*I was given an ARC of Ghoul in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Top Shelf Productions and everyone involved in making this graphic novel for my copy*
Synopsis:
Be careful what you wish for! This graphic novel about a lonely Filipino American teen and her ghoulish companion puts a spooky twist on the imaginary friend.
When they were little, Lyn and Meg promised to be friends forever…but now Meg is dead, and Lyn is 15 and miserable. Moving into a new condo with her family doesn’t help, especially given the gossipy neighbors. But just when Lyn needs a friend the most, a monstrous cartoon ghoul climbs out of the pages of a comic book and into her life! The bizarre duo will soon discover just how many secrets lie within the walls of Forest Court Apartments.
Review:
Content warning: suicide, murder, death
It’s with a heavy heart that I’ve decided to not finish Ghoul. I don’t DNF graphic novels very often but sadly, this one felt very messy. The art style is beautiful and so unique but the layout is all over the place. The text, especially the speech bubbles were really hard to follow, and while I love that some phrases were kept in the original language, the way in which the translations were included was a little confusing. Plus, the entire speech bubble often wasn’t translated fully so even when you did find the word in English on the page, it wouldn’t make complete sense (extra words that weren’t needed).
I can’t take anything seriously that uses the term “unaliver”. Especially when just pages before the main character talks about how her friend took her own life. Also, why are TikTok censors making their way into other media? Slightly off topic but surely its algorithm knows what that means by now. So stupid. It’s one of those things that makes me irrationally annoyed.
Anyway, back to the one positive, which is the art style. I’ve never read a graphic novel with an art style like this one before. It is seriously stunning and I love the colour palette. The muted colours fit the tone of the story very well. I do think if I could get over the formatting of Ghoul I’d really enjoy the story. I’m definitely intrigued at 35% of the way through, but it’s not worth the headache of trying to figure out where I should be looking next.
This cover will go down as one of my favourites of 2026 though!
Check out Young Creative Press on all socials
You can also check out my StoryGraph here
Like this post? Why not read this one too: To Be Read: Kindle Unlimited & Prime Reading #2