A triumphant queer coming-of-age story that will make your heart ache and soar.
A 17-year-old struggles to navigate friendship and finding herself while navigating a toxic relationship.
Biracial (East Asian and white) high schooler Freddy is in love with white Laura Dean. She can’t help it—Laura oozes cool. But while Freddy’s friends are always supportive of her, they can’t understand why she stays with Laura. Laura cheats on Freddy, gaslights and emotionally manipulates her, and fetishizes her. After Laura breaks up with her for a third time, Freddy writes to an advice columnist and, at the recommendation of her best friend Doodle, (reluctantly) sees a psychic who advises her that in order to break out of the cycle of her “non-monogamous swing-your-partner wormhole,” Freddy needs to do the breaking up herself. As she struggles to fall out of love and figure out how to “break up with someone who’s broken up with me,” Freddy slowly begins to be drawn back into Laura’s orbit, challenging her relationships with her friends as she searches for happiness. Tamaki (Supergirl, 2018, etc.) explores the nuances of both romantic and platonic relationships with raw tenderness and honesty. Valero-O’Connell’s (Lumberjanes: Bonus Tracks, 2018, etc.) art is realistic and expressive, bringing the characters to life through dynamic grayscale illustrations featuring highlights of millennial pink. Freddy and her friends live in Berkeley, California, and have a diversity of body shapes, gender expressions, sexualities, and skin tones.
A triumphant queer coming-of-age story that will make your heart ache and soar. (Graphic novel. 14-adult)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-62672-259-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
In this Italian import, four dispossessed friends try to make a go of their band. Narrator Guiliano has a slightly dysfunctional home life (his father loves his prized hunting dogs more than his son), but also has a supportive girlfriend. Alex has a missing dad, an overprotective mother and an obsession with Hitler; Stefano, meanwhile, is obsessed with death and success; and, the final member of the band, Alberto, adores his father. Highly stylized art will either attract or repel readers; most of the boys appear slightly demonic, but the watercolor washes and awkwardly rendered bodies effectively convey their confused, directionless adolescence and paint a portrait of a decaying city and beautiful countryside at odds. A foray into crime causes the boys to lose their practice garage but ultimately teaches a lesson and makes their friendship stronger. The father-son subtexts never come fully to life, but between the art and what is unsaid, much tension is conveyed. Unlikely to have wide appeal, but perfect for flannel-wearing, guitar-playing guys who think there aren’t any books for them. (sketches) (Graphic novel. YA)
Pub Date: April 1, 2007
ISBN: 1-59643-206-3
Page Count: 128
Publisher: First Second/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2007
Presented as a graphic novel, this enthusiastic “I-want-people-to-like-me” memoir comes across as a frantic jumble of panels lacking cohesion. Merging several art techniques, the work displays color panels drawn over a period of seven years and formatted into a longer, horizontally shaped volume. Juvenile drawings contradict dialogue balloons containing rough words, a style which raises questions about the age level of the intended audience. For the majority of the pages, artwork is branded by broad strokes with minimal detail creating an almost childish tone. On the other hand, several sections contain extensively detailed close-up illustrations of characters’ facial expressions. Forming a chronology of the author’s teen years, several sections may spark readers’ interest, such as giving Barbie dolls a twisted makeover and a dysfunctional family Thanksgiving, but these moments become lost in the many frames of over-the-top teen angst. Not essential, but a possible purchase for larger graphic-novel collections. (Graphic novel. YA)
Pub Date: May 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-8050-7863-0
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2006
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
