I.D.

2.5, such potential.

The description of this graphic novel is interesting, particularly when gender dysphoria is gaining recognition, technology is close to perfecting full body transplants, and society is grappling with the ethics of it. Here's the official blurb:

A dystopian tale that analyzes the conflict between perception and identity through the struggle of three people who consider a ‘body transplant' as a solution to their lives.

This and the cover design was enough to perk some interest on some rather heavy topics. I appreciate where Rios was trying to go with this but a couple of things didn't really work for me, particularly with the red-pink monochrome that the comic uses throughout (feels unfinished somehow) and the skinny text that had me frequently pinching and zooming the page on my iPad. It read better at second try, but there were parts where the panels and action was chaotic and hard to follow.

There were three main characters - Noa, Mike and Charlotte. Noa identifies as a man but feels trapped in a petite female body that will never turn into the hulking lumberjack type like Mike. Mike claims to be an ex-convict seeking a new life. Charlotte claims to be bored. On Noa's request, they sit down after their body transplant briefing for a chat because Noa is the youngest (17) among the three and needed some hand-holding.

In the end, Noa was the only one with a fully developed story line. I won't give away what became of Mike and Charlotte, but it does leave you wondering, especially with Charlotte.

Rios partnered with neurologist Miguel Alberte Woodward, MD for the science-y parts, including an essay at the end of the volume entitled ‘Stitching (an) I.D. Together', which I skimmed and ultimately skipped over. Perhaps the more medical or scientific minded reader would find this more interesting.

This ARC was courtesy of NetGalley.

The cover:
The cover is very simple and yet very intriguing too. What drew me first to this graphic novel is the cover.

The story:
This graphic novel is a sci-fi story set in a dystopian world where there is chaos and struggle. The story follows three people and their struggle with their identities and how they want to overcome their issues and problems by undergoing a “body transplant”, changing their bodies by extracting their brains from their current body and planting it in the newest one.

What I loved:
•The story itself has a good base and it had a great potential.
•The art is really great and expressive.
•The scientific aspect to the story is very intriguing and very well exploited.


What I disliked:
•The story scratched only the surface of what could've been a more intriguing storyline.
•The end wasn't really an end. It left me with other questions and wondering about one of the characters.
•The whole graphic novel is in red (writing and drawing) which can be a bit difficult to get used to and might be hard on the eyes a bit since I strain them more to get the details.
•We don't know how the characters know each other to begin with and how they met.
•It felt like the book is more about the transformation method than about the story itself and the characters.


The characters:
The main characters in this story are: Mike, Noa and Charlotte. They each have a different reason for wanting to undergo this change (although Mike doesn't really want to undergo it as much as study it). The characters get along very well and that makes the story go on very easily. Each with their own personality and yet they're all friendly and care about each other. At the end of the graphic novel, I couldn't to not wonder about each character and feel connected to them.

Conclusion:
Overall, I.D. is a unique story and has a unique art and coloring, this is a first for me to read a graphic novel like this.
The story is really good but too bad the author didn't go any deeper with it. We're left with assumptions and so many unanswered questions about the story, the relationship between the characters and what happened to them later on (especially charlotte).
It would be great if we had a sequel that could explain a lot.