For all that I enjoyed the first volume, I wasn't sure how far the 'VSO teens stranded in the wilderness' story could plausibly stretch. My mistake; that scenario was just getting us started. The survivors are getting picked up now, but not all of the rescuers can be trusted. And as the last, brilliantly harrowing issue collected here makes clear, sometimes finding yourself back in the arms of your self-defined 'loving' family can be worst of all.

This is a gritty comic. Young American adults, many of them spoiled, go on a bus trip in Central America. Disaster strikes as their bus plunges off the road. Some survive and some don't, but all are faced with difficult choices. They seem very unaware of the country they are in, and their ignorance leads to more difficulties.

The adolescents' misadventures continueFollowing directly on from Volume 1, the nine youngsters find themselves in different situations after they split up. Some are “rescued” and end up at the American Embassy, others fight for survival. Each one is taken in a different direction and resentments boil up with tragic consequences. Local politics also plays its part as do Teen Residential Treatment Centers (an American abomination, it seems).Quite engaging but it's often difficult to work out whic...

While maybe not for everyone, this is a seriously overlooked title from Image. (Of course, you'll want to read Vol 1 before reading this, as it is a highly serialized story.)It's a (mostly) realistic depiction of what happens when students on a trip find themselves in a horrible bus accident in a foreign country, and are stranded with no way home.This title definitely pulls no punches, and has evolved steadily (and for the better!) over this first year. And final issue of this arc (#9) is perhap...

Also available on the WondrousBooks blog. This is definitely one of the weirdest series that I have read. I remember enjoying the first volume, but I can't really say the same about the second one.Basically, I felt like the series is going nowhere in particular. It has gone very far away from the original idea of the first volume and is now residing in the land of WTF and bitchslapping Buddas.No single issue made all that much sense - all of the characters are scattered, their stories are bec

I'm going to copy-paste my review of the first TPB. The only thing I can add is that the second trade is even better!Some people call Alex de Campi the new Alan Moore, some people are wrong.Most strikingly she lacks the full, lavish, magnificent beard and almost just as evident, this story is written in a completely different style. But both remarks are in no way demeaning: so Alex isn't a bearded lady (can live with it) and she spins an unique type of yarns (can certainly live with this!).No Me...

Mind-boggling how a volume can be a many-layered social commentary as well as an excellent plot. there are so many characters and yet the reader navigates through them easily. The strong themes include adolescence, gender, first-world privilege, cultural sensitivity and more.The current use of emojis and Google like art will probably date this volume but for now it's spot-on relevant.McNeil's art is gorgeous and inspired as usual. She's the reason I started this series and she never disappoints....

This is a review for the first 3 volumes. Spoilers, probably.Seems like a common enough premise--bunch of teens on a humanitarian trip in the jungle who get in an accident and struggle to survive. What made it unique was when the story split the group up and followed the characters through some very different sets of circumstances, getting rescued at different times, responding differently to what had happened to them, etc. It's pretty ambitious, trying to effectively characterize all those indi...

Got a little lost at the beginning...but it became really twisted as I went along.Human nature is a nasty thing.

Alex de Campi is great. This volume built on the previous issues in a way that I really wasn't expecting - especially the brief detour into the world of "troubled teen" camps, which are something that I have been reading more and more about over the last few years. I'm not sure where this series is going, but I'm definitely in it for the long haul.

Amazing!Highly recommended series!

Dayum this series is so good. Even though it's starting to stray awau from it's initial premise, it's still really good. Plus the story with a certain character (not sure of it counts as a spoiler or not) has me quite invested in his character. So yeah de Campi is an awesome writer

The bus crash was just the beginning! The authors have lots more for these kids to go through.The final episode of this collection (single issue #9) is the most moving as it deals with a teen caught in a hellish "treatment" facility which is worse than most prisons. Sadly it is based on real-life examples. The final pages contain a list of names of kids who have died in these facilities as well as the name of an organization tracking such abuses. http://www.residentialtreatmentcenter...

A bus full of a bunch of mostly privileged mostly white kids on their way to build schools in central America crashes leaving some dead, some injured and some incapable of doing anything other than revert to thier base instincts. Mostly everyone including would be rescuers exploit each other. Not many likable characters so while this title is actually decent I doubt I will continue on.

I like the Brits

After the shit is more shit. The kids are still in troublle across the border.

My mild confusion continues (see Vol.1 review) but as much of this collection focuses on one character (or so it seemed to me), it was less so (although there were still things happening that I didn't get). It's painful to read about parents who, essentially, would rather their children be dead than to have a non-traditional sexual orientation. As much as this story needs to be told I don't think this version of it is going to change anybody's mind.

This is the most surprising and moving trade I've read this year. For real.Series:A fresh departure from the futuristic dystopia flavor of the day, No Mercy is story that dwells in the possible, digs its heels in and never stops reminding you of its plausibility. DeCampi avoids the trap of portraying teens as one dimensional quip machines, shaping each intricate character from panel one. That authenticity plants the seed for wild anxiety once things start to go wrong. The characters are truly di...

There are a number of extremely violent moments in this volume, but the collection does manage to make them not gratuitous - each adds to the plot of an aspect of the story. The stories all move beyond 'stuck in the wilderness,' with all of our survivors reaching civilizations of a sort. Some end up in much better places than others. The highlight of this collection is the final issue, a flashback for trans character Charlene that explores the horrors of teen residential treatment centers. It's

Well illustrated continuation to the no mercy series. It has made me question whether the kind of residential treatment facility (RTF) abuse they portray is real. Unfortunately, the website they used as a source for a list of kids who have died at these centers no longer exists (residentialtreatmentcentersabuse.com), so I couldn't validate their claim. Furthermore, a quick Google search didn't shed any light.It's disappointing how evil they make evangelical christians seem. Unloving, selfish, sh...