and shadowy figures who wish to exploit him.
June 21, 2024
I just…was not a fan of this one.
A mix of detective noir, the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, and 1930s comic stylings. This story is set in an afterlife much like our world, but stripped of all emotions and enjoyment, and gee, did that come through in the reading. :/ Jim, our narrator, is dead, but has found a way to take brief trips to the living world, where he meets eventual “love” interest, Olivia. They get tangled up in afterlife and Styx-crossing crime, eventually meeting the god of death himself.
It’s just…slow. And while the lack of emotions in the characters make sense, thematically, it also makes looking at the art so boring. Even when the living can display strong emotions, their faces have barely changed.
And since you can’t see emotions on the characters, you don’t get worried about their fate, so you don’t care about the plot! Even when you meet Hades and Persephone, two characters who, by rights, should have a lot of presence, they’re just a dude in a trench coat and a lady in a bland dress.
I could see this becoming a cult classic, but certainly not of a cult I want to be in.
Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.
A mix of detective noir, the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, and 1930s comic stylings. This story is set in an afterlife much like our world, but stripped of all emotions and enjoyment, and gee, did that come through in the reading. :/ Jim, our narrator, is dead, but has found a way to take brief trips to the living world, where he meets eventual “love” interest, Olivia. They get tangled up in afterlife and Styx-crossing crime, eventually meeting the god of death himself.
It’s just…slow. And while the lack of emotions in the characters make sense, thematically, it also makes looking at the art so boring. Even when the living can display strong emotions, their faces have barely changed.
And since you can’t see emotions on the characters, you don’t get worried about their fate, so you don’t care about the plot! Even when you meet Hades and Persephone, two characters who, by rights, should have a lot of presence, they’re just a dude in a trench coat and a lady in a bland dress.
I could see this becoming a cult classic, but certainly not of a cult I want to be in.
Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.
March 16, 2024
3.5 stars
In Perpetuity, is a story about Jim in the after life, who is shown a way to go back to the living temporarily.
The artwork is clean and simplistic, both modern and yet has a 50's retro feel to it.
The storytelling is quite odd, but that might be the whole point. I felt quite detached from the story, wondering where it would all lead to. You get some back story for Jim, but ultimately he came off as pretty bland, but nice. I'm on the fence about this one.
Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.
In Perpetuity, is a story about Jim in the after life, who is shown a way to go back to the living temporarily.
The artwork is clean and simplistic, both modern and yet has a 50's retro feel to it.
The storytelling is quite odd, but that might be the whole point. I felt quite detached from the story, wondering where it would all lead to. You get some back story for Jim, but ultimately he came off as pretty bland, but nice. I'm on the fence about this one.
Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.
April 14, 2024
In Perpetuity draws you in with a 50's retro style art work, that is still quite simplistic but in a good way.
The story does a good job of portraying the monotonous nature of purgatory so well, probably too well, as I found it hard to engage with Jim. I think it was a stylistic choice to keep us, the reader, at a distance, which they succeeded in doing. It's just something I didn't enjoy.
I wish this story didn't want to push me away and keep me on the sidelines, because I feel like this had so much potential. Especially with the noir vibes. Ugh I really wanted to like this one more than I did.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an Earc of this book. All opinions were my own.
The story does a good job of portraying the monotonous nature of purgatory so well, probably too well, as I found it hard to engage with Jim. I think it was a stylistic choice to keep us, the reader, at a distance, which they succeeded in doing. It's just something I didn't enjoy.
I wish this story didn't want to push me away and keep me on the sidelines, because I feel like this had so much potential. Especially with the noir vibes. Ugh I really wanted to like this one more than I did.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an Earc of this book. All opinions were my own.
August 30, 2024
I've consistently liked everything this brother-sister comic duo has done, there is such a unusual sensibility to their work and the worlds they make seem hypernormative on the surface and in the art but are really very bizarre and subtle. In Perpetuity details a crime ring in the afterlife, specializing in crossing over through mediums and connections on either side. It's like a film noir setting in hell, which is just regular life but more gray and bland.
February 10, 2025
3.5 stars. I found myself confused more often than not while reading In Perpetuity, but despite that, I thoroughly enjoyed its film noir atmosphere. This beautifully executed graphic novel unravels a complex web of human trafficking, smuggling, and police corruption—somehow entangled with individuals caught in the liminal space of the afterlife, who are used to do the criminals’ dirty work.
Or something like that!
While the plot may be elusive, the book’s rich textures and striking linear design make it a visual standout. For fans of graphic novels, it’s a worthy and unique addition to the canon.
Or something like that!
While the plot may be elusive, the book’s rich textures and striking linear design make it a visual standout. For fans of graphic novels, it’s a worthy and unique addition to the canon.
November 16, 2025
The story itself was interesting and complex and romantic, and the artwork was good, but the physicality of the book's construction made for an uncomfortable reading experience. Too wide of pages with text too close to the spine made the book a chore to read. No notes against the story, just the construction of the book itself - poorly planned.
November 25, 2024
Es bastante aburrido y no he acabado de pillar la historia
Read
November 27, 2024DNFed - 65%
The premise sort of bored me and so did the art style and coloring. Perhaps this was intentional but it’s not my up of tea…
The premise sort of bored me and so did the art style and coloring. Perhaps this was intentional but it’s not my up of tea…
March 22, 2024
Very nicely rendered art, with a spare feeling that creates a liminal space in most frames of the book. The artist uses diagonal lines to good effect, creating movement across the page for the eye even though many of the visuals are intentionally more static to evoke that feeling of being caught in the in-between of the afterlife.
The description of "film noir" is an apt one for the tone of this book, although it's very slow-paced, so it feels a bit like film noir if caught in amber. That's also an apt way to think about the overall experience of reading this book...it felt very slow and as if everything was happening on repeat in a slow cycle. For the first third or so, I enjoyed that, but eventually it started to drag down the pace of the story enough that I felt like it was having a negative impact on my opinion of the book. So it seemed to succeed in what it wanted to do, but in doing that, it made the story slow to such a crawl that I found my attention waning.
One thing really drove me crazy. Many, many times there was text on a panel that was entirely unnecessary. It was simply describing what was happening. It's as if this book was originally written as a story but then turned into a graphic novel, and nobody thought about the fact that many of those sentences could be cut since the action was now being illustrated. For example: a panel showing two people walking along a path in the park as they talk. There's text on the panel that literally says "They continued their walk on the path." Another example: a panel of the sky at nighttime, with clouds. There's text that says "Dark clouds rolled across the A.L.'s night sky." Last example: an inset panel showing a forearm with a bee stinging the person. There's text that says "A bee. Its stinger stuck in her skin." Perhaps the writer and artist are doing this intentionally, as some sort of "see & say" effect, but it's off-putting. If you're showing a man looking at a stop sign, you don't need to write "He looked at the stop sign" on the panel to explain what's happening. We can see it in the art.
In closing, I want to be sure to give props to the creators for the very clever idea of calling the afterlife "the A.L." and setting it all in a surreal version of L.A. (notice how the letters are reversed?). And truly, Los Angeles does already feel like a liminal version of most of reality, so it's the perfect place to set this book. Plus, y'know, the whole film noir theme.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this eARC.
The description of "film noir" is an apt one for the tone of this book, although it's very slow-paced, so it feels a bit like film noir if caught in amber. That's also an apt way to think about the overall experience of reading this book...it felt very slow and as if everything was happening on repeat in a slow cycle. For the first third or so, I enjoyed that, but eventually it started to drag down the pace of the story enough that I felt like it was having a negative impact on my opinion of the book. So it seemed to succeed in what it wanted to do, but in doing that, it made the story slow to such a crawl that I found my attention waning.
One thing really drove me crazy. Many, many times there was text on a panel that was entirely unnecessary. It was simply describing what was happening. It's as if this book was originally written as a story but then turned into a graphic novel, and nobody thought about the fact that many of those sentences could be cut since the action was now being illustrated. For example: a panel showing two people walking along a path in the park as they talk. There's text on the panel that literally says "They continued their walk on the path." Another example: a panel of the sky at nighttime, with clouds. There's text that says "Dark clouds rolled across the A.L.'s night sky." Last example: an inset panel showing a forearm with a bee stinging the person. There's text that says "A bee. Its stinger stuck in her skin." Perhaps the writer and artist are doing this intentionally, as some sort of "see & say" effect, but it's off-putting. If you're showing a man looking at a stop sign, you don't need to write "He looked at the stop sign" on the panel to explain what's happening. We can see it in the art.
In closing, I want to be sure to give props to the creators for the very clever idea of calling the afterlife "the A.L." and setting it all in a surreal version of L.A. (notice how the letters are reversed?). And truly, Los Angeles does already feel like a liminal version of most of reality, so it's the perfect place to set this book. Plus, y'know, the whole film noir theme.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this eARC.
March 17, 2024
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher IDW Publishing for an advance copy of this graphic novel dealing with the what comes after we go, guilt, ennui, and the enduring power of love between people, no matter how many times they have to die to be together.
Great thinkers, writers, poets, song writers and cult leaders have thought long and hard about what waits for us after the lights go out, the curtain closes, and a goth girl reaches out her hand and says "Time's Up". Some want to believe in heaven, segregated by race, religion, or for everyone with pets included. Some want to think that people who cut them off in traffic will have their own circle of hell to burn in for all of eternity. Some, like myself aren't sure, hope to see their dogs and cats, and maybe their family too. Or not. Or maybe one will spend eternity, pumping gas, stuck in constant traffic, looking at the grey skies, and wondering if there is more to death. An Afterlife Los Angeles, per se. Death, however does not stop the schemers from scheming, or the dreamers from dreaming. Scheming to exploit their situation, dreaming to escape their situation. And help another lost soul. In Perpetuity is a graphic novel of the afterlife, written and illustrated by Peter Hoey and Maria Hoey,
Jim is dead and not loving it. One minute he was throwing out garbage, the next he was in the afterlife, working at a gas station by the freeway, pumping gas, doing crosswords and looking at the dark skies that never change. The only activity Jim does regularly is see a parole officer, for the Afterlife has many rules, with punishment being placed in a jar for all of eternity. At work Jim meets up with someone he knew in his life, when he was playing guitar for a woman singer, who he loved. And someone who knows how he got to the afterlife. Jim soon is told that he has a very rare gift, and a gift that will make certain people a lot of money. Jim can cross back for periods of time, to the land of the living. Soon Jim is passing back and forth, but so doing puts a lot of people in danger. In danger of being killed. More than once.
A dark little story set in the noir capital of Los Angeles, and its Afterlife equivalent. Both share smoggy days, though regular LA is still far brighter. Both share constant traffic, and corrupt cops, with the powerful trying to get their way, even after death. The story is big, with a lot of characters, some who disappear, a cute cat, and a lot of bees. A lot like a mix of The Big Sleep, Out of the Past and a bit the science fiction movie Dark City. Some mysteries remain, some are solved, with the words "Forget it Jim, it's just the Afterlife", never said, but the meaning floats over it all. The art is good, a mix of cartoon, with a color palette that differentiates between the living and the dead. I enjoyed the noir book and film references, along with the use of Greek myth as both setting and to explain the characters.
A different kind of story, told well and beautifully rendered. I have long been a fan of the Hoeys with Animal Stories and The Bend of Luck being some of my favorite graphic novels. This seems a bigger story, but one that is clearly theirs. Recommended for those who love their graphic novels with a sense of strange, and with great art.
Great thinkers, writers, poets, song writers and cult leaders have thought long and hard about what waits for us after the lights go out, the curtain closes, and a goth girl reaches out her hand and says "Time's Up". Some want to believe in heaven, segregated by race, religion, or for everyone with pets included. Some want to think that people who cut them off in traffic will have their own circle of hell to burn in for all of eternity. Some, like myself aren't sure, hope to see their dogs and cats, and maybe their family too. Or not. Or maybe one will spend eternity, pumping gas, stuck in constant traffic, looking at the grey skies, and wondering if there is more to death. An Afterlife Los Angeles, per se. Death, however does not stop the schemers from scheming, or the dreamers from dreaming. Scheming to exploit their situation, dreaming to escape their situation. And help another lost soul. In Perpetuity is a graphic novel of the afterlife, written and illustrated by Peter Hoey and Maria Hoey,
Jim is dead and not loving it. One minute he was throwing out garbage, the next he was in the afterlife, working at a gas station by the freeway, pumping gas, doing crosswords and looking at the dark skies that never change. The only activity Jim does regularly is see a parole officer, for the Afterlife has many rules, with punishment being placed in a jar for all of eternity. At work Jim meets up with someone he knew in his life, when he was playing guitar for a woman singer, who he loved. And someone who knows how he got to the afterlife. Jim soon is told that he has a very rare gift, and a gift that will make certain people a lot of money. Jim can cross back for periods of time, to the land of the living. Soon Jim is passing back and forth, but so doing puts a lot of people in danger. In danger of being killed. More than once.
A dark little story set in the noir capital of Los Angeles, and its Afterlife equivalent. Both share smoggy days, though regular LA is still far brighter. Both share constant traffic, and corrupt cops, with the powerful trying to get their way, even after death. The story is big, with a lot of characters, some who disappear, a cute cat, and a lot of bees. A lot like a mix of The Big Sleep, Out of the Past and a bit the science fiction movie Dark City. Some mysteries remain, some are solved, with the words "Forget it Jim, it's just the Afterlife", never said, but the meaning floats over it all. The art is good, a mix of cartoon, with a color palette that differentiates between the living and the dead. I enjoyed the noir book and film references, along with the use of Greek myth as both setting and to explain the characters.
A different kind of story, told well and beautifully rendered. I have long been a fan of the Hoeys with Animal Stories and The Bend of Luck being some of my favorite graphic novels. This seems a bigger story, but one that is clearly theirs. Recommended for those who love their graphic novels with a sense of strange, and with great art.
April 13, 2024
More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/
In perpetuity has an interesting style in that it is illustrated and written to be as disaffecting as purgatory must be to those trapped in an endless limbo. I was reminded of the matrix (though with a far less bombastic plot) but it is something that keeps you reading.Story: Jim is dead; more specifically, he now spends eternity working a gas station at night in Hades' afterlife. But there are shades who want to find a way back into the living world and Jim might just have a rare ability to do so. Ripe for exploitation, the criminals who offed him show up to find a way to return to the living.
The story is languid, moody and purposely disaffecting; providing a suitable milieu for the drudge of an endless aferlife under a black sun sky. Jim spends the time doing crossword puzzles while doing the night shift at a gas station. It's all ho-hum and not something he really cares about either way. His key to the living is to travel to someone's near death experience; it is there that he meets Olivia dying from a bee sting's anaphylaxis death. Where he is the key to the conmen's plans on the afterlife side, Olivia will be become a necessary tool in the living world - much to Jim's regret and dismay.
The art style is very simple and reminiscent of 1940s comics. Indeed, the afterlife also has a midcentury illustration feel that conveys the ambivalence of the story. The artwork is clean, unhurried, and straightforward.
The story takes many twists and turns and at times it can feel like it was unnecessarily elongated in the middle to make two parts out of one. The Greek mythology connection felt random and unnecessary and I especially thought it jumped the shark a bit when Hades appeared. I would have preferred a more realized and original world rather than drawing on the Greeks interpretation of life after death (which felt very random in a modern setting). But in all, it was a solid story and read. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.
January 2, 2025
“Death is a two way street.”
In Perpetuity (2024) by Peter and Maria Hoey. The presumption in this surreal noir sci-fi graphic novel is that there is a spirit world inhabited by the dead, and that there is a liminal space betwen life and death that can be traversed. One way you can tell one dimension is death and not life is that the martini glasses never have booze in them; things like that). So most noir stories presume that there is a struggle among the poor and destitute for money. Some of the struggling masses become criminals, of course, depicted historically as gangsters. All that’s here.
In the first section (of three) In Perpetuity, the gangsters are dead, but still looking for cash, as the space they inhabit is a parallel universe where they can use the money. In this story, the gangsters find a (living) woman for whom bee stings may be fatal. When we meet her, she has been stung, goes unconscious and her spirit escapes her body, heading in the direction of death. In that space she encounters a (dead) guy who has special gifts as a “connector” between life and death whom the gangsters have pressured to get the woman to get them money (or else they will hurt her family).
So this goes on for weeks, and the guy and girl (as happens in noir and other stories), become connected, though a Death Oversight Board becomes aware of this burgeoning relationship and discourages him from going to Life to see the woman.
The next two sections are similarly strange/amusing/inventive, with Hoey retro-fifties advertising-like artwork. Twilight Zone oddness about it. But clever! Has noir gangsters, sci-fi, supernatural, humor, surrealism. Like: What can you do with tne noir genre that's new: Boom.
In Perpetuity (2024) by Peter and Maria Hoey. The presumption in this surreal noir sci-fi graphic novel is that there is a spirit world inhabited by the dead, and that there is a liminal space betwen life and death that can be traversed. One way you can tell one dimension is death and not life is that the martini glasses never have booze in them; things like that). So most noir stories presume that there is a struggle among the poor and destitute for money. Some of the struggling masses become criminals, of course, depicted historically as gangsters. All that’s here.
In the first section (of three) In Perpetuity, the gangsters are dead, but still looking for cash, as the space they inhabit is a parallel universe where they can use the money. In this story, the gangsters find a (living) woman for whom bee stings may be fatal. When we meet her, she has been stung, goes unconscious and her spirit escapes her body, heading in the direction of death. In that space she encounters a (dead) guy who has special gifts as a “connector” between life and death whom the gangsters have pressured to get the woman to get them money (or else they will hurt her family).
So this goes on for weeks, and the guy and girl (as happens in noir and other stories), become connected, though a Death Oversight Board becomes aware of this burgeoning relationship and discourages him from going to Life to see the woman.
The next two sections are similarly strange/amusing/inventive, with Hoey retro-fifties advertising-like artwork. Twilight Zone oddness about it. But clever! Has noir gangsters, sci-fi, supernatural, humor, surrealism. Like: What can you do with tne noir genre that's new: Boom.
May 25, 2024
This is great. A story about the afterlife in which some people are able to smuggle things and people between the afterlife and life.
Jim has a pretty mundane afterlife, working at a gas station, and smoking. Problems start when his old crime boss hunts him down because Jim can travel between life and the afterlife and so he is pressured into smuggling for his old boss. But you cannot travel back and forth without getting intertwined with life and with death.
This is a great story of love and crime in the afterlife and in life, and the twists and turns come together to make this a gripping read which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Copy provided via Netgally in exchange for an unbiased review.
Jim has a pretty mundane afterlife, working at a gas station, and smoking. Problems start when his old crime boss hunts him down because Jim can travel between life and the afterlife and so he is pressured into smuggling for his old boss. But you cannot travel back and forth without getting intertwined with life and with death.
This is a great story of love and crime in the afterlife and in life, and the twists and turns come together to make this a gripping read which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Copy provided via Netgally in exchange for an unbiased review.
October 4, 2024
This has quite a unique story about afterlife. At first I was thinking I won’t read it through because it felt boring. I didn’t even understood at first he was there as a dead person, but when I understood that, the overall bleakness and hollowness made so much sense, and then it started to become interesting. I think this truly had a very unique setting, and for a while I really enjoyed this, but then at some point it became so repetitive that I started to lose a bit of my interest. Also I’m not that convinced that the bad guys’ future plan would actually work, people would start to wonder eventually what’s going on. And why the living world also looks like it’s full of dead persons even they’re alive?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 8, 2025
2.5 stars 🌟 🌟
I'm unsatisfied. While the art is great and reminds me somewhat of the Fallout game, the story didn't seem like "a surreal smuggling operation across the boundaries of life and death". That quote on the back of the book did get my hopes up before reading, but now it just makes me slightly annoyed.
I think the mundane nature of the After Life in this book was supposed to be like another version of how mundane the living world can be. But the surreal? I think seeing Hades and Persephone was slightly surreal, and Luna the cat 🐱 choosing to stay with Persephone was slightly surreal. The whole Shades and Connectors stuff, traveling back and forth between the after Life and the living world was NOT surreal!
At least Jim did crossword puzzles.
I'm unsatisfied. While the art is great and reminds me somewhat of the Fallout game, the story didn't seem like "a surreal smuggling operation across the boundaries of life and death". That quote on the back of the book did get my hopes up before reading, but now it just makes me slightly annoyed.
I think the mundane nature of the After Life in this book was supposed to be like another version of how mundane the living world can be. But the surreal? I think seeing Hades and Persephone was slightly surreal, and Luna the cat 🐱 choosing to stay with Persephone was slightly surreal. The whole Shades and Connectors stuff, traveling back and forth between the after Life and the living world was NOT surreal!
At least Jim did crossword puzzles.
March 30, 2024
This was a very dark, gritty graphic novel about what happens in the afterlife. The story is odd, and involves a smuggling operation between the world of the living and the dead. What I really liked, though, was the style.
I noticed that one of the other reviewers noticed that sometimes there was unnecessary text; instead of relying on the graphics, the book would state what was happening in the picture. For me, that was part of the style. I felt like I was in a noir film and it raised the tension and the stakes. When I was reading In Perpuity, I felt like I was in this world of gangsters and seances.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this.
I noticed that one of the other reviewers noticed that sometimes there was unnecessary text; instead of relying on the graphics, the book would state what was happening in the picture. For me, that was part of the style. I felt like I was in a noir film and it raised the tension and the stakes. When I was reading In Perpuity, I felt like I was in this world of gangsters and seances.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this.
September 2, 2024
Maneuvering a middle way between Chris Ware and Neil Gaiman is an unusual territory to stake a claim, and somehow this book manages it, in a tale of a hapless dead man who becomes entrapped in a criminal enterprise by a couple of dead gangsters.
I found many of the female characters difficult to distinguish from each other, and also the specific nature of the crimes (involving trafficking human spirits) was difficult to figure out at times. In addition, Ware-like, the afterlife is depicted as emotionally barren, and it can be a challenge at time to continue through the title until the more myth-bent ending, although I did find it worthwhile overall.
I found many of the female characters difficult to distinguish from each other, and also the specific nature of the crimes (involving trafficking human spirits) was difficult to figure out at times. In addition, Ware-like, the afterlife is depicted as emotionally barren, and it can be a challenge at time to continue through the title until the more myth-bent ending, although I did find it worthwhile overall.
April 28, 2025
Why is this book nothing but simple declarative sentences one after the other?
-Jim went to work.
-Jim likes work.
-Jim got in his car.
-Jim drove somewhere else.
-Jim is a fucking tool.
Is this where we're at in the literary world? Is this really all that people can handle these days? I had to go read some Dostoevsky just to cleanse this book from my brain. It seriously could have been a children's book until the random nudity, which weirded me out even more because I thought the authors were married but are actually brother and sister and I don't want to imagine them drawing this together, thanks.
-Jim went to work.
-Jim likes work.
-Jim got in his car.
-Jim drove somewhere else.
-Jim is a fucking tool.
Is this where we're at in the literary world? Is this really all that people can handle these days? I had to go read some Dostoevsky just to cleanse this book from my brain. It seriously could have been a children's book until the random nudity, which weirded me out even more because I thought the authors were married but are actually brother and sister and I don't want to imagine them drawing this together, thanks.
March 20, 2024
I received a free ARC, and this review is voluntary
So basically the synopsis is the story. Not much else to report there.
What I appreciated was the tone of this version of the afterlife. It was so drab, and mundane because of how similar it was to the existing world. Still have a few rules to follow, but overall, this is it. The same unfulfilled existence on repeat.
With the way it was written, it slowly unfolds, but I didn't feel as though there was a low point, or stutter in the storyline. It was a fun ride
So basically the synopsis is the story. Not much else to report there.
What I appreciated was the tone of this version of the afterlife. It was so drab, and mundane because of how similar it was to the existing world. Still have a few rules to follow, but overall, this is it. The same unfulfilled existence on repeat.
With the way it was written, it slowly unfolds, but I didn't feel as though there was a low point, or stutter in the storyline. It was a fun ride
July 27, 2024
3.4 rounded down. This is such a frustrating book. Its individual parts are incredible but its whole is…messy. The artwork is definitely its strongest element, and the exposition is its weakest. There were a few times that what was happening didn’t make sense—either it was extremely convoluted or it was just a baffling choice, like “Why wouldn’t they just ___?” I loved the ideas at play and the overall aesthetic, I just wish it all amounted to something greater.
October 22, 2024
I think I would've enjoyed this a lot more if it had a different, more detailed art style. I also think that, counter-intuitively, that kind of art style would have fit the story better.
The blandness of the characters probably should have bothered me more, but I read this in ~1 hour so it was much less of an issue than it would have been had I had more time to process them and their one-dimensional-ness.
The blandness of the characters probably should have bothered me more, but I read this in ~1 hour so it was much less of an issue than it would have been had I had more time to process them and their one-dimensional-ness.
August 2, 2025
The afterlife here seems to be a drab 50s version of L.A. with endless amounts of traffic and it turns out is run by Hades. Gangsters still find a way to communicate with the living although it's highly policed. The main character is called a connector and can travel back and forth between both L.A.s. The art looks like something you'd see in an advertisement. I'm going to check out some more stuff from this brother and sister duo.
April 9, 2024
The game of life is so funny. Trivial at times even.
Peter and Maria Hoey have strung together a compelling tale that serves as a reminder about how life is a bit more precious than we imagine it to be.
Peter and Maria Hoey have strung together a compelling tale that serves as a reminder about how life is a bit more precious than we imagine it to be.
August 17, 2024
Unfortunately, I think there was simply too much going on in this convoluted graphic novel that wants to incorporate noir tropes, sci Fi, and Greek mythology. The first section was actually a pretty good novella, but things got too involved thereafter for my tastes.
March 7, 2025
Complicated Terminology & Purposefulness ?
As any ordinary story, it ambers along, made confusing by unfamiliar terminology & how an afterlife is supposed to work, but towards The end, none of that seems to matter much, it self simplifies to make that irrelevant ( ? )
As any ordinary story, it ambers along, made confusing by unfamiliar terminology & how an afterlife is supposed to work, but towards The end, none of that seems to matter much, it self simplifies to make that irrelevant ( ? )
June 7, 2025
I initially assumed I wouldn’t like this story because it looks and feels like one of those graphic novels that is essentially a meta exposition on modern life. It’s a slow burn but eventually the story sells you and you walk away satisfied.
May 17, 2024
Didn’t care for the art, and the story was meh.
June 6, 2024
Pretty enjoyable. Loved the artwork and the concept. The whole affair was more relaxed than I would have preferred, but I also think it was doing exactly what it was trying to do.
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