Reviews

Firebird by Sunmi

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minhjngo's review

3.0

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher HarperCollins, and the writer+illustrator Sunmi for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. There were high hopes for this graphic novel. A wlw/queer As-Am love story set in the Bay Area/SF sign me up. The execution though, hits hard to the ground as the story fails to deliver on specificity and unique language, imagery, plot, and characters. The plot and characters are familiar beats and the language and imagery are too broad. The backstory of the character's family should have played more of a role within the plot. While a story doesn't need conflict, the story should at least explore themes and ideas. The most interesting imagery comes through the chapters/title cards/intermissions. The graphic novel does explore a bit on the idea of being nonbinary/trans which it should have leaned more into. So while a lackluster start, Sunmi has a lot of room to grow as an illustrator and writer, here's hoping for more of Sunmi's work in the future.

kpbake427's review

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4.0

Fun read

emily_mh's review

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emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

ecroot's review

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-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

4.5

mommytaco's review against another edition

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emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

bhrtng's review

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Firebird gave me Flamer vibes despite being a very different story!

Firebird is about Caroline, a sophomore, and Kim, a senior. Caroline meets Kim when she starts tutoring her in Algebra 2. There are initial butterflies and over the course of the school year, they become closer and closer friends and finally more. I enjoyed how fleshed out Caroline and Kim felt. They both seemed to have different difficulties they were juggling. I do wish that their friends played a slightly more prominent role (especially Caroline's) but really they just feel like background characters. The story tries to tackle quite a lot: immigrant experiences, the American dream, single motherhood, gender, sexuality, faith, fatphobia, etc. It's hard to feel like any one of these topics gets its due even with how long the book is. Also idk how to describe it but this is one of those books where I don't feel like the cover really matches the vibe? But the prom scene got me in my feels so it's getting a solid 4 stars.