Seven vignettes taking place after a woman breaks up with her boyfriend for unknown reasons. Nothing much happens in this. It's random little interludes as she copes with being without Jorge. Then the last chapter pretty much ruins things when Jorge shows up for the first time and tries to get back with her after they don't seem to have talked at all during the course of the book. Grrr. What a poor ending.

The graphic novel is moving, open-ended, and a heartwarming story of dealing with the ups and downs of relationships. I love that there was nothing decisive about any of the subplots opened there, but just the pace (with the visuals) were doing a great service to the theme of the story: recovering from a relationship on the rocks, learning to be on your own, among other things.

'Seven Places Without You' with story and art by Juan Berrio is a graphic novel about a young woman's life after a bad breakup and the places she goes.

Elena loses her boyfriend Jorge for an unknown reason. She moves out of the place they shared and in to a friend's house so she can regroup and start over.

The days after a breakup can be full of sadness and emptiness and this story captures that well. The problem is whether that is compelling enough to read. I thought it was but I don't think it's for everyone.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

It feels like a real relationship and I think that was the problem with the plot. There wasn’t much happening so it got boring. It’s a realistic relationship.

The most striking parts of this graphic novel were the air of melancholy and the author's use of silence/space to convey that. Unfortunately, there was little else I enjoyed about this graphic novel. The choices of the characters were a little opaque, especially Elena's (strange because she is the main character!) and it just didn't interested me.

A very "quiet" sequential novel that follows Elena, our main character, as she tries to find her own place outside of Jorge, her husband. The story does get melancholic at times as Elena seems to stick out like a sore thumb at times. While reading I kept waiting until everything in the story would tie together, but this exactly the story that description tells us--"story of a young couple’s first experience of a relationship on the rocks". As long as I kept in mind that this story is more about the tiny things that add up to the separation than the separation itself then I have a clear idea of what to expect.

A surprisingly deep look at a relationship on the brink of failure. This isn't a fleshed out story, more a selection of snapshots of Elena coming to terms with the fact that it's time to forge her own path alone. The art style is great, and really does carry the story.

With simple drawings, a lot of silent frames and not much exposition, Juan Berrio's graphic novel Seven Places Without You leaves a lot of space for you to consider what Elena is going though as she deals with a break-up with her boyfriend Jorge. There's not a lot more to the story than this, but inevitably, faced with how Elena is reacting to the situation, you are given to consider how you might behave in a similar situation.

Initially, it seems that Elena has little choice but to move on and start to consider the world and the places she visits in a new light as places without Jorge. She actually seems quite passive about the idea, accepting that Jorge essentially seems to have abandoned her, leaving her in an awkward position of living with his parents. Perhaps there's been more building towards the break-up or perhaps Elena has indeed been too passive, but without any angry words being aired, Elena knows that it's probably time to get used to life without Jorge.

She takes up an offer to stay with her friends Nacho and Maria, has to endure a party that they are throwing at their place, feeling awkward and out of place, the lively atmosphere only emphasising her loneliness and despondency. And that's the general the tone throughout, Elena looking forlorn, staring into space, unable to sleep, trying to get up the desire to move on. The seven places then are much as you would expect, dealing with well-meaning family and friends as they try to help her along, looking for an apartment, trying to regain a sense of herself without Jorge in her life.

It's a simple story and simply drawn, often static and minimal, with lots of silent mood-setting panels, reminiscent of Seth (It's a Good Life if you don't Weaken, Clyde Fans) in its mainly sepia and blue colouration, but closer in style and content to Adrian Tomine (Optic Nerve), particularly his earlier short works. Berrio however is able to do much more with mood and pacing, creating an almost invisible sense of movement, a slow-progression one maybe, that is as much an internal process as a physical one. There are seven chapters in Seven Places Without You, and not all of them are without Jorge, but I guess the title is not quite so literal and the essential place that Elena has to come to terms with Jorge not being there is within herself.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC, in exchange for an honest review. The art was simple, yet expressive, the coloring was interesting and really fit the mood of Elena, especially as the story progressed. It was slightly unnerving that Elena was so passive, and the men in her life are so pushy, I really felt bad for her. However, her personality fit the story perfectly, ultimately leaving more at peace than when we met her. This is a partial win for me, as it’s not really my cup of tea, but it’s certainly well done!

Seven Places without You
By: Juan Berrio, Fiona Marshall

Seven Places without you explores the relationship of a couple that has drifted apart, with Elena being the main focus of the story. The artwork is minimalistic and the colors neutral. One could feel Elena’s loneliness through the panels as she tries to maneuver her life on her own and I found that completely relatable to real life. However, It has taken me a while to get through this book since I felt that the story was a little boring and slow, I thought I had a good understanding of the plot until the very end, I kept thinking then what was the whole point?. However upon further dissection of the story I felt that “Yes! this happens a lot, people settle for what is familiar” or at least that is my take on the story. I didn’t really see Elena grow throughout the novel since in my opinion nothing was resolved.
Thank You to NetGalley and Europe Comic for allowing me to read this graphic novel for an honest review.

Well, there's not a lot to say about this one. The art is okay -- I liked that it was clear and easy to see what was happening. But the problem is that not a lot happens. There's no real plot here. 110+ pages of not a whole lot of anything.

The story follows Elena after she moves out from living with her boyfriend (and his parents, which was one of the few interesting points in the story). And, well, there you go, now you know the plot. It's just a lot of très triste nothingness.

For me, reading this was like watching an art film about artsy types having "deep" discussions at a party. If I wanted that, I'd go to an artsy party. I'd still be bored, but chances are better that the party would involve wine or a bit of pot.

I give this 2 meh stars.

This lovely book takes you through the initial stages of the end of love between a young couple. The illustrations are lovely. The storytelling is engaging. It brings the reader back to the days of their college loves that may not have worked out. I recommend this one.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for this cozy graphic arc.

Seven places without you

Its a book about feeling the importance of attention and realisation that it should be there in a relationship. Through the mild basic colour the book gives you a relaxing but effective way of getting the meaning of being self reliance, independence, decision making should never be done in rush. It's all about taking time and realising that it's true then only decide.

Seven places does give you seven sections in the book without the person and how effectively it was done and how true.

Seven Places Without You is a glimpse into a new adult couples romance and its trials. I like the art style of the this graphic novel. The dialogue felt a little disjointed. As soon as I got into the story, it ended. I will keep an eye out for future installments. Thanks Europe Comics and NetGalley for the ARC of this title for review.

I’m drawn to tranquil meditations on love and loss. They provide a cathartic release that can be reinvigorating. Seven Places Without You billed itself as just such an exploration, so I wanted to give it a try. How did it hold up, compared to some of the best examples of the genre, like The People Inside?
Elena and Jorge are at a stage in their relationship in which they are growing distant from one another. Jorge is spending less and less time at home with Elena, and the absence is severing the connection Elena feels with him. She decides to move out, and explore being on her own for the first time. As she goes on this relational journey, she seeks to learn more about herself and about her relationship with Jorge.
Seven Places Without You feels like a mellow indie comic working its way, through dialogue-light progressions, to a stirring conclusion. However, the pay off didn’t feel sufficient to the journey. Rather than concluding, the story simply seemed to end. While this might be more accurate to life, in a narrative context it felt incomplete.
Overall, Seven Places Without You isn’t a bad read. It takes its time, and is easy to slip into. I just wished there was more substance to it. Consider giving it a read if you are looking for an indie-style tale of mourning lost love, but don’t set the bar too high.

Review will be available at the provided link on 3/7/19

This was a very quiet graphic novel. It definitely wasn’t an exciting page-turner, but that was the beauty of it. The story it tells is very realistic and the characters are very relatable. I love how the author was able to move the story along with frames with no words.

Jorge didn’t come home the night before and this is the final straw for Elena. They both live with Jorge’s parents and while Elena and Jorge’s mom have a great relationship, the connection to Jorge seems to have been disintegrating before finally snapping. That’s the situation in Seven Places Without You, which addresses the emotional turmoil of a break-up with something unexpected — contemplation.

Following Elena, as she moves out from the parents’ home and finds her own way in the world without Jorge, Spanish cartoonist Juan Berrio captures the not the high emotions that leads to cacophonous confrontations, but the quiet moments that are provided by Elena’s quest for the space to heal and think. Jorge has left her in a curious position. She’s unclear what exactly has transpired, and her broken heart doesn’t seek to drown out the experience by acting out but to examine it, collate her findings, and move along.

For this process of healing, Elena embraces the normal things of life in a number of experiences — seven, to be exact — that do not involve Jorge, and each standing in for a moment where she reintroduces herself to the normality of oneness. Rather than approaching her new single life as an aberration, Elena begins the process of settling one soul into the space she inhabits and helping it feel normal and healthy, rather than a disruption.



In an unexpected way, Seven Places Without You reminds me of a Jim Jarmusch film, thanks to the space Berrio gives Elena, physical and mental, and the quiet that is given to the moments that celebrate the visual narrative strengths of comics, or as in Jarmusch’s case film, but in either the thought that not only the person at the center of that narrative but the space they inhabit and the objects in it can say as much about the situation as any vocal narration that can be offered.

Even the dialogue, when it does appear, doesn’t linger on the issue at hand. Elena addresses a long friendship and her brother’s new devotion to drawing and apartment hunting as a practical consideration. She’s navigating the relationships she still has in order to cement her place within her own life.



By the time Jorge has come back into the narrative picture and Elena deals with the fallout of the break-up, she’s far from a mess. The time she has taken to consider her situation and the care with which she gives her own contemplation has given her a centered mien that is far more than skin deep. It is, in fact, an understanding of herself and an example of how calm is a preferable path in these matters if you can muster it. Jorge has been put in his place, but not cast aside, and it’s a powerful path for Elena to take.

Berrio allows Elena to inhabit an intricate but playful world. His simple lines and muted colors capture the psychological path Elena follows, with the details of the world around her settling into the sequential language, where a sky window looking into the night or the isolated branch of a tree in the park takes on as much importance as Elena herself, a reminder that there is an entire universe at play around her, offering consolation and support in her embrace of herself.

Three and a half stars.

A reasonable evocation of a woman's drifting mood when she makes a break from her boyfriend. You get the impression he's been having an affair, although as the blurb says it's not set in stone that that's the case. Either way, she goes from friend's spare room to party to cafe to her parents', and there's a ghost of the relationship everywhere she looks. Like I say, reasonable – if it dared do the tiniest bit more of its own drifting I wouldn't have liked it. Nice line in subdued colouring in the artwork.

I received a digital ARC copy of this book via NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Let’s start with the goods, shall we, I liked the art, the colors are beautiful, and this is the end of the goods.

At first, I liked Mario I was like Ohh he is such a good friend, and then I was like never mind.
I know it’s called Seven places without you so It should be okay not seeing Jorge, but the description says it’s “the story of a young couple’s first experience of a relationship on the rocks” and that wasn’t the case at all, we only see Elena until the last part in the story.

there is in nothing special about the story, some of the dialogue was awkward, I want it to see them together talking about whatever happened and work it out, I wanted to feel something.

Also like I’m sorry the last part what? What’s wrong with Elena? I don’t get it.

I can relate SO MUCH to this book. I promise.
I guess that’s why it affect me more than I expected. I truly enjoy this story and feel with Elena until..... the end part. I was soooo turned off by it and I just couldn’t handle it. I mean whatttt?? What did just happened? It’s sooo random and felt-off. I honestly thing it would be better without those scenes. Really.

I mean I get it. I probably can make an assumption on why that happened. But I feel like it’s just come out of nowhere, and not syncing with the rest of the book. Oh I wish.....