This graphic novel is about spontaneous human combustion. This was almost a DNF because the start is slow and trying to figure out what’s going on takes too long. But sticking with it means you get to the end of a pretty fantastic story. There’s a teenage boy Melvin, and two different time periods where Melvin has not been born yet, and the one he is experiencing right now. There’s a new journalist following him around trying to get to the bottom of all the fiery deaths. This is a horror graphic novel, so it is a bit bloody and a bit dark but if you like that, give this a shot. The artwork is unique, and at first, I didn’t like it, but it grew on me, as well as the story. By the end this all works well together to make a very interesting and well worth the graphic novel story.

A great concept for a graphic novel. It uses the mysterious images well. It's very visual, so it doesn't delve as much into character but uses the starkness of imagery to great affect.

I think this is a very interesting book, but probably not for me fully. This is one of those gritty, fast-paced, suspenseful graphic novels, that you only really understand half of what is going on. There is this huge sense of foreboding as we race to the discovery of what may be causing the spontaneous combustion our main character is consumed with solving.

This story blends government corruption, insane rich people, gritty phenomena, and almost X-men level power. This is a cool read, and I recommend it even if it isn't my most favorite book so far this year. It will keep you thinking about the layers of our own world we may not be privy to.

The art was a bad fit for this story, and the story was all over the place. The synopsis was far more interesting than anything in the story.

The concept behind Spontaneous could potentially be interesting: people in a small town have been spontaneously bursting into flames. The main character is obsessed with this phenomenon, and it appears that nobody else in town sees it happening. He wants to figure what’s going on and how to stop these human fires. An unhinged freelance reporter joins his investigation and embellishes the story with her abrasive verbosity. Unfortunately, the dialogue sounds like each character goes around their lives overacting a trope.

Going through this graphic novel, I wondered if the creator wanted to bring filmmaking techniques into the graphic novel genre, unsuccessfully. The narrative switches between timelines and settings without alerting us to the switch. There is no clear indication of where and when we are at any given point. I’m pretty sure there’s a crucial moment around the middle of the graphic novel, where each panel flips between two locations (possibly two timelines, too?) That would work on film - you see two scenes weaving into one another during climactic moments sometimes. But it does not work in this graphic novel.

Finally, blatant and unclever fatphobia is present from the beginning and seems to be at least partially tied into the concept behind the novel. Or maybe it isn’t connected to the central concept, but I was confused and misinterpreted that while trying to piece together what the author was saying. Both possibilities seem equally likely from my vantage point.

Spontaneous first came out in hardcover 2012 and will be coming out in paperback in 2024. It might appeal to a certain niche of readers, but it wasn’t for me.

Thanks to the author, Oni Press, and NetGalley for a free copy of Spontaneous in exchange for an honest review.

The flashbacks were very confusing and there seemed to be a lot of different directions for the plot to go in that made the story feel incomplete and rushed.
Unfortunately I wasn't a fan of the art style and found it really off-putting.

I enjoyed the layers. Too many plot points not fully developed. The flashbacks aren't clear and lead to confusion.

Spontaneous is a gripping sci-fi graphic novel that will keep readers engaged. The ending seemed like it was cut short and lacking some details. I wish some parts of the story had been fleshed out a little more. Still a good story overall.

This book was nothing like what I expected, but somehow still exceeded my expectations. I'm not usually a fan of horror, but I do like a mystery, and I do love when a bad guy gets his dues. The art style was very interesting, but it did give me a little difficulty grasping the details of each character, like age/race, etc. I felt like the characters would have been fleshed out more, even in a medium like a graphic novel.

This was pretty good! The horror / mystery /sci-fi parts were very interesting. I enjoyed the twist. The ending wasn’t satisfying enough but I still enjoyed the story overall.

Thanks Netgallery for an advance copy to review.

Sadly though this one didn't work for me. The idea is pretty neat. People exploring into a pile of ashes is always intriguing. We want to know why though. And with the Stephen King like hook I was down to learn. However, the dialogue and way people talked felt like nobody was actually talking to each other, just making statements. It didn't flow naturally at all. On top of that while the art is simple and nice to look at, it can be confusing the structure of it following the story beat and I felt maybe it could have been just the overall direction of the book. The idea is great, but the actual story isn't nearly as interesting once reading sadly.

A 2 out of 5.

The illustrations killed it for me. I unfortunately could not get into this because it was difficult to hold my attention based off the comics illustration.

Fascinating, dark, and visual. This is an immersive graphic novel with memorable images and an engaging story.

Spontaneous human combustion is such an interesting phenomenon. Structuring a mystery story around a guy trying to find out what exactly causes it could be so so so cool. In fact, the blurb sounds amazing: "...What follows is a supernatural trip down a suburban rabbit hole as Melvin’s quest to honor his father’s memory unlocks the mysteries of his town’s dark past and his own family secrets." Sadly, I feel like the marketing is MUCH more successful than the comic book itself.

First of all, the art on the cover looks infinitely better than the art found inside the pages of Spontaneous. I was expecting this kind of sketchy, expressive style with maybe some interesting color accents. I especially missed the expressiveness from the cover because by God were those characters bland, even more bland than the monotonous colors. I get the grimy, coffee-stained look, but on EVERY SINGLE PAGE? No, sir. Every page is either brown or blue and it got so so so boring looking at panel after panel of brown water color.

The plot was okay, though it lacked a lot that could have made it more interesting. As I mentioned, the characters were dull and uninspired, really an amalgamation of tropes/plot devices rather than people you want to root for - Emily was definitely the most fleshed-out of the whole bunch. Though it is not the only reason, this fact definitely fueled my hatred towards the fully random kissing scene between Melvin and Emily, who had literally zero chemistry throughout the story.
Speaking of story, I think the whole thing rides on the supposed "plot twist" - without it, it packs no emotional punch whatsoever. There are always many many problems when the weight lies on The Big Twist™ as the saving grace of any story: often, these types of narratives have nothing going for them besides "blowing the audience's mind" and they use twists as window dressing to make an otherwise completely uncompelling narrative appear smart, tense, you name it. At worst, the audience can guess the twist anyway and the whole experience crumbles.
Well, Spontaneous falls in the you-know-the-plot-twist-literally-from-page-1-category. I'm not kidding when I say that when the very first guy caught fire, I immediately knew what was going on. It was so so so painfully obvious that I was frustrated with our main character for not catching on. And the other backstory stuff was your pretty standard vague "yeah some rich maniac created something and that was bad ig" - they literally say that no one really knows what it was lol

Is Spontaneous worth your time? It could be if you're looking for a flat story to kill an hour waiting for the train. It wasn't the worst reading experience of my life BY FAR, don't get me wrong, but it was just so mediocre and bland that I'm hard-pressed to recommend this one. It's okay to while away some time, but more than that? Not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

I really expected this to be a deeper and more interesting graphic novel than it ended up being. Instead of coming off as a mystery thriller, it honestly came off as a little bland. The concepts are all very interesting, but the execution didn't quite work. The characters themselves didn't feel like they could be real people, they felt like they were heavily based on common character tropes and had their characters be built solely from those tropes. The reporter didn't feel like a person, she felt like a bit like a plot device. I think another issue is that because it's trying so hard to be mysterious, nothing ends up getting explained. So you end up left in the dark not fully understanding what is going on. I think the shortness of this graphic novel also played a huge part in why it felt semi-rushed. The short length didn't give the story time to breathe or flesh itself out, so it ends up being hobbled by its 146-page length. Basically, the pacing was off. The art was okay, but I didn't really care for it. The texture they used on all of the pages to make them look gritty just made what was happening on some pages harder to understand. This story had potential, but it feels like it fell flat on its face.

I actually think that I would have loved this 11 years ago when it originally came out. Unfortunately, it isn't timeless and doesn't work for me as much now. On the other hand... The art style, which I've seen some people criticize, worked for me. I felt like it gave it a nice grimy feel, almost like I was watching a found footage film rather than reading somebody's article on the events; it helped with creating this sleazy, unsettling atmosphere, something gritty and dirty, which I felt complemented the topic pretty well.

I think it could have said lots more about worker exploitation. It was almost like we dipped our toes into the subjects but were too scared to explore it properly.

I also found it to be a bit of a shame that the only stand-out character was the main character, but it wasn't necessarily because of any character development (as there wasn't really any), it was only because he was the only one not made out of cardboard.

Overall I was intrigued enough/not bored the whole time to not give it a lower rating, but I'm not sure I will remember any of it in a month's time.

I really liked the concept for this graphic novel, and I was so invested for the first 100 pages, but then I started loosing a bit of interest. The story has a lot more depth to it that you can imagine which I loved there were many secrets to uncover.

The art style is not my personal favorite, it's still beautiful art, I just found it hard to make out sometimes.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy for an honest review

I didn’t mind ‘Spontaneous’ it was ok but probably not something I’d pick up again. The art was ok overall not a bad time reading but just ok.

Rating: 3 Stars

This graphic novel was not what I expected. I really enjoyed my time reading it and will be checking our more from this author. I can't wait to add it to my library's collection.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this advance copy of the graphic novel. For me, the story was confusing and the art style did not translate well to an e-book format. The premise was interesting enough, I just think it could have been executed in a better way.