I really wanted to like this graphic novel. It had me hooked at the start, but as I continued I felt myself slowly disengaging.

The premise is cool and I like the idea of the story. But it just doesn't feel developed enough. A lot happens, but everything feels disconnected. The shifting narrators also makes things pretty chaotic. The characters didn't feel very developed either because of the switching. Mostly, I found everyone fairly annoying.

Overall, I liked the artwork, but the representation of female characters was disheartening. This is what really made me lose interest. All of the women are highly sexualized, often appearing anonymously in sexual roles (prostitute, orgy member). I don't mind nudity and sex in graphic novels, but the images came off as more pornographic than storytelling. Plus you know there's a problem when the only way to differentiate between a mother and her daughter is by their hair color.

I'm really disappointed that I couldn't get into this book. It had so much going for it, but the execution just doesnt live up to the promise. I may check out the second book, but I'm pretty unsuspecting the same blatant sexualization of women and and lack of development.

This is the story of hope that never fades. Even in the face of the unimaginable horror a woman faces. The power of her hope keeps her children seeking a future that is safe and free from the poison sun that is slowly extinguishing life on the planet.

This book was really depressing. While I liked the message of optimism and never giving up, I don't like the fact that this woman's hope was dragged through deeper and ranker mud each time. It's almost like a slap in the face to the reader. This is what believing and hoping gets you. Nothing but sorrow and anguish.

I don't know if I would call myself an optimist. I believe in the power of good and power of love. I'm a Christian, after all. But I also believe that people will suffer in this life and that sometimes their hopes aren't realized in this life, but in eternity. It says in Proverbs 13:12, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." That's my approach to fiction. I know that bad things happen in life, and the same in books, but I need to have some good with my bad when I read a fiction story. I don't like reading books where I feel worse about life after I finish it than I did when I started. This probably my major problem with this book.

The artwork was well done, and the story itself is suspenseful and exciting. It's just so very depressing. Since this is the first book in the series, I hope that hope does stay alive in this poor woman's heart, despite all that she's suffered.

Meh. The author's afterward was more affecting than the narrative, wherein he talked about not giving in to pessimism and defeatism. His main character was to be the eternal optimist. She is, but her obstacles are either manufactured, or so metaphorically on the nose as to be frustrating. I mean, it's true, no one likes an optimist, but no one actually says those words to them when they are sallying forth. And baddies who rub their hands together and monolog about breaking optimists and what fun that is are not, as they say, a thing. 

The art is often ravishing, and I mean that in the sense of both beautiful and a little rapey. Sometimes the art is cluttered, and action especially isn't that coherently rendered, but the underwater stuff is fucking great. I think I'm responding to the colorist mostly, who just did a bang up job on the blues and blacks. The women, unfortunately, are all half naked fembots, and so similarly rendered I got actively confused at who was who. Or possibly whom. 

This is another one of those collections I thought would be a bullseye and ended up missing the mark for me. I originally picked up Low because I thought the concept of a far-future Earth, where humanity has receded into the ocean depths, was really interesting. And as a bonus it has a female protagonist. Flipping through the pages the art was stunning. I was excited to dig into this one. Unfortunately this book has a lot of problems.

The art remains an aesthetic highlight for me with this title, but even it has some issues. While the style is gorgeous it is occasionally so busy it's difficult to distinguish what is happening. Sometimes it's hard to even tell who is who from one panel to the next. (It reminded me of Pretty Deadly - lovely, but confusing.) And then there are the women. This book makes some serious blunders when it comes to gender politics. The women are consistently sexualized both in how they are drawn and dressed (or not dressed as is often the problem), as well as the situations they are put in. There's a rapey vibe in numerous scenes, and more than one woman is kept literally on a leash like Leia in Jabba's palace. Simply put: it's problematic.

And then there is the story... Remender writes in his forward that he wanted to write a book about optimism. And he has. And that's almost entirely what this book is about to the detriment of world building, characterization, and plot. The main character, Stel, is a vehicle for dialogue about the power of positive thinking. She's one of those people that just keeps telling herself, and everyone else, that if they just think positively everything will work out in the end. And if I can be 100% honest that's a huge button for me (for personal reasons I won't go into). Which is really the big reason I couldn't get behind this book. I could forgive almost every sin this book commits if I appreciated the message more. Unfortunately, Pollyanna under the sea mostly dredged up a bunch of ire for me, which I suppose means I need to adjust my attitude. Or so Low would try to convince me. As is I'm not impressed enough to set aside my personal biases.

If you're interested in a well illustrated lecture on the power of positive thinking this might be the perfect book for you. If you want an under the sea adventure featuring a strong female heroine, like I did, you might want to swim to darker waters.