Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath

Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath

Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees #1-6, 152 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Don’t murder the locals—this is small-town serial killer, upstanding citizen, and adorable brown bear Samantha Strong’s cardinal rule. A sea of potential victims is in the city just beyond the forest, but when you’ve worked as hard as Sam to build a cozy life and a thriving business in a community surrounded by friendly fellow animal folk, warm decor, and the aroma of cedar trees and freshly baked apple pie, the last thing you want is to disturb the peace. So imagine Sam's indignation when one of Woodbrook’s own meets a grisly, mysterious demise. You wouldn’t blame her for doing anything it takes to hunt down her rival before the town self-destructs and Sheriff Patterson starts barking up the wrong tree.

Stone Fruit by Lee Lai

Stone Fruit by Lee Lai

231 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Bron and Ray are a queer couple who enjoy their role as the fun weirdo aunties to Ray’s niece, six-year-old Nessie. Their playdates are little oases of wildness, joy, and ease in all three of their lives, which ping-pong between familial tensions and deep-seated personal stumbling blocks. As their emotional intimacy erodes, Ray and Bron isolate from each other and attempt to repair their broken family ties — Ray with her overworked, resentful single-mother sister and Bron with her religious teenage sister who doesn’t fully grasp the complexities of gender identity. Taking a leap of faith, each opens up and learns they have more in common with their siblings than they ever knew.

Catboy by Benji Nate

Catboy by Benji Nate

138 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

The adventures of young-adult Olive and her best friend Henry, turned from cat into a real human cat-boy after a poorly worded wish upon a shooting star.This graphic novel collects the hit ongoing weekly comic series from VICE.com along with all new exclusive and unreleased material and sketchbook pages. This contemporary series is cute, fierce, funny and adventurous!

I Am Their Silence: Barcelona Murder Mystery by Jordi Lafebre

I Am Their Silence: Barcelona Murder Mystery by Jordi Lafebre

Je suis #1, 112 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

A cool, hip, wisecracking psychiatrist named Eva turns amateur sleuth after a rich Catalan winemaker is found dead at the luxurious family estate hours before the reading of the matriarch's will, and Eva is viewed as one of the prime suspects. As she embarks on a chaotic journey through a richly detailed and seductive Barcelona cityscape to uncover the real killer, she must deal with two different families and their troubled the rich family that makes wine...and the family that talks to her in her head.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Anaïs Flogny

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Anaïs Flogny

240 pages

⭐⭐⭐.75/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Chicago, 1930. Jules Tivoli is a penniless Italian immigrant doing odd jobs to make ends meet. A twist of fate causes him to cross paths with Adam, a kingpin in Chicago’s criminal underworld who sees something in Jules that nobody else does—something special.

Under Adam’s wing, Jules becomes somebody and falls in love hard with the man who made him. But after an FBI crackdown, Adam and Jules must flee to New York to escape being caught in the ensuing chaos.

In New York, Jules’s Italian heritage gains him access, recognition, and power in the Cosa Nostra crime family. As he becomes more important in a city where Adam can’t seem to catch a break, he meets Eufrasio—his handsome, violent, and ambitious new partner who insists that Adam is holding Jules back. But Jules would be nothing without Adam—wouldn’t he?

Torn between his past and his future, a sudden betrayal forces Jules to find a way to protect his love and prove his loyalty—if he can even manage to make it out alive.

Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley

323 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Katie’s got it pretty good. She’s a talented young chef, she runs a successful restaurant, and she has big plans to open an even better one. Then, all at once, progress on the new location bogs down, her charming ex-boyfriend pops up, her fling with another chef goes sour, and her best waitress gets badly hurt. And just like that, Katie’s life goes from pretty good to not so much. What she needs is a second chance. Everybody deserves one, after all—but they don’t come easy. Luckily for Katie, a mysterious girl appears in the middle of the night with simple instructions for a do-it-yourself do-over:
 
1. Write your mistake
2. Ingest one mushroom
3. Go to sleep
4. Wake anew
 
And just like that, all the bad stuff never happened, and Katie is given another chance to get things right. She’s also got a dresser drawer full of magical mushrooms—and an irresistible urge to make her life not just good, but perfect. Too bad it’s against the rules. But Katie doesn’t care about the rules—and she’s about to discover the unintended consequences of the best intentions.

Prokaryote Season by Leo Fox

Prokaryote Season by Leo Fox

164 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

COMIC starring STARMAN and SYDNEY about SICKNESS, OBSESSION, ROMANCE and SINGLE CELLED ORGANISMS.

The Night Eaters, Vol. 1: She Eats the Night by Marjorie M. Liu

The Night Eaters, Vol. 1: She Eats the Night by Marjorie M. Liu

The Night Eaters #1, 208 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Chinese American twins, Milly and Billy, are having a tough time. On top of the multiple failures in their personal and professional lives, they’re struggling to keep their restaurant afloat. Luckily their parents, Ipo and Keon, are in town for their annual visit. Having immigrated from Hong Kong before the twins were born, Ipo and Keon have supported their children through thick and thin and are ready to lend a hand—but they're starting to wonder, has their support made Milly and Billy incapable of standing on their own?
     
When Ipo forces them to help her clean up the house next door—a hellish and run-down ruin that was the scene of a grisly murder—the twins are in for a nasty surprise. A night of terror, gore, and supernatural mayhem reveals that there is much more to Ipo and her children than meets the eye.

Be Kind My Neighbor by Yugo Limbo

Be Kind My Neighbor by Yugo Limbo

496 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Murder. Love. Cults. Puppets!

It’s 1973, the town of Baths, cozy middle-of-nowhere American heartland. Traveling musician Wegg rolls in, content to busk for a beat and be on his merry way once more. That is, until he meets Mr. Neighbor, the disarmingly sweet man made of cloth who offers him company and a place to stay. As the two grow closer, they click together just right, each harmonizing with the other's most secret self. Yet their growing romance is haunted by uncertainty and mystery...

There's the town itself, plagued by repeated, ritualistic murders by the elusive Baths Heartbreaker. Then there's Neighbor, whose cheerful demeanor never falters, but who disappears like clockwork every month. And Wegg, who lives as though he's on borrowed time―what exactly is he afraid will catch up to him?

The Confessional by Paige Hender

The Confessional by Paige Hender

200 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

New Orleans, 1922. Cora Velasquez lives with her sister and her own haunted memories in a speakeasy run by a vampire coven. Unable to bear the weight of her damned soul, she turns to Father Orville Thibodeaux, a charismatic priest and the object of her hidden desires. Their veiled courtship becomes deadly serious when he discovers her nature, and proposes a way to both slake her thirst and save her soul. So begins the charged dance between an all-powerful but unsure young woman, and the mortal man who claims to hold her fate in his hand.

Putty Pygmalion by Lonnie Garcia

Putty Pygmalion by Lonnie Garcia

72 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Derryl, a lonely radish, attempts to create a boyfriend out of a defunct and now illegal children's product. His creation, Peter, springs to life ready to make a child happy, and instead finds a suffocating and cloistered existence catering to Derryl’s needs. When Peter sneaks out to a party one night and meets Derryl’s friends, he discovers there’s even more to his creator’s intentions than he thought.

Saint Catherine by Anna Meyer

Saint Catherine by Anna Meyer

368 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

As a recovering Irish American Catholic, she has mostly traded the world of communion and confessionals for the “city-girl” struggle of work-life balance, family, and her relationships. The only thing she has not been able to shake is her fear that something bad will happen if she misses Sunday mass.

But her fears become a reality when she skips mass for the first time and discovers she is now being possessed by a demon claiming to be the prince of hell. As she takes matters into her own hands and attempts to exorcise these demons (both the paranormal and emotional kind), Catherine must face her buried guilt and what it truly means to be good.

Helen of Wyndhorn #1 by Tom King

Helen of Wyndhorn by Tom King

Helen of Wyndhorn #1-6, 176 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Following the tragic death of her late father C.K. Cole, the esteemed pulp writer and creator of the popular warrior character Othan, Helen Cole is called back to her Grandfather's enormous and illustrious estate, Wyndhorn House. 

Scarred by Cole's untimely passing and lost in a new, strange world, Helen wreaks drunken havoc upon her arrival. However, her chaotic ways begin to soften as she discovers a lifetime of secrets hiding within the myriad rooms and hallways of the expansive manor. For outside its walls, within the woods, dwell the legendary adventures that once were locked away within her father’s stories. 

The Jellyfish by Boum

The Jellyfish by Boum

228 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Odette is a hip, young twenty-something with her own place, a steady job at a local bookstore, an adorable pet rabbit, and a burgeoning crush on a cute girl in the neighborhood. But Odette is haunted by something only she can see... A jellyfish. A jellyfish that floats in her eye, blocking her vision. It's a seemingly minor annoyance... Until one day there are TWO jellyfish. Showcasing stunning and inventive artwork by Boum ( Boumeries ), The Jellyfish is a tour-de-force of graphic storytelling, a powerful, occasionally terrifying story of facing the thing that we fear the most, and finding a light to guide us through the darkness.

Sapiens: A Graphic History: The Birth of Humankind (Vol. 1)

 

248 pages | 2020

Summary: From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.”

One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?

Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas.

Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become?

Featuring 27 photographs, 6 maps, and 25 illustrations/diagrams, this provocative and insightful work is sure to spark debate and is essential reading for aficionados of Jared Diamond, James Gleick, Matt Ridley, Robert Wright, and Sharon Moalem. (Courtesy of Amazon)

Review: This graphic novel is the size of a textbook, but it is so much more entertaining when relaying both scientifical and historic facts than usual learning methods. This is a great graphic novel and an incredibly well-constructed read. It really helps the reader absorb the information where in a textbook you may simply find yourself drifting or losing focus. I highly recommend this to history lovers!