Second Shift

by Kit Anderson

From the time when the station wakes her up, Birdie Doran is on the clock. It's just her and one or two others on Terracorp's isolated outpost, processing comets. So she slips into virtual reality, with the station creating adventures for her as she does repairs, routine maintenance, and checks the status on all the systems.

But when Birdie discovers another abandoned station just within walking distance of her own, she begins to question her isolation, and her own memories of what her job-and her life―really is. And at every turn, she starts finding the things the station has been hiding from her.

Ignatz Award-nominated author Kit Anderson presents a psychological science fiction exploration of the lines between reality inside and outside the mind.

Genres: Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Comics, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

160 pages, Paperback

First published June 26, 2025

About the author

Kit Anderson (she/her) is a cartoonist from Boulder, Colorado. Her short stories have been published by Parsifal Press and the Rumpus, and she received her MFA from the Center for Cartoon Studies in 2022. Kit lives near Zürich with her partner and tiny dog where she enjoys walking in the woods and making comics about memory, nature, and wizards sometimes, too.

Reviews

[AllyP Reads Books]

Had to stop reading this book. Every other panel is the characters repeating each other's names as they are talking to each other. I cannot stand repetition like this and people don't talk this way! You do not say the person's name you are talking to every other sentence so stop writing books that do this. It's a huge mark of poor writing and dialogue.

[Ryan Miller]

2.5 stars, rounded up (Edit: rounded down. As I thought about the book, I dwelt on the disappointment, not the intrigue.) The mystery of what is happening is intriguing, which kept me going, but never really resolved—at least not in a way that I understood.

[J MaK]

(3.4) Set in an off-world outpost run by the AI-driven company Terracorp, this story follows three employees tasked with maintaining a remote station. Algorithms regulate their alternating sleep cycles, while the station’s AI assists with daily operations. Two crew members, Birdie and Heck—childhood friends prone to bickering—must rely on each other to keep things running. Their reality unravels when they uncover a more advanced station that reveals the unsettling truth behind the “dream space” between drop-ins and drop-outs. The atmospheric, lucid artwork perfectly complements the story’s eerie tone, blurring the line between waking and dreaming, logic and illusion.

[Jenn]

Gorgeous melancholy sci-fi. I love Kit Anderson's art and approach to worldbuilding and character. Absolutely lovely.

[Aurora]

Decidedly not for me. Things were so vague; it went beyond things being dreamlike or obscured intentionally for narrative purposes and into just "I have no idea what's going on." ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Rlygirl]

I wish the ending was explained a little better. I get that the author was going for surrealism, but this left me raising my eyebrow. A "shrug" of a novel.

[Amber]

If you love haunting sci-fi stories that question what is "real" and the effects of an aggressively positive off-world corporate resource mining operation on the human psyche, look no further. Giving strong Moon, 2001, Andrei Tarkovsky vibes. The only reason I don't give 5 stars is that the dialogue/lettering doesn't differentiate between the characters enough.

[hanna]

liked the art & concept, but ultimately left me with too many questions. i’m a lover of surrealism, questioning reality, & ambiguous endings, but this didn’t even have enough traction for the stakes to be high enough to care.

[David Carriere]

Second Shift is a quietly unsettling and psychologically rich science fiction graphic novel that explores isolation, labor, and the fragile boundary between reality and constructed experience. Kit Anderson delivers a restrained but deeply effective narrative that slowly pulls the reader into Birdie Doran’s routine until the routine itself becomes suspect.
What makes this book compelling is how subtly it destabilizes its premise. The repetition of work, the comfort of virtual reality, and the station’s omnipresent guidance initially feel protective, even humane. But as Birdie discovers signs of another station and inconsistencies in her memories, the story transforms into a meditation on control, autonomy, and how institutions shape identity.
The artwork reinforces the emotional tension, balancing stark environments with moments of surreal distortion that mirror Birdie’s inner uncertainty. Rather than relying on spectacle, Second Shift trusts atmosphere and pacing, allowing dread to emerge organically.
This is science fiction at its most introspective, asking not what technology can do, but what it quietly takes from those who depend on it. Readers interested in psychological sci-fi, labor narratives, and speculative stories about memory and consent will find this a rewarding and unsettling read.

[Liberty]

Actual rating: 3.5 stars.

I'm going to keep this one short and sweet because it's just a graphic novel. I read it on my flight back home and it only took about an hour (out of a ten hour flight. ouch). So, a really quick and easy read to break up some of the longer ones on your monthly TBR if you decide to pick this one up. I loved the art style in this one. It helps the reader see more of what's real and what isn't. It definitely also gave some spooky vibes towards the end. I enjoyed the SciFi nature of the graphic novel and the questions it poses about A.I., algorithms, and the way in which we go about our lives in the modern day. I really didn't enjoy some of the ambiguity towards the end. I know the conclusion it wants the reader to draw but I really wish there were some sort of clear moment at the end.

Overall, this was such a fun and quick read on a flight that was feeling way too long. I'm pretty sure there's not another one following this graphic novel but I plan on double checking when I get my feet on the ground.

[Sarah]

This was ok? It was pretty vague, like soft-focus, not giving a lot of clear, specific... well, anything-- setting, universe, and trajectory were left mostly up to the reader. This drops the reader into the story and, while not fast-paced, it never pauses to give backstory or set up what's going to happen next. How did the characters get here? Where is here? What is reality? What is the purpose of the station? Some questions, like are we alone in the universe or who was here before us, are meant to remain unanswered, but all the others seem like... what's the point of the story, if the reader neither has a chance to understand the characters nor connect with them?

Some setting details come through in the illustrations, of course, but I didn't enjoy the style and don't think it was supporting the story as well as it could have. It's been a little bit now since I finished the book, and the descriptor that's coming to mind to describe the illustration style is mostly "smudgy."

[Autumn]

Second Shift is the story of Birdie Doran, a Terracorp employee sent out to a rogue planet to process asteroids and comets. Terracorp employees slip between two jarring states: dropped-in (hibernating) and dropped-out (awake, ready to report). Birdie has just dropped out from the corporate-induced dream space, into the equally hazy outpost on the edge of some unknown world. Birdie is accompanied by her sibling and crewmate Heck, as well as a shapeshifting AI assistant called Station. And so the reader is also dropped into the story with no context or real knowledge of what is going on, which was a pretty thrilling experience.

As others say, this was more like a concept book which never really got off the ground. The melancholic, dream-washed vibe mixed in with the pointed, edgy dystopia makes a great palette for a plot but it was just missing the narrative thrust to drive it.

[Neep]

Birdie works on a space outpost with a ship AI capable of immersive simulations that it puts employees into when they're in suspension in between shifts maintaining the station. When Birdie's crewmate Heck discovers a deserted station nearby on the planet, the two of them journey across a snowy landscape and find more questions than answers within.

The artwork was absolutely stunning. I am a sucker for cute animals, so Station - the ship AI - manifesting as various adorable woodland creatures brought me a lot of joy.

The plot didn't do anything particularly groundbreaking, but it did what it did very well. It ramped up the tension really nicely, and expanded the universe well without info-dumping everything all at once. I really enjoyed reading this story, truth be told.

[Kiana]

Kit Anderson' illustrations are very creative, especially the shapeshifting AI character , "Station." While reading the story, I was curious about the maintenance work Birdie was doing, Birdie's dynamic with Heck, and learning more about the setting where Birdie and Heck lived. The plot progressed with Birdie and Heck pursuing a mysterious structure in the distance, but I would have appreciated more detail as to what was the importance and value of Birdie's work and how it benefitted Terracorp or society, and her internal conflict about leaving home to work for Terracorp. I would have liked to know more about what system Terracorp was part of and how this world and its use of AI was different than Birdie's home.

[Aimee E Watts]

2.5 stars. Cool concept. Very imaginative drawings! I can see the direction Kit wanted to go but I think it fell short for me. The dialogue seemed unnatural and it was a bit confusing to follow at times. I think she needed to create a more well rounded story rather then showing us a concept.

The characters taped into AI worlds to the point they couldn’t tell reality from imagined worlds. Had me thinking about how we fill our time—watching shows/listening to music/doomscrolling and can’t sit with our own thoughts—it’s important to disconnect!

Ending was inconclusive.

[Cheryl]

I agree with the positive reviews. The negative ones didn't read the 'chapter' headings, or read the story carefully. Unfortunately I, personally, didn't love it enough to give it four stars. But I'll be thinking about it for awhile.

Best for teens, I think, so they are reminded to take care with their careers and not get themselves into this kind of a mess.

[Laura]

3.5

Available on ComicsPlus from my library! Yay!

It drops you in with no context and you slowly start to understand the world. It's a slow build but I enjoyed piecing together what was happening and I may have taken it too far. For instance, does anyone else think maybe her brother was also an illusion?

Definitely more of a meditative read.

[Josh]

AI simulations, corporate mismanagement, and a psychological mystery intertwine in this first graphic novel from cartoonist Kit Anderson.

Full review at: https://noflyingnotights.com/blog/202...

[clara]

ugh i wanted to like this so much more than i did, but i found the mechanics of this world to be really confusing, and despite the number of times the names were repeated i still kept mixing up the characters and couldn’t figure out their relationship

[Kathleen]

On a first read, I don't really understand what's going on, but I think it would be possible if it read it a bunch more times.

[Laura B]

Beautifully illustrated, a quiet story about space, loneliness and what it is to be human.

[Fiore]

3.5, not entirely sure what is going on but I get the sensation of being gently crushed by the loneliest hallucination.

[Kit Anderson]

You know what? I think this is pretty good.

[Jacob Brogan]

This one just left me with a headache.

[Betsey]

I…didn’t get it. I think.

[Ben]

3.25/5

[Sinai C.]

I don't feel so bad since I see other people also didn't get the ending. But I still wish I could have gotten it!!!

[Wendle]

Second Shift has an overall calmness about it, interspersed with chapter breaks and information about the dystopian megacorporation future the story is set in. It left me questioning everything and waiting for the calm facade to break.

Once I’d spotted the crack—the thing that had been wrong since the start of the story—I was flipping back through pages to re-evaluate it all. And the calmness was replaced by an empty sadness instead. The ending broke my heart, and I loved it.

The artwork is simple overall, with themes and motifs running throughout, making the ending as heavy as it was. There were also moments of gorgeous detail and stylistic boldness.

A slightly longer review can be found on my book blog: Marvel at Words.

[l]

melancholy scifi can be beautiful (kit cites tarkovsky), but the art and the text is not enough to make it stick.

[Josh]

Very interesting, although i dont understand it all yet