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A review by mildhonestbonsai
At the End of Your Tether, Volume 1 by Adam Smith
4.0
**NOTE: I received e-ARC via NetGalley in conjunction with Oni Press in exchange for my honest and unbiased review. I did not receive compensation from the publisher for my review and so the opinions expressed within are of my own.**
I would like to start off first and foremost that whoever decided to compare this book to the likes of Brick and Paper Towns really does not fit this book whatsoever. I completely went in on the book thinking that this was going to be a Detective noir about the case of a missing girl and her ex-boyfriend taking the detective role in figuring out what happened to her. This story was nothing like it but in fact, I think it was something very unique and I'm afraid that comparison really steers the reader away from a really good story.
If I were to compare this storyline to anything else it would be Donnie Darko. This graphic novel definitely requires multiple readings to fully pin down all the small details of the story.
On the surface, the story centers around a teenage boy named Ludo who is a military brat at an Air Force Base where his mother was the head of Military Police. He meets another fellow military brat, Arlo. They eventually spark a relationship but sadly that relationship is broken up because Ludo and his parents leave the base due to a transfer. They eventually do come back to the base and Ludo takes the opportunity to find Arlo. To his surprise, he finds out that Arlo has gone missing for quite some time. Ludo couldn't believe it since he spoke to her the night before he moved back to the base and she answered her home phone. This is where the time traveling/time loop begins to unravel.
Was it very hard to keep track of what was going on at points? Absolutely, but I kept on reading because I wanted to know more and find out how it all connected in the grand scheme of the story. The artwork is very nice for the graphic novel but I will say that at some points it was hard to tell what version of Ludo or Arlo I was seeing since the drawings were very similar to each other.
This story is about loss and moving on. I thought it was a very original and fresh take on that theme. Here we start off with Ludo longing about Arlo during his time living outside of the base and playing her recorded cassette tapes over and over to the point where he knows the dialogue word for word. When he finds out that Arlo goes missing, he goes on a desperate search to find out what happened and gets himself into trouble for taking it into his own hands. It takes Arlo's time traveling self to have him understand that who he spoke to wasn't the Arlo that he knew in his timeline but a different Arlo who was also connected to the one speaking to Ludo at the moment. She takes a hard talk with him that he needs to let go but to understand that Ludo in the other timelines ends up being happy with Arlo and have kids of their own. Will this Ludo bump into Arlo from time to time (no pun intended)? Of course, but in the end, he needs to move on and not obsess over searching for Arlo whatever time she may be bouncing around. In that, it was a really poignant story.
It was a really good and quick read.
I would like to start off first and foremost that whoever decided to compare this book to the likes of Brick and Paper Towns really does not fit this book whatsoever. I completely went in on the book thinking that this was going to be a Detective noir about the case of a missing girl and her ex-boyfriend taking the detective role in figuring out what happened to her. This story was nothing like it but in fact, I think it was something very unique and I'm afraid that comparison really steers the reader away from a really good story.
If I were to compare this storyline to anything else it would be Donnie Darko. This graphic novel definitely requires multiple readings to fully pin down all the small details of the story.
On the surface, the story centers around a teenage boy named Ludo who is a military brat at an Air Force Base where his mother was the head of Military Police. He meets another fellow military brat, Arlo. They eventually spark a relationship but sadly that relationship is broken up because Ludo and his parents leave the base due to a transfer. They eventually do come back to the base and Ludo takes the opportunity to find Arlo. To his surprise, he finds out that Arlo has gone missing for quite some time. Ludo couldn't believe it since he spoke to her the night before he moved back to the base and she answered her home phone. This is where the time traveling/time loop begins to unravel.
Was it very hard to keep track of what was going on at points? Absolutely, but I kept on reading because I wanted to know more and find out how it all connected in the grand scheme of the story. The artwork is very nice for the graphic novel but I will say that at some points it was hard to tell what version of Ludo or Arlo I was seeing since the drawings were very similar to each other.
This story is about loss and moving on. I thought it was a very original and fresh take on that theme. Here we start off with Ludo longing about Arlo during his time living outside of the base and playing her recorded cassette tapes over and over to the point where he knows the dialogue word for word. When he finds out that Arlo goes missing, he goes on a desperate search to find out what happened and gets himself into trouble for taking it into his own hands. It takes Arlo's time traveling self to have him understand that who he spoke to wasn't the Arlo that he knew in his timeline but a different Arlo who was also connected to the one speaking to Ludo at the moment. She takes a hard talk with him that he needs to let go but to understand that Ludo in the other timelines ends up being happy with Arlo and have kids of their own. Will this Ludo bump into Arlo from time to time (no pun intended)? Of course, but in the end, he needs to move on and not obsess over searching for Arlo whatever time she may be bouncing around. In that, it was a really poignant story.
It was a really good and quick read.