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A review by readingrainbill
Let Me Out by Emmett Nahil, George Williams
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I feel like I'm doing a disservice to this graphic novel by reviewing it before reading the next volume (it's not out at the time of me writing this since I'm reading an ARC). I say that because I feel like I, the reader, just didn't get enough time with the characters because I didn't care. We're supposed to side with them because they're marginalized LGBTQ+ youth who get treated terribly by almost everyone. And because I'm not a monster, I did sympathize, but that wasn't enough to make me care about anyone.
Without any spoilers there's one scene when two of the characters are working and a third is just hanging out and their supervisor gives them crap about it. True, this supervisor may be far from an ally and maybe even antagonistic towards them, but dude (or the gender free equivalent), you have two friends working at a customer service job and you're just hanging out.
So it's the 70's and this small Christian town is scared because people have been murdered, supposedly by a cult, so they focus on the group of LGBTQ+ punks. On the surface this is a great idea but there's such a big scope to the story that in the 120ish page graphic novel, there wasn't enough to sink my teeth into.
Also there's a trans youth who gets misgendered and deadnamed by his parents and it's never mentioned within their friend group. The friends use he/him, which is great because it's what he wants, but I'd have liked a little more dialogue about his parents and also a better explanation about what caused the event at the very beginning.
There's a great idea here and I get the feeling that I'd really like this once it's complete and I can read it from beginning to end. But as it is, I'd just wait.
Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.
Without any spoilers there's one scene when two of the characters are working and a third is just hanging out and their supervisor gives them crap about it. True, this supervisor may be far from an ally and maybe even antagonistic towards them, but dude (or the gender free equivalent), you have two friends working at a customer service job and you're just hanging out.
So it's the 70's and this small Christian town is scared because people have been murdered, supposedly by a cult, so they focus on the group of LGBTQ+ punks. On the surface this is a great idea but there's such a big scope to the story that in the 120ish page graphic novel, there wasn't enough to sink my teeth into.
Also there's a trans youth who gets misgendered and deadnamed by his parents and it's never mentioned within their friend group. The friends use he/him, which is great because it's what he wants, but I'd have liked a little more dialogue about his parents and also a better explanation about what caused the event at the very beginning.
There's a great idea here and I get the feeling that I'd really like this once it's complete and I can read it from beginning to end. But as it is, I'd just wait.
Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Murder, Death, Gore, and Hate crime
Moderate: Homophobia, Bullying, Cursing, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Deadnaming