A review by breezrose
A Map to the Sun by Sloane Leong

4.0

Spoiler

I received an advance copy of this from NetGalley and First Second for an honest review. A Map to the Sun follows the lives and friendships of five high school girls as they navigate the bumps of adolescence and join a new basketball team at their school. The story opens with the birth of Ren and Luna’s captivating friendship that is interrupted when Luna suddenly moves away and falls out of touch. From the first panels, basketball is introduced as the running theme that brings Ren and Luna together, keeps Ren grounded, and brings the five girls together when an optimistic teacher at school starts a girl’s team despite a lack of funding and support.

The challenges each girl faces in their own lives were complex and heavy but believable. None of their story lines resolve fully, which I appreciated as that isn’t how life is. The final emphasis was on the friendships that were developed and the personal growth Ren experiences over the course of the story. The use of color was fantastic, each page was beautiful.

There were several points in the dialogue that didn’t sound realistic as a teen voice which pulled me out of the story from time to time. I also thought that Jetta’s secret relationship and breakup with the teacher was rushed and brushed off once it was over (1-2 pages that revealed the relationship and one page for the breakup). I think if that kind of situation is going to be portrayed in YA content it should be done with care. It certainly wasn’t endorsed by the other characters who knew about it, but it was handled as if she broke up with someone her own age. Once all of the main characters were introduced the story moved between them all, so I can understand if there wasn’t time to go into more depth with each of them, but in that case I think a student teacher relationship should be omitted.