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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
This was fun and nostalgic, as it was set in 2005. I really didn't know anything about it before reading - I picked it up purely on the cover, as it looked summer campy. It honestly ended super abruptly and was kind of sad!
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
C'est chouette de lire des histoires d'amitié entre ado qui ne sont pas complètement idéalisées. La petite bande de copines qui décident de commencer un trafic dans leur école catho fait un sujet assez original et j'ai bien aimé voir comment évolue la dynamique entre chaque personne du groupe. J'ai par contre eu du mal à suivre ma lecture avec toutes les infos données sur toutes les pages sur tous les personnages secondaires. Ca a un côté rigolo mais qui peut vite faire saturer. La fin m'a aussi paru super sombre et m'a laissé sur un sentiment d'inachevé et de cruauté un peu gratuite.
Very visually overwhelming, lots of speech bubbles and arrows, and with the monotone colour theme it was difficult to navigate. This world is OVER developed and I did not need to be receiving all the information I was, cut it in half and you’re golden.
73%
fascinating way to show the lives of teens; kind of felt like a 90s teen coming-of-age movie in style. that being said, the vague ending and side character semi-arcs (i.e. Hank) felt bizarre and side-stepped feeling relevant.
fascinating way to show the lives of teens; kind of felt like a 90s teen coming-of-age movie in style. that being said, the vague ending and side character semi-arcs (i.e. Hank) felt bizarre and side-stepped feeling relevant.
emotional
funny
mysterious
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:
Yes
HS is hard
Friends brought together by the oddities of fate and their quirkiness…establish a criminal bootleg scheme…
Forest Hills Bootleg Society by Dave Baker and NICOLE. GOUX is a cute story of young high schoolers trying to get by in the early 2000s…
Four young girls from small town California (Forest Hills) are into pizza movie nights, anime, and just getting by in the strange cruel world of high school (a Christian academy specifically), when they find a way to make a little extra cash by selling some bootleg anime (that may or may not count as porn) to their fellow students…
Meanwhile, they navigate young love, school cliques, all the overwhelming feelings and thoughts of teenager-hood…while trying to stay friends when the urge to branch out and be friends with other (UNKNOWN!!) people is a constant danger…
This book is for people who were young, liked anime, comics, weird stuff, and maybe only had a smal circle of friends to rely on while also feeling anxious or mildly autistic about what the future might hold.
I tried this because the cover reminded me of Proctor Valley Road, but I’d say this is sort of a modern coming up age tale (set in the distant year of 2005) similar to the Body or the Wonder Years.
There’s no murder mystery, not horrible monster, no aliens, no dark secret…just some kids trying to be kids and get by and enjoy themselves…
Forest Hills Bootleg Society by Dave Baker and NICOLE. GOUX is a cute story of young high schoolers trying to get by in the early 2000s…
Four young girls from small town California (Forest Hills) are into pizza movie nights, anime, and just getting by in the strange cruel world of high school (a Christian academy specifically), when they find a way to make a little extra cash by selling some bootleg anime (that may or may not count as porn) to their fellow students…
Meanwhile, they navigate young love, school cliques, all the overwhelming feelings and thoughts of teenager-hood…while trying to stay friends when the urge to branch out and be friends with other (UNKNOWN!!) people is a constant danger…
This book is for people who were young, liked anime, comics, weird stuff, and maybe only had a smal circle of friends to rely on while also feeling anxious or mildly autistic about what the future might hold.
I tried this because the cover reminded me of Proctor Valley Road, but I’d say this is sort of a modern coming up age tale (set in the distant year of 2005) similar to the Body or the Wonder Years.
There’s no murder mystery, not horrible monster, no aliens, no dark secret…just some kids trying to be kids and get by and enjoy themselves…
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Forest Hills could be described as a “small town,“ which is true, but doesn’t begin to examine the depths of the repressive and toxic culture it produces, despite having recently entered the new millennium.
If I had to describe this graphic novel in one sentence, I’d go with, “An exploration of a friendship falling apart.“ Like with any dissolving friendship, there’s a lot of stuff going into it: first love gone wrong, problems with parents, religious guilt, small town angst, money problems, peer pressure, teenage hierarchies, and a daring plot to get rich by selling illegal copies of hentai anime. That last one was the part of the blurb that intrigued me the most, but it’s the rest of it that made the book fly by.
I really loved the art—the style reminded me a bit of Tillie Walden’s works. The format was also cool, with the story essentially getting told through the POV of an unknown omniscient narrator with unbridled access to all the four girls’ innermost thoughts, constantly adding small comments about other characters and places in town. That format is a pretty cool factor adding to the story, constantly adding interesting juxtapositions for the main characters’ experiences.
Speaking of the main characters, all four girls are complex and fully realized characters with their own flaws, pain points, and dreams. It’s hard to agree with a lot of the choices they make, but easy to understand why they make them. Each of them is conflicted and messy in all the ways teens can be, and some parts of their intertwining stories really sent me back to my own teenage years.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Infidelity, Religious bigotry
Moderate: Suicide
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
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
Wow. I haven't read a book in such a long time that captures the feeling of what it's like to be on the outside in high school. I think this book is going to grow in popularity as the years go on. With a gut punch at the end it really leaves you with his lingering feeling of that post graduation haziness that you get before you enter the next stage of your life.