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danidaydream's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
nervchild's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
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? Yes
4.5
Great story on relationships, both the good and the bad. Art has clean lines, lots of background details, and the minimal use of color looks great.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Toxic relationship
Minor: Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, and Transphobia
dvnielletreads's review against another edition
4.0
"it's true that giving can be a part of love. but contrary to popular belief, love should never take from you, freddie."
i needed this. i have needed this for a very long time, in a difference circumstance from freddie's but one that reared its ugly head earlier this year that i couldn't help but remember while i was reading this. i thought this was beautiful. the artwork was stunning, and i felt this undying urge to protect everyone and anyone (save for laura dean).
toxic relationships, both platonic and romantic, are a thing. ripping one's self out of a toxic relationship is hard, and it hurts. and funnily enough, my own recent experience with ripping myself off a toxic relationship like a bandaid resulted in the other party reacting just like laura dean did. hilarious in retrospect, but it sucked at the time.
i needed this.
i needed this. i have needed this for a very long time, in a difference circumstance from freddie's but one that reared its ugly head earlier this year that i couldn't help but remember while i was reading this. i thought this was beautiful. the artwork was stunning, and i felt this undying urge to protect everyone and anyone (save for laura dean).
toxic relationships, both platonic and romantic, are a thing. ripping one's self out of a toxic relationship is hard, and it hurts. and funnily enough, my own recent experience with ripping myself off a toxic relationship like a bandaid resulted in the other party reacting just like laura dean did. hilarious in retrospect, but it sucked at the time.
i needed this.
brisingr's review against another edition
4.0
The art in this absolutely blew me AWAY! It's so, so gorgeous and coupled with the beautiful, touching and so important story, this was such a good read <3
tunaareads's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
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? Yes
3.0
mitskacir's review against another edition
4.0
The art in this was really beautiful - I loved the limited color palette and how stunningly SHINY Freddy's hair was. Although the story dealt with a toxic relationship in a way I haven't seen before in teen books, it was pretty predictable, and the pacing of the book and our lack of exposure to Laura Dean made it hard to understand what kept Freddy connected to her. I think the story would have been more interesting if we could better empathize with Freddy's desire to stay with Laura, instead of constantly seeing nothing but red flags whenever Laura appeared. I did like Doodle's story line, and honestly might have liked their story as the main one with Freddy/Laura as the side story.
allyreadabook's review against another edition
emotional
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
3.0
bananzabean's review against another edition
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
3.75
Lesbians can be fuckboys too.
This book explores how messy relationships and breakups can be. But it also explores how it intersects with being queer, and how this intersection adds new complications that can be confusing for everyone, but especially young people. Also putting a premium on a certain type of “love stories” has left a lot of us with a pretty simplistic view of what a relationship should look like and how the goal should be love. Anyone venturing beyond what is shown primarily in books and tv is going to be understandably a bit confused.
I think this is an important story to be told and be in the library of options for people (especially teens) to see. However, because it is so overt in its message, I wonder if that detracts from its enjoyment. It did a bit for me, it felt a little bit like an after school special, even though it was enjoyable. However, I am past the targeted age for this book, and I like long and complex stories, so perhaps this is not an issue for a different reader. I think I do have issues with single stories in general sometimes being simplistic, and this is just exaggerated in a graphic novel where there are wayyyyy less words, and every scene needs multiple panels, so it must be so much more work for its authors.
In terms of the characters, I know it was pretty purposeful that we didn’t know Laura Dean, but because we didn’t, it felt like there was a lot of grief and anguish over this nothing of a person. I bet this is what the author wanted us to feel, to then be able to reflect that back into our lives, but I also had a harder time feeling emotionally involved in the story because of this. I also think if we felt connected to Laura Dean too, like we had gone through the meeting of her and experienced the highs, then experienced over and over again the breakups, we would too be able to feel what Freddy felt. We would be able to get to also experience having to break up with someone despite loving them. We would get to experience this within the safety of a book, so if/when we got into a situation like this in real life we would be able to pull from this experience. But no, instead we learn that this is a thing that can possibly happen, so we should just know for the future. I guess if someone has already experienced something like this it could be validating to know that their experience wasn’t abnormal. But overall, I think I was just missing feeling a deep emotional connection.
For the graphic novel portion. I liked the colour palette. It was fun, and using pink to point out what to focus on (or not to focus on) was a cool use of colour. However, I found some of the panels really messy, and I couldn’t understand what was going on sometimes. This didn’t hinder my experience overall since it was usually just in the background or scene setting panels. And perhaps if I spent more time I could have figured out what was going on, but I do think sometimes it was hard to decipher. This is especially true after just having read “The Girl From the Sea” where it was immediately clear what was going on in every panel.
So overall, I like that this book exists because it and stories like it are needed, however I mostly like it for what it tells me about the future and what books I could get in the future that are like this but a bit better executed.
Looking back on this review, it can kind of seem like this is a boring book with nothing going for it. I did like the lesbian rep. I did like how the story was different from what I have read/seen before. I did like how some of the panels looked and how they flowed into one another. It was a pretty and visually engaging book to look at. However, I do unfortunately see this book more as a stepping stone on the path to more queer rep, than as part of the destination.
This book explores how messy relationships and breakups can be. But it also explores how it intersects with being queer, and how this intersection adds new complications that can be confusing for everyone, but especially young people. Also putting a premium on a certain type of “love stories” has left a lot of us with a pretty simplistic view of what a relationship should look like and how the goal should be love. Anyone venturing beyond what is shown primarily in books and tv is going to be understandably a bit confused.
I think this is an important story to be told and be in the library of options for people (especially teens) to see. However, because it is so overt in its message, I wonder if that detracts from its enjoyment. It did a bit for me, it felt a little bit like an after school special, even though it was enjoyable. However, I am past the targeted age for this book, and I like long and complex stories, so perhaps this is not an issue for a different reader. I think I do have issues with single stories in general sometimes being simplistic, and this is just exaggerated in a graphic novel where there are wayyyyy less words, and every scene needs multiple panels, so it must be so much more work for its authors.
In terms of the characters, I know it was pretty purposeful that we didn’t know Laura Dean, but because we didn’t, it felt like there was a lot of grief and anguish over this nothing of a person. I bet this is what the author wanted us to feel, to then be able to reflect that back into our lives, but I also had a harder time feeling emotionally involved in the story because of this. I also think if we felt connected to Laura Dean too, like we had gone through the meeting of her and experienced the highs, then experienced over and over again the breakups, we would too be able to feel what Freddy felt. We would be able to get to also experience having to break up with someone despite loving them. We would get to experience this within the safety of a book, so if/when we got into a situation like this in real life we would be able to pull from this experience. But no, instead we learn that this is a thing that can possibly happen, so we should just know for the future. I guess if someone has already experienced something like this it could be validating to know that their experience wasn’t abnormal. But overall, I think I was just missing feeling a deep emotional connection.
For the graphic novel portion. I liked the colour palette. It was fun, and using pink to point out what to focus on (or not to focus on) was a cool use of colour. However, I found some of the panels really messy, and I couldn’t understand what was going on sometimes. This didn’t hinder my experience overall since it was usually just in the background or scene setting panels. And perhaps if I spent more time I could have figured out what was going on, but I do think sometimes it was hard to decipher. This is especially true after just having read “The Girl From the Sea” where it was immediately clear what was going on in every panel.
So overall, I like that this book exists because it and stories like it are needed, however I mostly like it for what it tells me about the future and what books I could get in the future that are like this but a bit better executed.
Looking back on this review, it can kind of seem like this is a boring book with nothing going for it. I did like the lesbian rep. I did like how the story was different from what I have read/seen before. I did like how some of the panels looked and how they flowed into one another. It was a pretty and visually engaging book to look at. However, I do unfortunately see this book more as a stepping stone on the path to more queer rep, than as part of the destination.
alcopops's review against another edition
5.0
This graphic novel was an interesting and lovely read. There are some harder parts throughout but overall I think it's a nice view into a life that revolves around a toxic relationship and getting out of that.
The art in this novel is beyond beautiful, the colour palette drew me in and I couldn't wait to see what was on the next page.
I really enjoyed the characters, I loved how much diversity was in the book along with POC rep and being queer was not an odd thing.
I'd recommend this read if you're looking for a heartfelt, interesting and uplifting time.
The art in this novel is beyond beautiful, the colour palette drew me in and I couldn't wait to see what was on the next page.
I really enjoyed the characters, I loved how much diversity was in the book along with POC rep and being queer was not an odd thing.
I'd recommend this read if you're looking for a heartfelt, interesting and uplifting time.