Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Meanwhile” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Meanwhile

Jason Shiga

3.92 · Rating details · 4,006 ratings · 447 reviews

Chocolate or Vanilla? This simple choice is all it takes to get started with Meanwhile, the wildly inventive creation of comics mastermind Jason Shiga, of whom Scott McCloud said “Crazy + Genius = Shiga.” Jimmy, whose every move is under your control, finds himself in a mad scientist’s lab, where he’s given a choice between three amazing objects: a mind-reading device, a t ...more

Get A Copy

Hardcover, 80 pages

Published March 1st 2010 by Harry N. Abrams

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Meanwhile, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Best Graphic Novels for Children

1,208 books — 1,678 voters

Pretty Little Mistakes by Heather McElhatton

Adult Choose Your Own Adventure Books

174 books — 132 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 3.92 ·

Rating details

· 4,006 ratings · 447 reviews

Sort order

Start your review of Meanwhile

Jan 21, 2017 Sam Quixote rated it liked it

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: Jason Shiga is a genius cartoonist. Meanwhile is a choose your own adventure puzzle comic that took years to make and he literally needed to write a computer algorithm to put it all together in book form!

It starts with his regular character Jimmy Yee going to get ice cream but must decide: vanilla or chocolate? The choice sends the reader on a complex journey where you’ll be flicking back and forth between pages guiding Jimmy hopefully through his adve ...more

flag 27 likes · Like · see review

Jan 08, 2021 Jon Nakapalau rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, comics

Like a time machine with a blown control panel - wonderfully inovative.

flag 17 likes · Like · see review

May 24, 2010 Betsy rated it it was amazing

Quantum physics, parallel worlds, probability, entropy. Yes it's all in a day's work for your average everyday choose your own adventure book. Now just substitute the words "average" and "everyday" in that previous sentence for "extraordinary" and "twisted" and you've got yourself a pretty good description of Jason Shiga's graphic title Meanwhile. Simple enough in its concept and art that a ten-year-old would feel confident picking it up, yet jam packed with an insane degree of whimsy and darkne Quantum physics, parallel worlds, probability, entropy. Yes it's all in a day's work for your average everyday choose your own adventure book. Now just substitute the words "average" and "everyday" in that previous sentence for "extraordinary" and "twisted" and you've got yourself a pretty good description of Jason Shiga's graphic title Meanwhile. Simple enough in its concept and art that a ten-year-old would feel confident picking it up, yet jam packed with an insane degree of whimsy and darkness, the book isn't afraid to trust the brains, and the decisions, of its audience. Meanwhile is hoping that you're gonna be a pretty smart cookie if you pick it up. Better not disappoint. There could be consequences to pay along the way if you aren't, after all.

Jimmy walks into an ice cream shop. He makes his decision. Either Jimmy chooses vanilla or he chooses chocolate. From that decision, you see two Jimmys now. The vanilla Jimmy storyline suddenly develops a line that you must follow to a tab. Open the book to that tab and you see the result of his decision. Follow the line and tab that connect to the other ice cream flavor, and suddenly you're plunged into an intense storyline. Jimmy meets and befriends a local inventor who has come up with three objects. There's the time machine, the SQUID which can transfer memories, and the appropriately named Killitron that can either kill everyone in the world not inside of it or make delicious ice cream. Jimmy decides which of the three to play with and along the way discovers a horrific story behind not just the inventor's life, but his own as well.

There are plenty of impressive blurbs on the back of the book to ogle. There's one from Scott McCloud and one from Gene Luen Yang. Fine cartoonists, the both of them. However, I was delighted to find that those quotes were paired with blurbs from two authors that I read consistently and without cease as a child. R.A. Montgomery and Edward Packard are two of the writers behind those old Choose Your Own Adventure books of my youth. The books were notable, not just because they created a fun new format and way of reading children's literature, but also because they weren't afraid to kill the reader in a variety of grizzly ways. Usually the books were written in the second person, telling "you" exactly what "you" were up to and allowing "you" to either make the right choices or the ones destined to lead to your own mangled corpse. I appreciated that as a kid. Made the stories a little more serious for me. There was a darkness to them. A darkness that is perfectly replicated in Shiga's own book. I mean talk about a story that is not afraid to kill off its main character or, for that matter, every last human being on the planet.

Let's put everything into context here. The book is written by a guy who graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in pure mathematics. On the publication page you'll find a note that explains how the book was worked out. There were some difficulties coming up with the outline for the story. However, "With the use of a V-opt heuristic algorithm running for 12 hours on an SGI machine, the solution was finally cracked in the spring of 2000." The book would be completed a year and a half later. If your eyes started to glaze over while reading that, you're not alone. What I love about this, though, is that what you have here is a true children's book making use of math. Do you know how hard it is to find such books? Recently the only other math-minded text I've seen for kids was The Unknowns: A Mystery by Benedict Carey. Also, I should note, an Abrams publication. Abrams likes it some math, apparently. In any case, a love of letters rather than numbers isn't an impediment to enjoying this book. But for those with a penchant for figures, the byline on the cover that reads, "Pick any path. 3,856 story possibilities," will prove especially tantalizing.

Then there's the quantum physics, parallel worlds, probability, and entropy I alluded to earlier. All these concepts are here. I wouldn't use Meanwhile as a lesson plan necessarily, though in the hands of the right teacher I think a lot of these concepts could be taught quite painlessly. Shiga's story works in tandem with its format. The theory that every choice we make splits off into a universe where we did one thing and a world where we did the opposite has never been brought to life as brilliantly as it is here. I loved the Choose Your Own Adventure format, but there wasn't a book amongst them that questioned the very nature of choosing and choices like Shiga does. This guy's gonna blow a few minds.

About those 3,856 story possibilities . . . I think that technically that number is correct. However, for much of that time you're going to find yourself traveling in circles. Circles that become increasingly frustrating as you continue to whirl through them. You can get out with concentration, but I wonder how many folks will be willing to do that after reading the same lines for the 30th time. Eventually readers will just start reading the book straight through out of sheer frustration, and even for that move Shiga has prepared accordingly. There is one two-page spread of Jimmy riding a giant squid. If you look closely at it, you'll realize that these are the only two pages in the book without tabs to lead you there. The only way to even find it is to cheat. Pretty sneaky, Shiga.

There is one significant difference between this book and an old Choose Your Own Adventure novel. With CYOA, the reader would constantly leave their fingers stuck in the book to go back to previous turning points so that if they made the wrong decision they wouldn't have to begin at square one all over again. Meanwhile makes this second guessing technique impossible. It's not just the colored tabs. It's the fact that a storyline will sometimes go to a page and then zip through it to yet another tab, leaving the reader utterly baffled if they try to backtrack. There is no backtracking in this book, you see. All decisions are final. For good or for ill.

Admittedly, not everything works here. There's a whole "populating the earth" storyline that I won't go into here that doesn't make a lick of sense. There are some interesting takes on time travel that sort of play fast and loose with the rules. And, as I said before, there's the frustration you feel when you get caught in a circle and feel like you can't get out.

That said, this is also one of the bravest books I've read, marketed to small fry. It's not afraid to make them think. How do our choices affect our lives? In this book you can make Jimmy physically go one way or another and see how things could have changed had he made a different decision. And from there, it's a small step to thinking about your own life and the choices you face in your own everyday experiences. It may be a choice as mundane as choosing chocolate or vanilla ice cream, but for something so basic it's fascinating to look at how even the smallest decision can affect the rest of your life. That's a tall order for such a slim book. It is, without a doubt, one of the most original titles I've ever encountered.

Ages 10 and up. ...more

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

Feb 02, 2012 Janie rated it it was ok

Shelves: graphic-novels, 2-stars

When I first glanced at this in the library, I had a nerd-attack at the sheer genius of it. I mean, choose your own adventure COMIC?!?! However, after the first maybe, five endings, I got bored. I'm sorry! The thing about this book is that it's actually quite tricky to read the panels and follow the order of the story, and once you do get the hang of it, you have to start from page one to start over because virtually every single time because, unlike Choose Your Own Adventure books, the page tab ...more

flag 11 likes · Like · see review

Nov 10, 2019 L. McCoy rated it it was ok

Shelves: comics-and-graphic-novels, reviewed, action, borrowed, creator-owned, sci-fi

SUPER FAST REVIEW:
I hate to say it but this book is a confusing mess. I tried playing through it a few times (as in at least 10) but it either left me an unsatisfying ending or confused me to the point that it felt less like a fun comic adventure and more like an annoying maze. It’s also not as funny as I had hoped it would be.
The art’s good and the idea’s fun but other than that... nah. I think I’m better off sticking with Demon for my Jason Shiga stuff for now (which I recently read and loved ...more

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

Jan 24, 2011 Mir rated it liked it

Recommended to Mir by: Ariel

Shelves: adventure

This visual variation on the old Choose Your Own Adventure books gets props for originality. The amount of work the author put in is staggering, and the story is fun. However, it is so difficult to follows the path from one panel to another that I couldn't really get into the story and enjoy it -- I was spending twice as much time finding the right place as actually "reading" since there isn't much text to slow one down. This might be better for a kid who is a slow reader. And maybe the techniqu ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Dec 08, 2015 Drew rated it it was ok

Shelves: c-comics, i-dont-own

Great gimmick and it's executed very well. It's a choose-your-own-adventure comic, and it works a lot better than expected. Unfortunately Shiga didn't find time to write an interesting story or interesting scenarios. I read it a few different ways and found myself repeating the same passages, some times multiple times in one 'play through'.

I kind of hope there's another attempt at this. The branching paths are executed very well, and there's some pretty clever time travel and multiple-universes ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Mar 04, 2015 Becky B rated it liked it

Shelves: asian-lit-setting-characters, graphic-novels, science-fiction, middle-grade-ficiton, young-adult, time-travel, choose-your-own-adventure

Definitely the most unique graphic novel I've ever seen. This tale starts with a simple question of whether the character wants chocolate or vanilla ice cream, and choices from there can lead to countless different plot lines involving a mad scientist and adventures with his time travel, mind swap or doomsday machines. You need to read the inside front cover and the note on how complicated it was to put this creation into book form. Crazy! Jason Shiga gets big time creative points for even knowi ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Apr 05, 2011 Sara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-in-2011, young-adult-books, children-s-books, graphic-novel

Holy awesome. I always felt kind of meh about choose your own adventure books (there are only so many storylines that end in certain death and still keep me interested), but this is way. way. cooler. Ever read a choose your own adventure comic book? Especially one with 3,856 possible path possibilities? With multiple storylines that run on the same page and secret hidden pages that can only be accessed with a code? In fact, I feel kind of weird saying that I've "read" this book, seeing as I prob ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Oct 26, 2013 Mark rated it really liked it

A choose-your-own-adventure done in a comic book format. Fun.

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Nov 06, 2019 Brittany McCann rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, 5-stars, humor, z2019-challenge, action, reviews, sci-fi, childrens-books

This book was very fun to read and can be re-read many times. My third grade son and I had a lot of fun with it and the artistry was excellent.

5 Stars!

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Jul 06, 2010 Don rated it it was amazing

Shelves: graphic-novels

THIS IS THE CRAZIEST CHOOSE-YOUR-OWN-WHATEVER YOU WILL EVER READ.

Jason Shiga is a genius and a madman. Branching-plot comics have been done before from time to time, but never to any great success and with no real innovation. Here, the innovation is in the reading experience itself: Instead of reading one page, then turning to a different page - as in most CYOA-type books - it's the comics panels themselves that twist and turn, with the reader's direction of flow guided by a series of pipes. Whe THIS IS THE CRAZIEST CHOOSE-YOUR-OWN-WHATEVER YOU WILL EVER READ.

Jason Shiga is a genius and a madman. Branching-plot comics have been done before from time to time, but never to any great success and with no real innovation. Here, the innovation is in the reading experience itself: Instead of reading one page, then turning to a different page - as in most CYOA-type books - it's the comics panels themselves that twist and turn, with the reader's direction of flow guided by a series of pipes. When choices diverge, two or more of the pipes will lead away from the deciding panel, and the pipes follow on to other pages via a series of die-cut tabs on the page edges. As a lifelong fan of all forms of interactive fiction, I've seen most ways that branching stories can be told ... but this? This is New.

All that would amount to little more than a well-done gimmick, however, if the work itself weren't just as impressive. Fortunately, Shiga doesn't disappoint. His art is cartoony yet expressive; simple but effective. And the story? The story, in the book's biggest surprise, is just as insane as the format. The casual reader will immediately come across the eccentric scientist and his three inventions - a time machine, a mind-reading helmet, and a universal doomsday device - and it should be pretty apparent with a few moments' thought as to how those three machines could be used in different sequences and different combinations to wildly alarming effect. However, it really takes a dedicated reader willing to put a couple of hours in - or extremely good luck - to discover the ultimate ending (different from the "Ultima ending", itself a knowing reference to the classic CYOA Inside UFO 54-40), in which it's revealed that everything you've experienced in every iteration of the book up to that point has been far more connected than you ever could have imagined. Suffice it to say that as I grew closer and closer to that final end, my jaw hung closer and closer to the floor.

I cannot recommend this book enough. Read it now; you won't be disappointed. ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 09, 2015 Frank rated it liked it

Shelves: graphic-novel

Pretty cool choose-your-own adventure-style book. This looks like it couldn't have been easy to create and I'm easily impressed by things that look like they wouldn't be easy. ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Mar 28, 2015 Garrett rated it it was amazing

Every once in a while a book is found that is worth reading again and again. With each reading, something new is encountered and the experience of the reader grows. Normally, books with this quality treat heavy emotional themes, or carry a profound commentary on life. However, Jason Shiga’s graphic novel Meanwhile manages to pull its audience through multiple readings while lacking a serious tone or a deep commentary on human existence. His book is just fun to read. It is a graphic variant of th ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Sep 29, 2011 Sandy rated it really liked it

Shelves: juvenile-fiction, graphic-novels, interesting-narration

This book is incredibly trippy - in a good way. It's kind of a Choose Your Own Adventure in graphic novel format featuring time travel, entropy, quantam physics, and a doomsday device. It starts out innocently enough - do you want chocolate or vanilla ice cream? Choose which path you want to take and follow the tubes to the correct tab, which takes you to another page where the story continues. Various other choices along the way cause the story to split yet again, revealing a story that grows s ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Dec 29, 2019 Thomas Ray rated it liked it

Shelves: ahijados-own, detailed-reviews, para-ninos

What do you want to do?

Have a (view spoiler) ice cream.

(view spoiler) loop repeatedly through the same scenes & choices, not seeing enough to figure out what's going on.

(view spoiler) loop through world destruction and travel back to an earlier time, but (view spoiler) able to stop it.

Be told that in the nothing-ever-happens interpretation of quantum mechanics, every event spawns a universe whe ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Feb 13, 2018 Michael Huff rated it it was amazing

This book get's a 5 just for sheer effort it took to make it. However, it's also a really neat examination of the nature of time, choice, and chance. Please go through it at least once, but realize you need to discover at least 2 codes within your travels to get to the "happy" ending.

"Once the outline of the story was structured, a computer algorithm was written to determine the most efficient method to transfer it to a book form. However, the problem proved to be NP-complete. With the use of a ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Sep 02, 2010 Crowinator rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya, comics-gns-manga, favorites-of-all-time, 2010-reads, childrens-middle-grade

Quick and dirty review:
I had great fun poring over this choose-your-own-adventure style graphic novel for the couple hours it took me to reach every permutation of the story (and there are thousands and thousands of different stories to discover). The art and the storytelling is kooky but smart, and I've managed to successfully booktalk the hell out of this one, especially to middle-schoolers. All I have to say is that you, as the main character, start out buying ice cream and end up in a mad sc ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 15, 2015 Krystal rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2015

This book.

So like, I'm not smart enough for this book. It's completely deceptive. I actually ended up throwing it on a librarians desk because the science behind it fucking MYSTIFIED me. I'm just too dense to notice that the front page comes with instructions. :/

So enter my hero, who patiently guided my hand (and eyes) so I was fully able to enjoy this book. Thank you, Jesus. You always got my back.

And thank you hubs. For totally passing out early on a Saturday night so I could putter around o ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 27, 2010 Julie Suzanne rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Sterling & Verdi

Shelves: read-with-my-child

This is a bizarre new format (at least to me) of choose your-own-adventure. WOW. It had my 10-year-old, who loves "manga" (I still don't really know what this is), drawing, and comics, unable to come up for air. It was written with exactly the same kind of humor, drawing, and topics that my son loves...uncanny. I also had a lot of fun figuring out how it works with him. I'd give it 5 stars but I was quickly frustrated with having to go through the whole story repeatedly in order to make differen ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Nov 02, 2018 Hannah Givens rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, graphic-novel

As others have said: The book design is amazing, and the story (when you get there) is really cool. It reminded me of an interactive The Masterplan by Scott Mills, one of my favorites. The design can also be really frustrating though -- not just because you replay conversations, but because there are a lot of little connectors that don't actually mean anything. I had to look up a walkthrough to figure it out, and then realized that I'd just gotten stuck because I didn't realize one panel was con ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Mar 18, 2010 Donalyn rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ncbla-committee-2011-books, graphic-novels

Readers begin with a simple choice, "Chocolate ice cream? Or vanilla? A unique take on a "choose-your-own adventure" book, Jason Shiga's crazy quilt graphic novel panels take readers on 3,856 possible storylines-- many of them bizarre and violent. The acetate pages help the book hold up endless readings as children discover the new paths that lead them forward, backward, and sideways through the book.
...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Apr 10, 2010 Sarah rated it it was amazing

Shelves: library-book, fiction, children, graphic-novel, scifi, adventure, wishlist

This book is a delightful toy! Cleverly formatted and simple to follow while still being devious in it's complexities.

I would describe it a Choose your own adventure flowchart. Choose between chocolate and vanilla ice cream to let the adventure begin! Look for secret codes and hidden paths. Don't get lost! But if you do, you can always go back to the ice cream shop at the beginning at try again. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Mar 19, 2013 Rena rated it it was ok

Shelves: graphic-novels

Oh my gosh! This book drove me crazy! I am continuously going in circles over and over. I don't think I even actually reached the end of one version of the story. It is so confusing and addicting. The reason it isn't a one is because I physically could not put it down. I was determined to see it out to the end, and failed epically. *shakes head* I warn you, if you pick up this book, you will be driven to insanity. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Apr 12, 2021 Neil Pasricha rated it it was amazing

Did you like CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE books when you were a kid? If so, you’ll love this post-modern graphic novel with 3856 story possibilities (seriously!) all told through images and rampant flipping between pages. It’s head-twisting, it’s frenetic, it’s mad-scientist, but if you’re into puzzles or games (or your child is) then this is for you. Completely disrupts the idea of a book, too.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 18, 2018 Patile Ouimet rated it really liked it

The possibilities of this book are insane. Sometimes Id get glances of other options and would go out of my way to figure out how to get to them.
I was upset at what happened when you chose vanilla though.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jun 04, 2010 Kate rated it really liked it

Shelves: graphicnovels

A sort of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure graphic novel with a hint of Chutes & Ladders fun. Brilliant and wacky and non-stop fun.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 18, 2016 Michelle rated it it was ok

Shelves: young-adult

I cannot figure this book out. I think the concept is so fun and unique, but it just makes absolutely no sense to me.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 29, 2020 John rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, minor-sci-fi, owned, liked-it-better-the-second-time, read-more-than-once, awesome-endings, comics, finished-in-2020

Comparisons to Steins;Gate flow into my mind by that small, enticing tab sticking out of the panel leading into the next. Unlike SG though, (view spoiler). Jason Shiga takes us to the truth of a little boy, a scientist, and the nature of ice cream. Pick vanilla, you normie, or pick chocolate, and regret your decision. Because you'll be flipping back and forth over and over again, trying not to die by the good ol' Killitron that apparently has oth Comparisons to Steins;Gate flow into my mind by that small, enticing tab sticking out of the panel leading into the next. Unlike SG though, (view spoiler). Jason Shiga takes us to the truth of a little boy, a scientist, and the nature of ice cream. Pick vanilla, you normie, or pick chocolate, and regret your decision. Because you'll be flipping back and forth over and over again, trying not to die by the good ol' Killitron that apparently has other uses than complete universe extermination. In fact, you'll go to bed giving up for the day, having died three times in a row, before picking it up again the next night with a devotion not unlike Okabe's. This is, of course, if you don't cheat and intentionally eye the other panels on pages that you haven't legally reached, or read the book 'in order', or go to tabs out of a god's choosing. Play by the rules, even repeat from the beginning each and every time you die. Now death isn't the only ending for young Jimmy, but it is the most common, and after you realize the proper order of things (namely, (view spoiler)), the journey enters the second half, and once you figure out the worldline number, you get to truly enjoy yourself and mechanically flip through tabs like a madman. Yes, this means soon you'll be bypassing entire double pages because the tab that got you there can lead directly to the tab you know very well. It does get faster, and once you do learn the beautiful truth of it all, you get to go home happy. Very happy. See:

(view spoiler)

The fact that, unlike other time repeat shenanigans in fiction, Shiga closes this journey less to provide satisfaction and more to provide KNOWLEDGE - of the various gimmicks of time travel, related physics, and basically every possible gear otherwise, e.g. a full bleed of a squid that can only be reached by cheating - makes MEANWHILE stand out to me as a pinnacle of time travel fiction. Shiga's having the most fun here, not Jimmy, and least of all not you. Enjoy. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 09, 2017 Rachel rated it really liked it

Shelves: graphic-format, middle-grade

This is such a clever idea--a choose-your-own-adventure graphic novel! So much fun exploring the possibilities.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
What's the Name o...: SOLVED. Kids Interactive, Choose Your Own Adventure type book. Starts with child entering ice cream shop. One ending is you time travel and end up as your father? Read around 2010-2012. [s]	8	22	Jul 05, 2021 06:22PM

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Sequential Art > Graphic Novels

246 users

Sequential Art > Comics

107 users

Fiction

37 users

Childrens

36 users

Science Fiction

25 users

Young Adult

23 users

Childrens > Middle Grade

19 users

Gamebooks > Choose Your Own Adventure

19 users

Childrens > Juvenile

13 users

Graphic Novels Comics

11 users

See top shelves…

About Jason Shiga

Jason Shiga

122 followers

Jason Shiga is an award-winning Asian American cartoonist from Oakland, California. Mr. Shiga's comics are known for their intricate, often "interactive" plots and occasionally random, unexpected violence. A mathematics major from the University of California at Berkeley, Mr. Shiga shares his love of logic and problem solving with his readers through puzzles, mysteries and unconventional narrative ...more