Is the murder mystery in the room with us? Aside from the fact that as soon as they introduced who was actually the murderer I went “that guy did it”, there was hardly any elements of a murder mystery. It’s essentially: friend was murdered 3 years ago, her boyfriend was convicted of the murder, and now his sister is saying there’s new evidence that he’s innocent. The sister (Rachel) contacts the “Players” (a Greek life/secret society-esque group of cool kids) about her brother (their ex-friend and group member) and they all decide to ignore it. And that’s exactly all that happens for a good long while. Jill doesn’t even really start digging into this “mystery” until the halfway mark. Then it’s just very bare bones trying to figure out the actual murderer. 90% of this book is slice of life senior year, college applications, and “woe is me. I’m a middle class girl going to a very prestigious prep school”. Cry me a river. This group cheats on all of their papers, projects, quizzes, and tests because their little society has files with answe

I feel like this had real high ambitions and it didn’t quite hit the mark. It was interesting but it just felt way too heavy with the sci-fi stuff. I don’t mind the back and forth timelines usually but I’m not sure if it translated well in this graphic novel. It was a little reminiscent of Bishop from the animated series going back in time several times to change the future to come back to an even worse outcome. So the theme of “we always lose” is pretty on brand for X-men. However, that storyline can really get exhausting and made me feel like okay there’s no hope so what’s the point? Just live a happy life for yourself and accept the future is nonexistent. 

The artwork was phenomenal and the overall story idea was pretty interesting. It just lacked any heart. I felt that the only emotional attachment I had to the characters were constructed well before I read this graphic novel. It just felt like the author spent too much time on the plot and not enough time developing these characters. If the characters were much like the versions of themselves we’ve seen a million times before, then it wouldn’t matter. But these were same characters different personalities/goals and the author didn’t really help the reader get to know them and form attachments to them.