I listened to this in an audio collection of Gaiman's stories once and found this graphic novel representation on par to that listening experience.  I don't mean to toot my own horn...but I think I've got a pretty ok imagination, and Gabriel Bà's illustrations of the girls, the party and the experience were all vivid representations perfectly matching the feeling I got from listening to the story.  The huge slightly unfocused (or focused on things far beyond my reckoning) eyes of the partying girls, even the various rooms or stages of the house and beyond are beautiful, alien and slightly scary.

Nice short graphic novel with beautiful colors and details that will absorb readers for days.

I received a copy of this book through Book Riot.

I have not read the original short story that this graphic novel was based on, so I really had no idea what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised by the weird, yet intriguing story and the beautiful artwork.

While I still have no idea what actually happened in the story, it was a fun read with interesting art, which created a cool experience. The book was definitely not what I was expecting, which turned out to be a very good thing.

After reading the graphic novel, I would like to go back and actually read the short story, because I think it many ways the visual representations of the events were limiting and may have been better expressed through words.

Overall, a cool story that is a quick and fascinating read.

"A short story from New York Times bestselling author, Neil Gaiman. Plus an excerpt from his new novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane."

It is quite a quick read talking about a boy trying to interact with girls in a random party that he and his friend goes to. I quite enjoyed it, I love Neil Gaiman's writing style and it had quite a few quotable moments, but I though it was a little to short, and also it ended in quite an open ending, which in this case I didn't enjoyed that much.

This short story is exactly what the title says it's about: talking to girls at a party. What sets it apart from other how-to-pick-up-girls guides is it doesn't show how to pick up girls because it's actually a story, and the girls are not like other girls. And by that, I don't mean they're not like other girls (click for further explanation).

As far as Gaiman short stories go, I like this one about as much as the others. It's funny, smart, and unusual, like its forerunners. What's different here is its purposefully stumbling awkward humor.

The year is 1970-something and the place is somewhere in the UK. Vic and Enn are two teenage boys experiencing a teenage rite of passage; they're invited to a party and they're determined to interact with girls. However, Enn is inexperienced and has no idea what to expect. So naturally he comes off as awkward and self-conscious (and hilarious but in that secondhand embarrassment kind of way). Vic, on the other hand, is a bit more of a smooth operator.

The girls are portrayed as exchange students, and the boys don't doubt that for a minute because, like it's been established, they're inexperienced, but we, as more experienced worldly readers, know better. We pick up on the nuances and various moments between Enn and Vic and the girls that don't seem quite right because they're more awkward than the usual teenage awkwardness.

Half of the fun of this story is in the boys trying to figure out how to talk to these girls all the while figuring out they're not like other girls. Literally.