Acception, Vol. 1

by Coco Ouwerkerk (Creator)

For fans of high school comedy drama with quirky, lovable characters, this is a comic from debut author Colourbee about love, acceptance, and surviving high school (while keeping your secrets intact).

It’s the start of a new school year at Apollo High and Arcus just moved from England to the Netherlands. With his rainbow-colored hair and love of all things fashion, Arcus is anything but your average teenager.

He’s an upbeat independent thinker, proud fashionista, and like the rest of us, is looking for a few friends to call his own. This won’t be easy for Arcus, because his best options for friends are prickly goth Maud and self-centered queen bee Iris.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics

288 pages, Paperback

Published May 27, 2025

About the author

Coco Ouwerkerk, aka Colourbee, is a Dutch comic artist/animator/writer who specializes in YA comics. Professional since 2016, Coco is known for the drama/comedy WEBTOON series Acception (ongoing) and several self-published magazine shorts aimed at kids and teens. To learn more, follow Coco on Instagram @colourbee4.

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book! I was fully engrossed in this story. It does have its issues where it jumps from point to point and there’s no connection and it feels like there’s holes. But overall, this is an interesting and fascinating study. It’s about being different in a new school. It’s about the various people who will use you for what you have. It’s also about true friends, family and hope and acceptance. Altogether the story was lovely, and I was not ready for it to end. I might have to go online to read the next part.

[Maxie Froelicher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was cute! I'm excited for the next volume; I neeeed to know what happens next!

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks you to Webtoon and NetGalley for the chance to read this graphic novel.

I was first drawn to this read because it’s so vibrant. I was not let down, the whole story is filled with colourful artwork. I loved that we had our very colourful main character and he didn’t judge anyone and lived his life like he wanted and he wasn’t afraid to be friends with whoever. I feel like it for sure felt like typical middle and high school kids and how they have their stereotypes and judgements and how they can be so cruel. I did feel like the ending was abrupt and I’m hoping that there is another book.
I’d recommend this book for sure.

[Alanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Acception Volume One is a lighthearted high school drama that celebrates self expression in spite of adversity, but the execution feels scattered. While Arcus is fun and optimistic, the story struggles with consistency. It introduced characters and subplots that fade without resolving. The overall message of staying true to yourself is uplifting, but I was left feeling disconnected to the story and main characters. The lack of a clear plot and character development left me wanting more. It's a decent read with positive themes. Just didn't leave a big impact on me.

[Rummanah (Books in the Spotlight) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t care for any of the characters. I found the dialogue to be clunky and the story jumbled. I also didn’t appreciate fatphobia and homophobia as humor either. I won’t be continuing this series.

[McKenzie Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

For more bookish opinions, visit my blog: Craft-Cycle

I started reading this on Webtoon and enjoyed it. It was fun to read it again as a graphic novel.

When the fashion-loving high school freshman Arcus moves from England to the Netherlands, he isn't off to a great start. The other students make fun of his fashions, bully him about his gender identity and expression, and refuse his friendship. But that doesn't stop Arcus from doing his best to make friends and spread good cheer with glitter and optimism.

This volume covers the Season 1 of the Webtoon (through Episode 42).

The story incorporates themes of secrecy, family, friendship, bullying, self confidence, and identity.

The artwork is wonderful. So colorful and bright. Includes fun fashion details. These bright visuals help to balance out the book's heavier topics of bullying, alcoholism, and illness without feeling overwhelming.

The backmatter contains an adorable paper doll of Arcus and some of his awesome fashion designs as well as a bit of additional artwork.

Really looking forward to the next volume. It's been a while since I read the Webtoon so I don't remember what happens next.

[gay_chaos_gremlin]

nope. didn't like the homophobia as humor and the rest was just meh. dnf

[Asmaâ · Rating 3 out of 5]

i remember seeing this on webtoon back in the day. i added it to my reading list, but never got around to it because webtoon became a mostly paid platform and that turned me off. but i found the graphic novel randomly at the library and decided to give it a shot.
i was a bit disappointed by the quality. the pictures were really low quality, like you could tell they were blown up, you could see so many pixels. i don't really know how turning a webtoon into a book works, but i've read a few others in my dat, and they were all regular quality. this one just looked cheap. plus, the formatting of some of the speech bubbles was inconsistent, like the reading order would change from page to page willy nilly. and i know the webtoon is more slice of life-y, that's fine, i like those, but the demarcation between stories was really poorly done here. it felt like a poorly thought out continuous story as opposed to separate intentional scenes.
the story itself was fine, i see the vibe, i get it. it read a bit too dated for me, like the mean jokes, i know were on purpose but it never felt like it had a purpose.

idk, overall, kinda dissapointing

[Sesana · Rating 1 out of 5]

Collection of a webcomic, and it really, really shows. There isn't much of a story in this volume, and at certain points the creator just stopped trying to tell a story. Most of the last third is disconnected vignettes. There's also a twist at the end of the book that I would bet good money wasn't planned, because it makes no sense for the main character to learn this information as late as he does. On top of that, none of the characters act like real people. That isn't simply because the dialog is awful, though it is. Character actions and reactions aren't in the book because they make sense, but because that's what the writer wanted them to do at the time. Also, virtually none of these characters dress like real high school students, and I'm definitely uncomfortable with the multiple panels of teens in their underwear.

[Roo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such an interesting take on the high school experience through comic! I enjoyed meeting all of our *vastly* different characters and seeing their dynamics and home lives.

We get to see how secrets are hard to keep, acceptance is difficult in a high school settings and sometimes it’s just better to be yourself, and how to survive high school. This comic shows that not everything is black and white, many individuals portray themselves one way when in reality they also are having there own struggles.

5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Sophy · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s hard being the creative kid sometimes. Our main character loves fashion and runs a successful social media account where he shares his designs—though no one at school knows it’s him. That is, until one of the mean girls borrows one of his shirts. From there, things take an interesting turn as he tries to navigate making friends while staying true to his passion for fashion. This is a great story about creativity, self-expression, and being different from your peers. The art style is vibrant and unique, perfectly bringing everything together in a colorful and inspiring way.

[Sharlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

PENDING REVIEW
3.75 - Good

[Julesy · Rating 2 out of 5]

From the start I feel like this graphic novel did not start on the right foot with me. Immediately in the first chapter the main character Arcus McCarthy encounters ridicule and bullying on his first day at a new high school just because his gender bending. Despite his constant attempts to become friends with his peers, he is rejected at every turn. Arcus seems to take a shining to Maud, who is beyond the stereotypical goth girl. At every encounter, she is angry and totally rude to Arcus. Why Arcus continues to try to befriend Maud is beyond me.

Arcus’s parents are rarely at home and he has no siblings. A pretty lonely existence. Arcus maintains his upbeat positive demeanor day after day even after some physical bullying. This is so unrealistic. Any other teen would become despondent, depressed and crawl into themselves. It’s only when it’s discovered by a mean girl Iris that he is the creative person behind the Gold Star Designs web site that he is admired. But he is also blackmailed into providing Iris with fashions shown from his web site otherwise she will expose him.

Then the book includes with a new student who is transgender and a bet between the senior students as to which among the freshmen would come out of the closet. I am aware that a lot of YA novels and graphic novels focus on struggles with gender identity, but I feel like this one goes far and beyond in a form of parody with caricatures. I guess I am just an old fogey as I don’t care for these types of stories. This book may appeal to the YA audience who have more of a connection.

About two-third through the book, there was a switchover of just snippets of various stories. It was as if the comic strips the author had written were thrown together to complete the book. There was no continuity and the vignettes were just all over the place.

I did enjoy the illustrations and the color was stunning. I just didn’t care for this story, the various themes, the profanity. I do have issues where bullying is the focus in the story. As a youngster who was bullied in junior high, it saddens me to see how bullying has become the norm nowadays.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy.

[Jill Jemmett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This graphic novel is about Arcus, who doesn’t follow the status quo in his new school. Other students make assumptions based on his appearance. Arcus and his new friend Maud had opposite styles, with Arcus having rainbow hair and Maud dressing all in black, but they had a lot in common. They were both bullied by other students and they had to deal with some serious family issues at home. There were some funny moments though with students mishearing things when they eavesdropped or making completely wrong assumptions.

Acception, Vol. 1 is a great graphic novel with a mix of serious and funny moments!

Thank you Wattpad Books for providing a copy of this book!

Content warnings: bullying, transphobia, homophobia, alcoholism, cancer

[Jasmine Shouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75 stars rounded up

I read this as a Webtoon when it first came out and am so happy to see it's now becoming a graphic novel!

This is very slice of life about teenagers just doing their thing throughout freshman year of high school. It's not super plot heavy yet since this is pretty much just introducing all the characters and their personalities. I love the artwork and the inclusivity, and I hope there will be more graphic novels of the rest of the toon!

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

CW: Bullying, alcoholism, terminal illness

[Mara K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

great book! some parts felt a little unclear to me, and would have loved more backstory into the main character. but not bad overall and would recommend to anyone who likes this kind of book. enjoyed!

thanks to netgalley for letting me read this in advance!

[Cillian Brady · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok kinda mid maud is a diva and a queen

[Summer Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book soooooo much I think it would make a great movie and also I ship arcus and Lola tbh

[Twoja_._._ · Rating 4 out of 5]

niezbyt dużo czytam na webtoon ale ten komiks jest świetny