[Graphic Novel Review] ApocalyptiGirl: An Aria for the End Times by Andrew MacLean

Shout-out to Heather over at Heather's Reading Hideaway for recommending this one to me! I hadn't even heard of it until she showed it to me.

This was such a fun read! My only "complaint" is that it went SO fast and I wanted more! 😀

So if you're looking for a graphic novel with a deep storyline, you should probably look elsewhere. But if you want something quick and fun, I would highly recommend this.

ApocalyptiGirl: An Aria for the End Times by Andrew MacLean

Summary:
This graphic novel is about a girl named Aria living in a Post Apocalyptic world with her cat, Jelly Beans. She is trying to find something that her tracker keeps picking up on briefly before the signal disappears again. One day she sees a young man and flees. She immediately regrets it, knowing that he is going to bring his people there to search for her, but she gets stuck in thinking about the fact that he was just a boy. Sure enough, they come back. But will Aria be able to fight all of them off so she can live to complete her mission?

The Main Character:
I love the main character. I really like that her name, Aria, is from a greek/latin word for “music written for a single voice usually in regards to opera.” And in addition to that, her character sings bits of opera songs throughout the comic. I also really liked her expressive reactions to various situations as well as her awesome action scenes; Both of which were wonderfully drawn.

I like that the character narrated her own story in blocks of text that differed from her main dialogue and thoughts. I also really enjoyed that in a couple of panels, her two selves talked to one another. I love when the fourth wall is broken like that!

Further on the point of narration, I loved that it was used throughout the comic to give the reader the backstory. While some of this narration had its own illustrations to accompany it, other bits of narration appeared over the main storyline of the comic when there wasn’t much else going on. I absolutely loved this method! It was much more interesting to me than it would have been if it had continued to split off to cover more backstory.

The Artwork:
I enjoyed the artwork so much. It wasn't super detailed but it also wasn't too comic-y, if you know what I mean. It really had its own tone to it. The overall style reminds me of something, but I can’t figure out exactly what...

I will admit that at first I thought that the color palette was a bit strange. But it just took some getting used to. For example, the main characters skin tone changes depending on the panel; Sometimes she’s green or yellow tinted, other times she’s red or purple.

My final thoughts:
I can't wait to see more from Andrew MacLean! Have you read this title? If so, what did you think?