OMG I LOVED THIS the beginning had me so thrilled, i liked the drawing the coloring how real the characters were. i think translating this comic was the best choice. really enjoyed it. big thumbs up for the author and illustrator!!!

A beautiful graphic memoir that is informative and necessary for all people to be aware of. I highly recommend this title.

2.5/5

I'm not sure how to feel about it, it was entertaining yet boring. i love the idea and the premise how dark and nightmarish it was, but it still fell flat.

Humorous and at times reflective, "Karmen" wasn't quite what I expected in terms of both the story and the message. We follow Catalina who is shepherded by a mysterious spirit-like being Karmen. They explore the new in-between state Catalina resides in and discuss the purpose of life, death, and regrets. The story touched on several big philosophical concepts regarding life's meaning, our purpose, and what we can do about regret, which was interesting and thought-provoking. I do wish we had the chance to explore Catalina's life before the now instead of spending panels watching her fly through the city. Overall an interesting, well-balanced graphic novel that gets you reflecting on your own life.

Overall I did enjoy reading this book. It contains beautiful drawings which are very pleasing to look at while tackling heavy subjects like suicide, self harm, grief. I liked the magical aspects of this book and the surrealism of it all. I did want to know more about what Karmen’s job and life were. I personally didn’t connect to kat but I could relate to her denial.

Even though I enjoyed reading this book, I think you will either love or hate it. Since this is a quick read I do recommend you pick it up.

I hope there will be more volumes which focus more of Karmen because she’s such a interesting and unique character.

Well, this was a first for me. I don't think I've read a comic book since I was a child. I did read it on my small iphone so probably not ideal but I did find it quite interesting and thought provoking. Girl kills herself in the bath so she is naked all the way through... Definitely different on so many levels.

This has quickly become a new favourite of mine.

Graphic novels can be difficult for me, since finding ones that I love are few and far between. So picking this up, I had reserved expectations, but I completely fell in love with it.

The art style was beautiful, Cata was so very relatable and tragic, and Karmen had absolutely no filter when it came to what she wanted to say, and I found that delightful. Karmen was the perfect mix of a calculating adult and a blabbering child.

This novel really pulled at my heart strings as well. The small story of "Toni" and Cata's regrets. The subject matter was handled tastefully as well.

I'll be following the series, if there is more to come.

I must say when I received Karmen V1 and realized there would be a naked woman in the entire book - I was taken aback and worried it would be used in a vulgar type of way, and I was pleasantly surprised. Karmen was a beautifully drawn graphic novel centering around suicide and death.I know the novel was translated to English so I am not sure if the translation makes Karmen's take on suicide so blunt and even harsh at times, or if that is just how the angel of death regards suicide as a character. Even so, Karmen V1 is funny, it handles a very serious topic but in an entirely new way and the artistry is absolutely gorgeous. The author definitely did their job, I am wanting to read more!

This graphic novel really captured my attention and maintained it so that I was motivated to read it in one sitting. Most noteworthy is its creative and intelligent illustrations, which play with the structure of the comic panels, offer gorgeous cityscapes, and portray fluid motion effortlessly. Meanwhile, the narrative is quite interesting, and I wanted to know more about Karmen’s job and the fate of the young woman who commits suicide. It is also sometimes dark and rather explicit, so I suggest “trigger warnings” somewhere near the beginning, but I think it deals with “suicide” rather well. The ending is a bit puzzling, and so as a standalone it may be weakened by the ending, but if there are more volumes to come, then I would certainly like to read more!

Overall this was a very entertaining, if somewhat "polarising" graphic novel due to the sensitivity of the subject.
The illustrations and colour scheme are very pleasant to the eye, but I feel as though the detailed background was distracting on pages with a lot of text (for example page 7). The font could've been just a tiny bit larger, too.
The narrative moved slowly in the beginning, but the ending of this volume compensated for that. I would have liked to learn more about Karmen's duties / job, though. I can really see this as some form of serialised, cooler, "Christmas Carol" which would be a really interesting take on that.

This was actually a really nice graphic novel! I was very sceptical over the fact that a male creator has a comic book with a fully naked girl and with a lot of distasteful humour but if you take that away, it's incredible!

I binged this in one sitting and by the end, I was very intrigued by the entire death and (re)incarnation system! The art style is bloody gorgeous and also quite realistic. (One of our protagonists might have been naked the entire time but at least her body was drawn so well!) Karmen herself I didn't have a full opinion of until the very end and yes, I would love to see more of her in volume 2. I'd also love to see more of the still-living humans because I want all the details! So invested!

Karmen is a really disturbing comic in my opinion. I liked it and I can’t wait to read the second part. The art, starting with the cover, is absolutely gorgeous. The theme of this comic is quite dark, it talks about suicide and death, while also talking a bit about introspection and heartbreak. At first, I didn’t like Catalina, the main character, but it changed through the book as she also changed her perception of the world. Karmen is the second main character who is supposed to lead Catalina’s soul to her reincarnation but she is quite a special character and has her own personality. I really enjoyed that character and how she cares about people. The story is not all dark and contains some funny things which makes it easy to read. The main character is naked through the whole story which can be surprising at first but I didn’t really notice it anymore after a few pages. I don’t know if this had a deep meaning but I didn’t really mind it. I would recommend this comic for sure.

I like it. I like it alot.

The storyline so far wasn't the most spectacular one, but it touched me. Life, death, the afterlife and everything in between never cease to wonder. And I really adored the art style, it is what first captured my attention after all.

I will definitely follow this series, thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy!

I got this on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!
This is a pretty good graphic novel that really fucks with your mind a little bit. I was really sad for Catalina the whole time!
I really liked the concept of the "angels" taking people over to their next reincarnations, and taking them on a journey. Also the whole hierarchy of the angels and stuff seems really interesting so can't wait to find out more! The art and use of colour in this is also really nice, since I feel like graphic novels like these often avoid watercolours (e.g. light pinks).
I still feel confused about where this story is headed, but excited for future Volumes of this!

Oh man. What a take on this kind of story! This was a bit more graphic than I thought it would be but the art work is splendid and the story is good!

I’m always super happy with reading a graphic novel, and I got exactly what I expected from it. I was able to read this over time and just casually pick it up. If I was not actively reading it, I was not thinking about it. That was my only problem. I don’t know what was missing because the story was truly amazing, but something just felt off for me.

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

In this story we follow Carmen (who's kind of like a grim reaper/service worker) while she escorts the dead Catalina to her reincarnation. Carmen is a little bananas, but you get used to it pretty quickly and her work ethic in comparison to her colleagues made me like her a ton more.

The artwork for Carmen was beautiful as well as unique. The reader was confronted with a lot of nudity, but not in a sexual way.
For me the storyline seemed a little lackluster and not as deep as it could have been. Only at the end did it get more interesting.
I would've wished for it to discuss the topic of suicide, betrayal and death a little bit more, especially from Carmen's side of things, her being the grim reaper and all.

<i>Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review</i>

<b>Trigger Warnings: death, suicide, blood, graphic self harm (+ images of razor blades), nudity</b>

This is a story of death and the life after that. Catalina, a woman who has killed herself over heartbreak, becomes a ghost. She is led through her journey into the afterlife by an angel named Karmen.

I really did not know how to rate this, so I’m going to settle for three stars since that’s the most neutral rating I can give.

The first thing I want to say is that although this graphic novel clearly says it’s about death and suicide, I wish there was an explicit content warning! The illustrations are fantastic...which made the graphic depictions of self harm incredibly detailed and therefore extremely triggering. I can handle reading about suicide related topics, but I definitely wasn’t prepared to see detailed, violent images such a woman slitting her wrists. Of course, there are readers who are okay with seeing this kind of content, but when it comes to such blatantly suicidal imagery, I think it would be beneficial to let readers know what they will be seeing.

Other than that, I‘m not exactly sure how to accurately capture how I felt while reading <i>Karmen</i>. I kept wanting to read on because the art was so intriguing in the kind of way where it’s so disturbing that you can’t look away. However, <b>I just felt terrible the whole time I was reading this.</b> I was promised tenderness and empathy, and even if those elements were occasionally present, I felt overwhelmingly sad and disturbed the whole time. I really wasn’t enjoying what I was reading. There also wasn’t too much of a plot, but perhaps that will be explored in future volumes.

I think at a different point in my life I would have felt more towards <i>Karmen</i>, but for me right now, this was just too desolate and morbid. I would steer clear of recommending this to someone since it is too full of triggering content. This seems more like the kind of work people should find and decide to read by themselves.

Welllllll….that was remarkably depressing as a read but so satisfying too? Really, poignant and gave me a lot to think about. Very quick read but I imagine I’ll be thinking about it for a while. The concept was clear and easy to follow with a good and engaging story. I also really liked the art style. It was simple but effective.

Part 1 of a graphic novel about death (and suicide) in a world where death can be reversable. The main character Catalina kills herself because of heartbreak. That's when she meets her angel Karmen. She leads her on a journey through life but also impossible experiences.

The art style is absolutely amazing! Very realistic and incredibly detailed.
The premise of the story seemed very interesting, but a big chunk of the story was confusing, again.
I think I would probably still read the second volume/ part of this because I want to know what happens next.

3.75/5 stars