A review by babs_jellymuck
Kiss Number 8 by Colleen AF Venable

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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

5.0

This book surprised me— not sure what I was expecting but there’s a lot going on here. I felt that the writer & illustrator really channelled the drama & extremes of being a teen and trying to figure everything out. (I will say, they really did the mom dirty in the beginning.) Mad’s dad was honestly heartbreaking for me- the warmth and silly jokes shadowed by transphobia and hatred reminded me loosely of one of my uncles. Mads reminded me so much of myself, though I kept all those rants and questions inside.  I found the ending encouraging despite the difficult sections. I also appreciated that the writer allowed the protagonist to continue experimenting and finding out what she was about. I’m going to add this to the list of books I wish I had read when I was a lost little teen, and then a lost little twenty-something, and then a lost little thirty-something.

Oh, and the illustrations were incredible. I will probably give this book away, but I found the artist Ellen Crenshaw’s process fascinating (replicable?). I am going to jot it down here to reference later:

Colleen: Art nerd time! What tools did you use to draw KN8?
E: I penciled the book in Photoshop using my trusty old Wacom Inuos4. Then I printed the pages in blue line onto Arches hot press watercolor paper. (My printer is an Epson R1900. You may note that my equipment is a few generations old, because I hate updating when something works.) I inked the pages with Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star HiCarb ink and Winsor & Newton Series 7 brushes. (Many brushes died int he making of this book.) The tones were done with the same ink and a variety of synthetic watercolor brushes. Then I scanned each page with my Epson V500 scanner. Whew!