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kurumipanda's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Gore, Sexism, and Blood
Minor: Violence
cateyeschloe's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
The Witch Boy is a great graphic novel with an interesting concept!
Aster is born into a family of magical people. All of the women are witches, and all of the men are shapeshifters. These are their roles and they must always fulfill them. Aster, however, feels much more drawn to witchcraft than he does to shifting despite being a boy.
There are some great parallels in this story to folks who struggle with families that don’t understand their identities, whether it’s their gender, sexuality, etc.
Aster has to grapple with being true to himself while trying to get his family to understand and accept him.
(It lowkey has kind of the vibe of the movie Encanto, honestly.)
There’s a lot of great diversity represented in the family, also! The art style was also super cute.
Overall, this was a super fun read and I really enjoyed the creativity of their family dynamics!
Content Warnings
Minor: Bullying
lunarxcross's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, and Kidnapping
onefineelephant's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
10/10. I really enjoyed this graphic novel. The illustrations are so wonderful and the storyline is very compelling. The ending was particularly heartwarming. Highly recommend. Also, my 5th-grade students loved it as well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, and Kidnapping
strict gender norms, enforcement of gender rolesvaguely_pink's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Sexism, and Blood
Moderate: Transphobia and Kidnapping
Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Injury/Injury detail
nytxia's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Bullying
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
rtaire's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, and Violence
Moderate: Kidnapping
Minor: Gaslighting
instalovewithbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
I really enjoyed this cute story! Thinking about possibly continuing it, but it's a good wrap up for now but does leave it open ended for it to continue on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying
Moderate: Blood
readaloud_mom's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
My kid and I both really liked this graphic novel! We found Aster to be an appealing main character, and his sprawling, quirky extended family were pretty fun, too!
As noted by other reviewers, Aster seems to be some variety of gender-noncomforming/genderqueer/nonbinary/etc., though the book never declares a specific identity. (I have mixed feelings, but am basically cool with the lack of name; I feel like it works with the worldbuilding that Aster wouldn't have the language to talk about his identity, I know I sure didn't when I was his age).
There is also some quiet queer-parenting rep here - on the family tree, I can see that Aster has an aunt who is married to another woman, and his friend Charlie has two dads. I would have liked to ever actually SEE Charlie's two dads, and I would have liked to see the married aunts interacting. For instance, one of the stolen cousins has two moms, and the other two stolen cousins are brothers with a mom and a dad. We see the mom and dad hugging each other and Bearing Up Bravely and so on, but we don't get those same kinds of images with the two-mom family - I actually wonder a little bit about whether all of the queer parents were added to the story at the last minute, after much of the drawing was done? (FYI, subsequent books in this series remain pretty light on the aunts, but do introduce Charlie's dads as visible background characters.)
As noted by other reviewers, Aster seems to be some variety of gender-noncomforming/genderqueer/nonbinary/etc., though the book never declares a specific identity. (I have mixed feelings, but am basically cool with the lack of name; I feel like it works with the worldbuilding that Aster wouldn't have the language to talk about his identity, I know I sure didn't when I was his age).
There is also some quiet queer-parenting rep here - on the family tree, I can see that Aster has an aunt who is married to another woman, and his friend Charlie has two dads. I would have liked to ever actually SEE Charlie's two dads, and I would have liked to see the married aunts interacting. For instance, one of the stolen cousins has two moms, and the other two stolen cousins are brothers with a mom and a dad. We see the mom and dad hugging each other and Bearing Up Bravely and so on, but we don't get those same kinds of images with the two-mom family - I actually wonder a little bit about whether all of the queer parents were added to the story at the last minute, after much of the drawing was done? (FYI, subsequent books in this series remain pretty light on the aunts, but do introduce Charlie's dads as visible background characters.)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Blood, and Kidnapping
shelvesofivy's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying and Blood
Moderate: Animal death and Gore
Minor: Sexism