Graphic Novel – Jill's Book Blog

Review: Lovely Recipe

Title: Lovely Recipe
Author: Mira Rose Nino
Genre: Graphic Novel, Young Adult, Romance
Publisher: Random House Graphic
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: February 3, 2026
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

In this savory and sweet sapphic YA Romance graphic novel, a klutzy high schooler strives to learn her grandma’s recipes and ends up falling for a no-nonsense classmate whose family owns a restaurant.

What does cooking have in common with falling in love? They’re both matters of chemistry!

It’s Sofia’s last year in high school. All her friends are getting ready to go to far away colleges, but she doesn’t know if that path is right for her. What Sofia does understand is that, ever since her grandma died, her mom has been distant. But maybe, if Sofia can learn how to make one of grandma’s most cherished recipes, she and her mom’s relationship can go back to the way it used to be. The only problem with that idea? Sofia is terrible at cooking.

Enter Anna Marie, Sofia’s super cute classmate who’s everything Sofia isn’t– driven, disciplined, and a gifted chef. Despite getting on each other’s nerves, Anna Marie starts teaching Sofia how to cook in exchange for her help around Anna Marie’s family’s restaurant. And soon enough, they discover that the sparks between them are more than just stovetop flames.

But can love blossom when Sofia’s and Anna Marie’s lives are changing so much? Or will the impending pressures that come with graduation break them apart?

Review:

This is such a cute graphic novel. Sofia wants to connect with her Italian heritage and learn how to cook her grandmother’s recipes. However, she can’t cook. She’s also dealing with her final year of high school and her friends moving on to different places. The romance in this story was sweet and slow. Sofia and Anna Marie were opposites in personality, but they had great chemistry.

Lovely Recipe is a cute YA graphic novel!

Thank you Penguin Teen Canada for providing a copy of this book.

Have you read Lovely Recipe? What did you think of it?

Review: Move It or Bruise It (Blood City Rollers #2)

Title: Move It or Bruise It (Blood City Rollers #2)
Author: V.P. Anderson, Tatiana Hill
Genre: Graphic Novel, Middle Grade, Paranormal
Publisher: Labyrinth Road
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: January 20, 2026
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

BCRD lives on!

Mina is ready to roll…but her new team is nowhere to be found. After a summer skating around town looking in every dark corner for the Blood City Rollers, Mina and her other human teammate Swan are finally reunited with their squad at an abandoned asylum. It’s old, creepy, and has a basement full of zombies…perfect.

But if the asylum is going to be the new freaky forever home for the Vamps, they’ll have to fight for it. A new team of outcast monsters are also looking for a new home, and the only solution to a turf war this bloodthirsty is a Sudden Death Scrimmage.

Mina just wants to help her team win, but she can’t help but feel like she still has to prove she belongs. And when the competition with Swan heats up, she’ll have to learn that being a teammate isn’t about being the best player…it’s about being the best friend.

Review:

This sequel is about a 13-year-old girl who left her ice skating hobby and started roller skating with a vampire team. I love paranormal stories so this one was so fun. I know I would have loved it when I was a kid too. It ended on a bit of a cliffhanger so I look forward to the next book in the series!

Move It or Bruise It is a fun middle grade graphic novel!

Thank you Penguin Teen Canada for providing a copy of this book!

Other books in the series:

Blood City Rollers

Have you read Move It or Bruise It? What did you think of it?

Review: Creatures and Corridors

Title: Creatures and Corridors
Author: Bill Sienkiewicz, Andrea Mutti
Genre: Graphic Novel, Fantasy
Publisher: The Lab Press
Source: Bookinfluencers.com
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: November 11, 2025
Rating: ★★★★★

Synopsis:

In the summer of 1992, a forbidden role-playing game called Creatures & Corridors takes a dark turn for five high-school sophomores.

It’s the summer of 1992, and five high school sophomores play a rare role-playing game that was banned for being “too Satanic” — Creatures & Corridors. As the kids play the mysterious fantasy game, it unleashes a curse that warps reality around them: orcs storm the living room, killing their parents. The front yard turns into a moat filled with tentacled horrors. And their basement “game cave” transforms into a literal dungeon, laden with bloodthirsty monsters and terrifying death traps. Now, the kids are forced to play Creatures & Corridors for their very lives, as a devilish Gamemaster judges their every move.

Review:

This graphic novel is about a role playing game called Creatures and Corridors, similar to Dungeons and Dragons. The teens who were playing end up opening up a portal to another world within the game. This story reminded me of Stranger Things, but with a much darker spin. If you’re missing Stranger Things, you should check out this graphic novel!

Creatures and Corridors is a great fantasy graphic novel!

Thank you Bookinfluencers.com for providing a copy of this book as part of a sponsored campaign!

Content warnings: death, death of parents

Have you read Creatures and Corridors? What did you think of it?

Review: Morgana and Oz, Vol. 3

Title: Morgana and Oz, Vol. 3
Author: Miyuli
Genre: Graphic Novel, Fantasy
Publisher: Wattpad Books
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Release Date: September 30, 2025
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

In this stunning debut series by Miyuli, perfect for fans of fantasy and romance, a struggling witch crosses paths with an angsty vampire, setting the stage for either love or war.

Morgana Winterberry belongs to a long line of witches, while Oz belongs to the rival vampire clan. After lifting a magical curse on the vampires, Morgana makes an uneasy truce with them, very much against her family’s warnings.

Morgana and Oz plan to work together to investigate who cursed the vampires in the first place, and who summoned the ghouls that are stalking the forest. Much to Morgana’s worry, signs point to someone in her family using her powerful ancestor Neil Winterberry’s grimoire.

As Morgana tries to understand her stronger but more volatile magic, and learn more about her mysterious great-great-grandfather, she starts hearing a chilling and all too familiar voice in her head.

It will take a witch and a vampire, growing closer every day, to get to the bottom of things.

This volume collects episodes 40 to 58 of the hit fantasy WEBTOON series with over 76 million reads, Morgana and Oz

Review:

This third book in the Morgana and Oz series was so fun! I love the dynamic between Morgana, a witch, and Oz, a vampire. They’re from rival groups but they have realized that they can actually help each other. This is a fun series with beautiful illustrations!

Morgana and Oz, Vol. 3 is a great graphic novel!

Thank you Wattpad Books for sending me a copy of this book!

Other books in the series:

Have you read Morgana and Oz, Vol. 3? What did you think of it?

Review: Hunger

Title: Hunger
Author: Nihaarika Negi, Joe Bocaroda, José Villarrubia
Genre: Graphic Novel, Historical Fiction, Science Fiction
Publisher: The Lab Press
Source: Bookinfluencers.com
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: October 28, 2025
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

In 1896 Bombay under British rule, famine-stricken mutant Izna embraces her monstrous nature to seek revenge against oppressive forces.

In 1896 Bombay, under British rule, a concentration camp holds IZNA, a plague-infected and famine-stricken being. Mutated through medical experiments, she, along with others, becomes a mutant. British officers invite famine photographer William Wallace Hooper to document the mutants, unaware he’s controlled by a shape-shifting vampire called Pisach. The Pisach infects prey with insatiable hunger, while Hooper bonds with Izna amidst rulers’ games with famine slaves.

Unbeknownst, Izna descends from women embracing monsters. Discovering Hooper’s role in her mother’s death, she wishes to become a monster herself. Transformed into a half-human, half-mutant, half-beast, she embraces her hunger, consuming oppressors and drenching her land in blood. This infinite hunger mirrors trauma’s generational and cultural impact, forging an inseparable link between oppressed and oppressor. The graphic novel blends True Blood, Kill Bill, and Spiral Into Horror, delving into hunger’s exploration of trauma’s pervasive influence.

Review:

This is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel. It’s about experiments that were performed in a concentration camp in India in 1896. The experiments turned many subjects into mutants who were further experimented on. The illustrations were at times gruesome, but that suited the horrific subject matter. This would be a great graphic novel for a book club or other literary discussions.

Hunger is a powerful graphic novel!

Thank you Bookinfluencers.com for providing a copy of this book as part of a sponsored campaign.

Content warnings: body horror, famine

Have you read Hunger? What did you think of it?

Review: Super Science, Vol. 1

Title: Super Science, Vol. 1
Author: N. Alessandro K., Perker
Genre: Graphic Novel, Science Fiction
Publisher: The Lab Press
Source: Bookinfluencers.com
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: August 12, 2025
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

In a world where imagination becomes reality, a global phenomenon grants ordinary people extraordinary scientific powers.

Super Science is a sci-fi/comedy about a world where the limits of human imagination have become real. For five days the entire sky over twelve spots across the globe turn amethyst purple. The inexplicable result was in each location, professional engineers and scientists, as well as tinkers, amateur inventors, and high school science teachers were able to create scientific and engineering breakthroughs in ways far surpassing the world’s top scientific institutions. Our story starts three years later in Los Angeles, where a breed of actual superheroes and super villains are emerging.

Dealing with this new phenomenon is LAPD’s new “Mad Scientist Division.” Our two main characters are the no-nonsense Sergeant Esmerelda Villanueva and her idealistic young partner, Officer Jack Mantle. Other main characters are manipulative industrialist Burt Montague, and his bold lab assistant Felicia Bari; perpetually unlucky Karen Katz, a former biology teacher who has turned herself into a human-cat hybrid; Esmerelda’s son Gabe, who might be the smartest teenager on the planet; and finally, nefarious super villain Dr. Cornelius Otherland, and his nemesis, bumbling superhero Gas Giant.

This mind-bending graphic novel from THE LAB ships in a gold-foil stamped cloth slipcase.

Review:

In this graphic novel, scientists have discovered how to give themselves scientific super powers. Many of them use their powers for evil, rather than good. However, it’s difficult for law enforcement to figure out how to keep the peace. I liked the vibrant illustrations and the colorful cast of characters!

Super Science, Vol. 1 is a great start to a graphic novel series!

Thank you Bookinfluencers.com for providing a copy of this book as part of a sponsored campaign!

Content warnings: death, violence

Have you read Super Science, Vol. 1? What did you think of it?

Review: Freaking Romance, Vol. 1

Title: Freaking Romance, Vol. 1
Author: Snailords
Genre: Graphic Novel, Romance, Fantasy
Publisher: Webtoon Unscrolled
Source: Purchased
Format: Paperback
Release Date: September 26, 2023
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Every relationship has its bumps. For this couple, it’s interstellar.

From the creator of Snailogy and Rescheduled comes a sexy supernatural story about being out on your own, finding your dream apartment and discovering that your new place is haunted by a handsome spectral stranger from another dimension. Sure, he can’t see you and you can’t touch him, but who said every relationship starts out perfectly?

Freaking Romance is for fans of Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me , This One Summer and Bloom .

This volume collects episodes 1–21 of the supernatural hit WEBTOON comic.

Review:

This is such a fun and original supernatural graphic novel! Zylith moved into a haunted apartment, but it turns out the “ghost” is actually pop star Zelan. They both live in the same apartment but in different worlds, so they can’t physically touch each other without making the other vanish. They took turns playing hard to get by pretending they couldn’t see the other, which was funny. I’m excited to read the rest of the series!

Freaking Romance is a fun graphic novel!

Content warnings: depression, abuse, sick parent

Other books in the series:

Freaking Romance, Vol. 2
Freaking Romance, Vol. 3

Have you read Freaking Romance, Vol. 1? What did you think of it?

Review: Doom Breaker, Vol. 1 (Doom Breaker #1)

Title: Doom Breaker, Vol. 1 (Doom Breaker #1)
Author: Blue-Deep
Genre: Graphic Novel, Fantasy
Publisher: Wattpad Books
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Release Date: July 25, 2023
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

Zephyr is the last human fighting evil in a world abandoned by the gods. After a five-year war against humans and demons, Zephyr is slain by Tartarus, the Demon Lord. In the aftermath, much of humankind was either slaughtered or captured as hosts for demons. When all seems lost, Zephyr is abruptly reincarnated, much to the sinister amusement of the gods, to save humanity and avenge those he loves.

With his newfound second life, Zephyr is flung ten years into the past without his physical strength, starting at square one as a temple slave. Marked with a brand keeping him in servitude, he must navigate his new reality and regain his former powers. Some gods are still rooting for Zephyr’s success and offer him perks as he continues his quest, leading to the ultimate battle against the god of destruction, Tartarus, once more. Can Zephyr finally have his revenge and save the woman he loves, or is he doomed to repeat the past?

This volume collects episodes 1–10 of the hit WEBTOON comic.

Review:

This graphic novel is a thrilling start to the series. Zephyr was sent ten years into his past, as amusement for the gods. He knows what will happen in his life but he has to alter his past to be able to beat the god Tartarus in the future. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series!

Thank you Wattpad Books for providing a copy of this book!

Content warnings: violence, death, sword violence

Other books in the series:

Doom Breaker, Vol. 2 (Doom Breaker #2)

Have you read Doom Breaker, Vol. 1? What did you think of it?

Review: Essentials, Vol. 1

Title: Essentials, Vol. 1
Author: Luke Arnold, Chris Wyatt
Genre: Graphic Novel, Horror, Science Fiction
Publisher: The Lab Press
Source: Bookinfluencers.com
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: February 25, 2025
Rating: ★★★★★

Synopsis:

In a post-apocalyptic world torn apart by the madness of a warping reality, shotgun-wielding scientist Harris Pax and his two extra-dimensional, non-corporeal alien sidekicks (manifesting as a walking corpse and a toy robot) are humanity’s only hope for survival.

In ESSENTIALS, mathematician Harris Pax predicted the end of the world but failed to prevent it. Now he’s living alone in a bunker and his niece’s favorite toys have started talking to him. The good news? He’s not the world’s sole survivor. The bad news? The other survivors are trapped in alternate realities — imprisoned in imagined worlds full of zombies, robots, mythical creatures, and chaos. And now Harris Pax and an unlikely ally must travel the country on a quest to restore reality, save humanity, and defeat his new interdimensional nemesis: Snuggles. Written by Luke Arnold (star of Black Sails; writer, The Fetch Phillips novels) and Chris “Doc” Wyatt (producer, Napoleon Dynamite; writer, Ninjago). This debut graphic novel from THE LAB ships in a gold-foil stamped cloth slipcase!

Review:

This graphic novel had The Last of Us vibes which I loved! There was some horror mixed with sci-fi. It was exciting and fast paced, so it was hard to put down. This special edition had a beautiful cloth slipcover. It ended on a big cliffhanger so I’m excited to see what happens next!

Essentials, Vol. 1 is a great graphic novel!

Thank you Bookinfluencers.com for providing a copy of this book as part of a paid campaign!

Content warnings: death, death of parent, death of child, body horror

Have you read Essentials, Vol. 1? What did you think of it?

Review: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 7 – Steel Ball Run, Vol. 1

Title: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 7 – Steel Ball Run, Vol. 1
Author: Hirohiko Araki
Genre: Graphic Novel, Manga, Historical Fiction
Publisher: Viz Media
Source: Publisher
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: May 27, 2025
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

A multigenerational tale of the heroic Joestar family and their never-ending battle against evil!

The legendary Shonen Jump series is now available in deluxe hardcover editions featuring color pages! JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is a groundbreaking manga famous for its outlandish characters, wild humor, and frenetic battles.

Riders from around the world gather in the Wild West for the race of the century! Johnny Joestar, a former jockey paralyzed from the waist down, comes to spectate, and momentarily regains the ability to walk while watching a duel fought by Gyro Zeppeli. Desperate to learn more about this power, Johnny joins the race alongside Gyro and embarks on the most epic and bizarre race to ever cross the American frontier!

Review:

This was quite an original manga! I’d never read any of the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure stories before this one, so I didn’t know what to expect. This was a fun story, with many horseback riders racing across the U.S. in 1890 for a 50 million dollar prize! The graphics were very detailed, but sometimes it was difficult to figure out what was happening with so much happening in each panel.

Steel Ball Run, Vol. 1 is an exciting manga!

Thank you Viz Media for providing a copy of this book as part of a paid campaign!

Have you read JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 7 – Steel Ball Run, Vol. 1? What did you think of it?