5 stars A stunning graphic novel that perfectly captures the beauty of everyday life cut with the shattering effects of anxiety and PTSD. Manuel works to navigate a world that no long feels safe after witnessing a traumatic event involving gun violence. With the help of some new friends, a supportive therapist, and a love…
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3 stars A dark coming-of-age story featuring a manipulative main character and a troll set on eating his life. Weaving together fairy tale themes, the punk scene, and the hauntings of fear and regret, Gaiman creates a memorable tale of coming to turns with life. Good fit for those who enjoy the odd side of…
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4 stars A graphic novel featuring cheerleading and LGBTQIA+ leads? Yes, please! A charming story about reconnecting, speaking out, and trying new things. Loved the emphasis on second chances and growing as individuals. Despite the short length, a lot of issues are packed into this wonderful graphic novel. School pressure, unrequited crushes, fitting in, and…
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5 stars An absolutely phenomenal read. While Takei’s story is heartbreaking in its truth, the book is framed as a reminder to never forget our history so that we can learn from the mistakes of our past. The story itself was extremely powerful. It follows the Takei family through various struggles and what they endured…
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4 stars A gorgeous book to immerse yourself in. Beautiful artwork, a captivating story, and wonderful lessons and messages. Reminiscent of Kay O’Neill‘s The Tea Dragon Society. Gentle fantasy with fantastic artwork. This book is so much more than pretty pictures and Xu accomplishes a lot with a relatively simple story. Sophie’s insecurity is easy to relate…
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3 stars A good collection of poems on a variety of topics formulated to follow a fairy tale arch. Topics covered include family, romantic relationships, breakups, love, self-harm, eating disorders, and abuse. There are a lot of hard topics in this book, but also many points readers can relate to and empathize with. For me,…
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2 stars I really wanted to like this. I’m fascinated with the various iterations of Barbara Gordon. After absolutely hating that notorious scene in The Killing Joke, I was interested to see how a teenage Babs would become Oracle. The story omits the Joker plotline (thankfully) and instead gives a vague story about interrupting a…
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5 stars A powerful novel in verse that proves you are more than the hardships you have faced. I’d recommend looking at the trigger warnings before going in to this as there are quite a few traumatic events that occur. These include rape, food insecurity, homelessness, drug overdose, and police brutality. This book may not…
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2 stars I’ll start by saying I am unfortunately an adult and it’s possible my feelings about this book stem from that. I couldn’t relate to Raven. She mostly just annoyed me. But that may just be because I am no longer a moody teen (thank goodness!). I generally enjoy YA and children’s graphic novels,…
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4 stars As far as the fake-dating trope goes, this one was pretty good. I’m not usually a fan of the trope because of the predetermined trajectory of the relationship. Because of that, it took me a bit to get into this book. But there were also enough other things going on to keep me…
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