Reviews - Forest Hills Bootleg Society

283 reviews for:

Forest Hills Bootleg Society

Dave Baker

3.49 AVERAGE

laurenla's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

a nail-biting, sends you back to high school graphic novel with a snapshot of life in a Christian boarding school...

laura_mcgovern's review against another edition

3.0

challenging reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

mycatsnameistofu's review against another edition

3.25

Maybe I’m a softie but that ending was not for me. It felt like the whole book was building towards it and then it fell really flat and was a bit of a disappointment.

bonnieebrown's review against another edition

3.0

emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

babymoomoocow's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging emotional funny inspiring lighthearted 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

Honestly, this art style I'm a sucker for. On top of that it's such a charming story. I liked all the side bubbles explaining things about characters. it's so funny to me. The use of panels to convey things other than what inside the panel. On top of that, at the end of the book the author says the story took them years to make it. And it shows (in a good way). All the characters feel well fleshed out.

I really liked seeing a queer story set in the early 2000s. It's charming and easily the squads dynamics are relatable. Not sure who's tighter with who, someone into other things a little too much. All of the characters were relatable in their own right.

A great book to casually read during pride month!

twiller's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark emotional funny medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book is very technically well-made—the art is detailed and fluid, the writing is witty and evocative, the setting is well fleshed-out and feels very “lived in”—but I personally don’t like it as much as I could because I’m terminally allergic to anything that isn’t a cartoonishly happy ending. The doctors say there’s no cure 😔😔

Content Warnings

tshepiso's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 54%

Unfortunately, Forest Hills Bootleg Society was another miss. However, I have really been struggling to connect with coming-of-age graphic novels for the last few weeks so this may be more a reflection of my headspace at the moment than the quality of this book in particular. This graphic novel follows a group of anime-loving high schoolers in a Christian boarding school. The girls after accidentally acquiring hentai begin selling copies of it to their peers to enormous success.

One of my biggest problems with this book was its style. I felt constantly overwhelmed by superfluous text as I was reading this story. Author Dave Baker often filled the page with quirky character details in text boxes and splash pages. While more justified for our four lead characters this tendency to overexplain with text was used to an aggravating degree. This book gives us the full names and personality details of minor side characters with little to no dialogue or plot relevance to the story. While I can't say this made Forest Hills a complete slog it was often tedious.

Nicole Goux's illustration style was also a little too busy for my taste. Her pages were filled with details I could imagine another reader loving to take in but, like the text, it just overwhelmed me. Despite that her illustration and colouring overall were solid. Her modern style is reminiscent of webcomics and felt appropriate for this coming-of-age narrative.

Thematically I think Forest Hills Bootleg Society could connect with people. Baker and Goux explore being closeted in a small town, religious guilt, first love, and the messiness of female friendships. However, I, unfortunately, didn't quite connect to the story like I hoped I would. Honestly. outside of the art style, I can't exactly pin down what I didn't like about this book. All I can say is halfway through it I paused to ask myself if I truly cared to find out how the story would unfold and the honest answer was no.