Emmett Nahil

Let Me Out is a captivating horror graphic novel dealing with such terrifying topics as the Satanic Panic, bigotry, corrupt officials, and New Jersey.

In a small town a woman goes missing, black suited agents have an agenda, the local police perpetrate a coverup, and the townspeople immediately suspect anyone who looks or acts different from the majority. This is very bad news for our story's protagonists, a group of ethnically diverse, LGBTQ friends who care about each other just as much as show more they loathe the monotonous, at times hostile conformity around them.

The Satanic Panic has always interested me as a stark and all too modern example of people’s tendency to look for "Others" to scapegoat when they’re scared, even when those they target pose no threat. That concept is on full display here and it makes for an interesting overarching theme in an otherwise plot heavy story. The art style and characters mesh seamlessly and create a vaguely vintage aesthetic, but at the same time the action and horror are rendered fascinatingly dynamic and lavishly creepy.

I found this story immediately gripping and burned through the whole thing in a brief sitting. If I have any critiques of this graphic novel at all it would be that it set up an engaging story with interesting characters but then ended right as I was most invested; however, I hope this means the series will continue. show less

I would like to thank Netgallery for sending me the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Set in the United States in the midst of satanic panic, the life of a group of queer misfits is inadvertently intertwined with a murder investigation conducted by the sheriff and a strange government agent. Given the cruelty and rituality of the discovery of the body, a curfew is triggered throughout the city and the boys can do nothing but disobey the provisions of the authorities. The show more group's everyday life runs parallel to that of the investigations until the paths meet and the mess breaks out. Is there really something demonic that is terrorizing the citizens or is it all the result of people's paranoia? Who will side with the "weirdos" against the prejudices and accusing looks of the community?

Very topical, funny, macabre, this story is truly one of the most beautiful I've read in recent times. The devil hides behind the most innocent look but man is the real evil.

Absolutely recommended, if you drop a tear you'll know you've really made it yours. show less

The artwork is beautiful and the coloring is stunning. The relationships between the teens are well developed and interesting. The rest of the plot, however, is a bit thin.

Although this book is set in New Jersey, I can only imagine that the author set it there because of the legendary Jersey Devil. They would have done better to just put this story in an anonymous town in anywhere USA. There is no connection in the story to the actual legend of the Jersey Devil, so why put it in NJ, show more especially since there are some egregious errors that anyone who had ever actually been to New Jersey, would recognize: there are no hills in southern Jersey and we don’t have self-serve gas pumps. show less

This is supposed to be a horror graphic novel about trans and queer kids. And technically it is. At the very beginning there is a trigger warning page and while I understand the need for it, I didn’t think this was as horrific as it could be. In this story, we have a group of kids. I’m not sure if all or just many of them are trans. Trans ideas are not a major part of the story, but it does play a factor. What you have is a town on edge in 1979 because a pastor’s wife has gone missing. show more This is a religious town where the sheriff goes to the preacher, wanting more sermons. But the reader knows that in the background, there’s something evil afoot, and they’re using the preacher and his sermons, and the missing wife to start the Satanic panic for whatever is going on in the background. The Satanic panic was real events in the 80s and this story plays into it. This story doesn’t end and is very much a volume one. The story is completely up in the air and I’m not sure quite yet what to make of it. The illustrations are fantastic, and I think this has an interesting story arc, and hope I get to read the next volumes. show less