Are You Listening?

Heartbreakingly beautiful and surreal. Landscapes that take your breath away, characters that make you want to hug your friends. “I’m sat”

gorgeously drawn, heartbreaking but great storytelling

Pretty but the plot was eh

I was interested in this book because I love good comic novels. Especially if it explore journey of characters. In this book, although drawings are interesting and panels placements are great, there were some drawbacks. Story touches important topics, conversations and characters transformation does not get deeper. Unfortunately it stays in the surface and waits readers to sink in. Conversations felt so... off. In my opinion it could've been more.

TW: rape & parent death!

The art was beautiful and the story even more beautiful. Such an emotional read, would recommend

4.75 stars | This one really hurt. Wow.

this was magic 🌿

I’m so heartbroken and relieved after reading this but the best way to describe it is the quote “well, most places, mountains stay pit. Sky stays in one piece. Kind of cruel, really. But here, everything is listening. The roads, the clouds, the trees…they know all your secrets. Everything you’ve seen is built by you. Which is why you’ll never see it again.”

It's was alright but plot was all over the place at times

I recommend this book to literally anyone. It's perfect for fans of graphic novels and who like a deeper and more personal aspect to their stories, but I truly believe that anyone can pick this up and appreciate it. I'm not usually a fan of magical realism works, just because I usually don't understand them (100% a me problem, they're beautiful, just too much for my slow brain) but this book really worked. The art style was amazing and perfectly captured the mood of the whole piece. The colors, the characters, the everything all contributed to such a heartfelt story about two people looking to fix something in themselves. I love how we got two characters in different stages of their life with different trauma but who were still able to connect to each other and pull each other out of the dark holes they were in. Are they perfectly fixed now? no, but they each learned something so important to their personal lives that you can only imagine their journeys from here. ** spoilers past this point ** Old gay/baby gay trope? 100% here for it, especially because it wasn't the foundation of their relationship I think that Lou's grief was really well done because it wasn't super obvious, but you could see so many signs of her hurting that she was just trying to hide from everyone (including, I believe, herself) Bea's trauma? Didn't see that coming, at all, but the entire scene where she was describing the trauma to Lou was beautifully done. The art style made you feel the hopelessness and the fog of pure confusion and hopelessness that Bea felt. I'm ngl, I didn't completely understand everything with the cat, but I do understand that in some way, Diamond served as a catalyst for chage, giving Bea and Lou a task to complete, but I loved the conversation that Diamond's owner had with Bea.

3.5 stars

trigger warnings: death of parent, sexual assault

i always tear through tillie walden’s books, they just have this unmistakable vibe to them, it’s irresistible. nothing happens, but you want to keep reading.

Una historia de dos chicas que están lidiando con distintos problemas, que se encuentran por casualidad y terminan viajando juntas y apoyándose, con un poco de realismo mágico de por medio. No sé, me ha encantado. No tanto la historia, que no es nada del otro mundo, sino las protagonistas, lo que cuentan, la dinámica que tienen... Y las ilustraciones de Tillie Walden, que siempre me transmiten muchísimo. Me he leído esta novela gráfica de una sentada y me ha dejado calentita y blandita. Todo bien.

This book is so beautiful that if it wasn’t a library book I would’ve ripped out the pages and put them on my wall.

As soon as I opened the book, I was just blown away by the art. The style is cute and I just love the bursting colors, the relatively limited color palette. When the art got rather sureal, it confused me too much. That might have been the purpose, but it's just not my preference. I had no interest at all in the Office of Road Inquiry people, I felt they had no purpose but to confuse the plot. I really did love Bea and Lou, and how they interacted with each other. Their conversations felt like just half conversations, which I actually really liked. It seemed to feed into the fact that they do have some traumas, that there's some disconnect between each other, and them and the world around them.

The red palette used in "Are you Listening?" is appropriate to stir feelings of rage as well as love. The story has magical realism and a bit of a deus ex machina moment but the true meat is the uneasy friendship that is started between Lou and Bea. Both are dealing with different types of grief and their uneasiness comes across well.

i loved the art style but the content felt a bit... lacking?

This graphic novel was really fascinating. At times I didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t but I think that’s a beautiful metaphor for grief. It’s very fast paced and all I wanted to do was race to the end to see what happens.

i’m a huge fan of tillie walden’s work (her other two graphic novels as well as her cosmic slumber tarot deck) and this was no exception. her stories and characters leap off the page, and her stunning art keeps me yearning for more. also the magical realism element slowly creeps its way into the panels (even though the art feels ethereal and otherworldly all on its own). lgbt rep without focusing on romance. content warning for discussion of sexual assault (it’s in the blurb so i dont think this is technically a spoiler)

This book was sweet, terrifying, and surreal all in one. I loved the art style. It made me sad, but I really liked it.

Wow. Walden's brand of magic realism is so unique and perfectly subtle. The characters have so much pathos and of course the art is incredible. Another masterpiece.

4.5 This book was amazing. This is where I put a summary. I won't because I don't know how to summarize this book. Just take my word for it and read it. This book was sad. I'm just gonna say it it was definitely sad and heartbreaking. It deals with one character who has runaway and one character who's lost a parent. Definitely sad. The team work in this book is amazing. Bea and Lou are just a power team and I love it! Okay, can we talk about how beautiful the are style is??? Tillie Walden is incredible at this. Her illustrations and storytelling is incredible. Would definitely recommend this book to anyone. (There's also gay rep and a cat. If that doesn't make you want to read it than I quit:) )

Not entirely sure what I just read.... tw: sexual assault