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citrus_seasalt's reviews
316 reviews
A Bánh Mì for Two by Trinity Nguyen
4.0
Like all good romance stories—particularly romcoms—this was adorable and emotional in nearly equal measure. Honestly, I found myself sad to be finishing this! It is by all means a tropey romance, but the author’s evident passion, and the wholesomeness of Lan and Vivi’s relationship kept me recommending this to my friends literally as I was reading it. (Can we appreciate the Mid-Autumn Festival kiss trope? I’m slowly starting to realize that’s one of my favorites!) The food descriptions were absolutely mouthwatering! I also loved the bits of historical context included on the different dishes throughout(even touching on some of their ties to imperialism and colonialism), and that Trinity Nguyen included multiple Vietnamese ethnic groups in the plot.
Vivi’s plot around reconnecting with her culture was handled interestingly. We got to see her grow to love Saigon because of Lan, have a lot of fun gathering material for Lan’s journalism (unironically love the excuse to travel around the city and have great food… yum), and originally focus on bonding with Lan over the places and parts she found joy in. But we also got to see Vivi grow to reconcile with her family’s history and trauma, while still finding pride and resilience from that. Although, the wording of these different emotions and themes is kind of simplistic, as to be expected from a younger YA novel that’s still fairly light. (And some of the explanations around Vietnamese language and culture(s) make the overall book feel educational, but in a way intended for those not as familiar with it. So either non-Vietnamese readers or those still reconnecting, like Vivi..? I’m in that former group, so I’m not sure how much I can complain, but I’m kinda used to YA stories that expect the readers to be within the cultures they’re writing about and therefore don’t explain as much. That was jarring for me.)
I won’t lie though, Vivi’s lies to her mom got increasingly unbelievable and embarrassing, I had to skim over those parts☠️
Admittedly, the romance itself was a little rushed—to be expected, when the story takes place only around the course of a week or two—but I could still understand how Lan and Vivi were able to connect. I enjoyed the way they were able to still be compassionate towards each other, even if their experiences were vastly different (particularly around family issues and grief). They were also an adorable pairing!! I don’t have any put-together reviewer words for that.
Holy shit though, the last thing I expected from this novel was a poignant depiction of grief, and being a teen dealing with the responsibility you force upon yourself because of that. Not only did I appreciate Lan’s grief still being an ebbing and flowing thing years after her father’s death happened, but ugh. The conversation she had with her mom at the end, and Lan finally going through her father’s books, made me actually cry. Like damn.
Banger of a debut, I’m very excited to see what Trinity Nguyen writes next :)
Vivi’s plot around reconnecting with her culture was handled interestingly. We got to see her grow to love Saigon because of Lan, have a lot of fun gathering material for Lan’s journalism (unironically love the excuse to travel around the city and have great food… yum), and originally focus on bonding with Lan over the places and parts she found joy in. But we also got to see Vivi grow to reconcile with her family’s history and trauma, while still finding pride and resilience from that. Although, the wording of these different emotions and themes is kind of simplistic, as to be expected from a younger YA novel that’s still fairly light. (And some of the explanations around Vietnamese language and culture(s) make the overall book feel educational, but in a way intended for those not as familiar with it. So either non-Vietnamese readers or those still reconnecting, like Vivi..? I’m in that former group, so I’m not sure how much I can complain, but I’m kinda used to YA stories that expect the readers to be within the cultures they’re writing about and therefore don’t explain as much. That was jarring for me.)
I won’t lie though, Vivi’s lies to her mom got increasingly unbelievable and embarrassing, I had to skim over those parts☠️
Admittedly, the romance itself was a little rushed—to be expected, when the story takes place only around the course of a week or two—but I could still understand how Lan and Vivi were able to connect. I enjoyed the way they were able to still be compassionate towards each other, even if their experiences were vastly different (particularly around family issues and grief). They were also an adorable pairing!! I don’t have any put-together reviewer words for that.
Holy shit though, the last thing I expected from this novel was a poignant depiction of grief, and being a teen dealing with the responsibility you force upon yourself because of that. Not only did I appreciate Lan’s grief still being an ebbing and flowing thing years after her father’s death happened, but ugh. The conversation she had with her mom at the end, and Lan finally going through her father’s books, made me actually cry. Like damn.
Banger of a debut, I’m very excited to see what Trinity Nguyen writes next :)
House of Elephants by Claribel A. Ortega
4.25
MANY THOUGHTS. But to start:
1) I am continually amazed by how this series can examine and put its young characters through the different, complex emotions I would expect them to, but still stick to a simplified/distinctly juvenile style.
2) SYBELL I AM YOUR BIGGEST FAN😭🫶they were AWESOME in the last act but ugh. What happened to them made me SEETHE! but fiinneee we need another major conflict for the fourth book
3) I was iffy on the sheer amount of buildup, but it paid off with *that* moment (I mean, Valley’s on the cover. That’s already a spoiler). However, the sheer amount of plot points that couldn’t be wrapped up or addressed until then made the pacing a mess. Doesn’t help that each chapter seems to end on an action or a cliffhanger.
4) So many plot points happened in this book. A good number of them are wrapped up by the end but, dear god.
I will put up the rest of my thoughts later. I will say that although this is a very flawed continuation, I adored the continuations of all the main characters (Seven was always a favorite and that still remains the case), and this brought back some of the magic I was missing in “Golden Frog Games”.
1) I am continually amazed by how this series can examine and put its young characters through the different, complex emotions I would expect them to, but still stick to a simplified/distinctly juvenile style.
2) SYBELL I AM YOUR BIGGEST FAN😭🫶they were AWESOME in the last act but ugh. What happened to them made me SEETHE! but fiinneee we need another major conflict for the fourth book
3) I was iffy on the sheer amount of buildup, but it paid off with *that* moment (I mean, Valley’s on the cover. That’s already a spoiler). However, the sheer amount of plot points that couldn’t be wrapped up or addressed until then made the pacing a mess. Doesn’t help that each chapter seems to end on an action or a cliffhanger.
4) So many plot points happened in this book. A good number of them are wrapped up by the end but, dear god.
I will put up the rest of my thoughts later. I will say that although this is a very flawed continuation, I adored the continuations of all the main characters (Seven was always a favorite and that still remains the case), and this brought back some of the magic I was missing in “Golden Frog Games”.
Death's Country by R.M. Romero
3.0
Hm… I was disappointed by this novel after anticipating it the moment I finished “A Warning About Swans”, but I enjoyed it slightly more than I thought I would based on the first half. I tried suspending my disbelief for the in-verse aspect, since I’m used to reading YA in the genre and know that of course some of the dialogue is going to be more flowery or obvious to get the story across, but I just couldn’t get invested in the characters. The writing tries to be as lush for the characters as it is for the darkly magical, neon-colored underworld, but instead it feels like it is too focused on aesthetics and seeming profound to have any kind of substance.
In a Eurydices and Orpheus retelling, one of the biggest issues that you can have is failing to create a convincing (or memorable) romance. Unfortunately, that was the case in “Death’s Country”, and it was what plummeted my rating the moment I reached the initial beach meet-cute. Incorporating the mermaid and prince motif/metaphor in their dialogue was also a strange creative choice, this was when the three of them were still in a contemporary setting, so it just felt cringy. (None of the actions and dialogue felt realistic either, lmfao?? I had to shut my book for a moment.) And while I appreciate that Liora’s arc was meant to critique the MPDG undertones of her character, she spent so much time being a plot device that there wasn’t enough depth to counteract that.
(Also. What is it with my 3 star YA reads overusing lyrics from “Space Oddity” by David Bowie??)
I will say, though, that I liked the Underworld itself (in all its strangely Wonderland-esque glory), the character of Virgil (although he didn’t have a lot of on-page time), the very beginning (I was SO prepared for this to give me Anna-Marie McLemore vibes!! Ugh!), and the final twist of what Andres’s offering to Death was.
I’m used to Romero having on-the-nose writing, but this didn’t have the same emotional pull and depth, in my opinion. Perhaps this comes from there being so much subject matter that isn’t given a lot of time to be handled.
In a Eurydices and Orpheus retelling, one of the biggest issues that you can have is failing to create a convincing (or memorable) romance. Unfortunately, that was the case in “Death’s Country”, and it was what plummeted my rating the moment I reached the initial beach meet-cute. Incorporating the mermaid and prince motif/metaphor in their dialogue was also a strange creative choice, this was when the three of them were still in a contemporary setting, so it just felt cringy. (None of the actions and dialogue felt realistic either, lmfao?? I had to shut my book for a moment.) And while I appreciate that Liora’s arc was meant to critique the MPDG undertones of her character, she spent so much time being a plot device that there wasn’t enough depth to counteract that.
(Also. What is it with my 3 star YA reads overusing lyrics from “Space Oddity” by David Bowie??)
I will say, though, that I liked the Underworld itself (in all its strangely Wonderland-esque glory), the character of Virgil (although he didn’t have a lot of on-page time), the very beginning (I was SO prepared for this to give me Anna-Marie McLemore vibes!! Ugh!), and the final twist of what Andres’s offering to Death was.
I’m used to Romero having on-the-nose writing, but this didn’t have the same emotional pull and depth, in my opinion. Perhaps this comes from there being so much subject matter that isn’t given a lot of time to be handled.
Faeries Never Lie: Tales to Revel In by Natalie C. Parker, Zoraida Córdova
4.0
I haven’t read “Vampires Never Grow Old” so I have no authority to review or criticize that anthology, but I did read “Mermaids Never Drown”, and can say that I thought this one was so much better?!?! That one was fun, yes, but I thought the stories in “Faeries Never Lie” stuck with me more, on both a writing and emotional standpoint. Though, more of my favorites were from the authors I wasn’t as familiar with. (Ryan La Sala’s story was underwhelming, and I was really looking forward to it. Conflicted on what to feel about Rory Power’s story because I didn’t dig the flowery writing, but I loved the ending and how messed up it was.)
Perhaps it’s also because there’s a bit more substance to connect all the stories together. Are they in an interconnected universe? Absolutely not. (Some of these stories are even from existing books by the authors they’re written by. See: “Blue Amber” and “The Honest Folk”.) However, they all captured the allure, mystery, and even threat of faeries, even if the degrees of each thing varied based on the author. A couple of these were willing to go the horror route, actually, and while those didn’t end up on my favorites list, they were still enjoyable. (See: “Fool” and “Dear Diary”.)
I’ll admit, though, there were some stories I just thought were mediocre or rushed. A couple of these ideas seem like they’d work better in a longer form, like the magic school we see a glimpse of in “The New Girl At Autumn Prep”. (I also liked the idea of showing colonialism through the bits of history on the Courts, and white-centric beauty standards through the glamours! I just disliked how because of the length, the exposition was plentiful and rushed. Gah.) (…reading about an Indigenous-coded character going to a magic school to exceed in a space meant for her colonizers really makes me want to move “To Shape A Dragon’s Breath” up my TBR.) The only other story I can think of feeling rushed like that was “Revelry”, everything happened at a breakneck pace and the cliffhanger was frustrating.
Enough rambling! I’ll list my favorites: “Rotten”(5⭐️), “Blue Amber”(4.5⭐️), “The Honest Folk”(5⭐️), “Birch Kiss”(4.5⭐️), and “La Tierra Del Olvido”(4.25⭐️). “Rotten” was surprisingly unpredictable, with a snarky and intelligent protagonist that still found a way to meet her downfall, and I liked the Southern setting. “Blue Amber” was a stellar continuation of a universe I never thought I’d want to read from again, and captured some of the magic and poetry I’ve adored Anna-Marie McLemore’s books for. “The Honest Folk” was gripping from start to end, providing a memorable story that people who hadn’t read Folk Of The Air can still enjoy, and giving nods to the lore that longtime fans will love. “Birch Kiss” was a beautiful exploration of love, grief and gender—even the Prince is just a woman who uses that title!! The gender-fuckery is everywhere!—although, I do think that East’s dysphoric yearning about West could get toxic at times.
If you’re limiting yourself to only checking out one of the Untold Legends anthologies, I’d recommend this one! It was great.
Perhaps it’s also because there’s a bit more substance to connect all the stories together. Are they in an interconnected universe? Absolutely not. (Some of these stories are even from existing books by the authors they’re written by. See: “Blue Amber” and “The Honest Folk”.) However, they all captured the allure, mystery, and even threat of faeries, even if the degrees of each thing varied based on the author. A couple of these were willing to go the horror route, actually, and while those didn’t end up on my favorites list, they were still enjoyable. (See: “Fool” and “Dear Diary”.)
I’ll admit, though, there were some stories I just thought were mediocre or rushed. A couple of these ideas seem like they’d work better in a longer form, like the magic school we see a glimpse of in “The New Girl At Autumn Prep”. (I also liked the idea of showing colonialism through the bits of history on the Courts, and white-centric beauty standards through the glamours! I just disliked how because of the length, the exposition was plentiful and rushed. Gah.) (…reading about an Indigenous-coded character going to a magic school to exceed in a space meant for her colonizers really makes me want to move “To Shape A Dragon’s Breath” up my TBR.) The only other story I can think of feeling rushed like that was “Revelry”, everything happened at a breakneck pace and the cliffhanger was frustrating.
Enough rambling! I’ll list my favorites: “Rotten”(5⭐️), “Blue Amber”(4.5⭐️), “The Honest Folk”(5⭐️), “Birch Kiss”(4.5⭐️), and “La Tierra Del Olvido”(4.25⭐️). “Rotten” was surprisingly unpredictable, with a snarky and intelligent protagonist that still found a way to meet her downfall, and I liked the Southern setting. “Blue Amber” was a stellar continuation of a universe I never thought I’d want to read from again, and captured some of the magic and poetry I’ve adored Anna-Marie McLemore’s books for. “The Honest Folk” was gripping from start to end, providing a memorable story that people who hadn’t read Folk Of The Air can still enjoy, and giving nods to the lore that longtime fans will love. “Birch Kiss” was a beautiful exploration of love, grief and gender—even the Prince is just a woman who uses that title!! The gender-fuckery is everywhere!—although, I do think that East’s dysphoric yearning about West could get toxic at times.
If you’re limiting yourself to only checking out one of the Untold Legends anthologies, I’d recommend this one! It was great.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Infidelity, Sexual content, Abandonment
The Flicker by H.E. Edgmon
4.25
I’ll admit, I thought based on the summary that this would be too dark of a middle grade for readers within the target demographic. And while I still think that whoever does read it will have to have some level of maturity(probably within the 10-12 group), there was enough of a hopeful tone to keep this from feeling unpleasant to read. This was an emotional look at loss and community, with the kids acting age-appropriate. (Especially with most of them grappling with being forced to grow up too fast.)
Also, this is the second queer Appalachian book I’ve read that has a central dog character that survives to the end! Hello, Corncob. (Malnourished baby ☹️)
The main characters—Rose and Millie—sometimes made me want to pull my hair out just because of how hostile they were towards each other at the beginning, but their interpretation’s of each other’s actions and coping mechanisms were completely understandable. They knew they were all the other had, yes, but they hated their roles of assumed responsibility and that they had no one else. It made their thoughts and psychology really interesting to read??? I feel like two siblings, realistically, would find it difficult to be around each other in an apocalyptic setting. (Also, I saw some of myself in Millie.)
Are some of the story beats predictable? Absolutely. But the twists were always so much fun, they were so juicy and added a lot to the characters. It’s one of the parts that made me stay up to finish this.
One of the things that made this story stand out to me, though, was that indigenous narratives are incorporated into an apocalypse scenario. Millie might not be as connected to her Seminole heritage as Rose thought she was, but she isn’t disconnected from her experience as an Indigenous kid. There were glimpses of how she viewed different entities (or people?) like The Hive slightly differently because she saw parallels to her ancestors’ history, but the bigger part of that was the overall discussion on colonialism and climate change being intrinsically tied. I think both of those things felt like they were talked about in a way the younger readers could start to grasp, even if they wouldn’t know all of the complexities yet.
On the topic of the kids acting like kids, the scene of Rose accidentally coming out to Olly was hilarious. Very much had the vibes of a middle school recess comeback.
However, I wanted some more substance from the Lost Boys’ group dynamic. There wasn’t as much time for the kids to forge their own bonds with Rose and Millie, so they felt more like a collective than a found family where I could be attached to all the members. Ben, however!!! I loved how his struggle as a caretaker was handled and how that so clearly paralleled Millie. He was such a strong character and his journal entries brought me to tears.
And this is a minor thing, but at the beginning, when the world was still being introduced, the writing somewhat covertly used Rose’s interest in reading as a way to describe it. Books themselves, too, are a motif throughout—usually, to mark privilege and access to resources—and that was such a creative method of worldbuilding???
This might become a favorite of mine. “The Flicker” had the character beats I adore in apocalypse narratives, but with a quarter of the on-page deaths (key words: “on-page”), and almost half of the usual stress. I’m curious to know what younger readers actually within the demographic think, though! (Maybe I’ll find out from a parent’s Bookstagram or if I get the chance to go to an author event, who knows.)
*************
pre-review:
Was this a particularly unique post-apocalyptic universe?? By no means. Was I still invested the whole time? Oh absolutely.
RTC
Also, this is the second queer Appalachian book I’ve read that has a central dog character that survives to the end! Hello, Corncob. (Malnourished baby ☹️)
The main characters—Rose and Millie—sometimes made me want to pull my hair out just because of how hostile they were towards each other at the beginning, but their interpretation’s of each other’s actions and coping mechanisms were completely understandable. They knew they were all the other had, yes, but they hated their roles of assumed responsibility and that they had no one else. It made their thoughts and psychology really interesting to read??? I feel like two siblings, realistically, would find it difficult to be around each other in an apocalyptic setting. (Also, I saw some of myself in Millie.)
Are some of the story beats predictable? Absolutely. But the twists were always so much fun, they were so juicy and added a lot to the characters. It’s one of the parts that made me stay up to finish this.
One of the things that made this story stand out to me, though, was that indigenous narratives are incorporated into an apocalypse scenario. Millie might not be as connected to her Seminole heritage as Rose thought she was, but she isn’t disconnected from her experience as an Indigenous kid. There were glimpses of how she viewed different entities (or people?) like The Hive slightly differently because she saw parallels to her ancestors’ history, but the bigger part of that was the overall discussion on colonialism and climate change being intrinsically tied. I think both of those things felt like they were talked about in a way the younger readers could start to grasp, even if they wouldn’t know all of the complexities yet.
On the topic of the kids acting like kids, the scene of Rose accidentally coming out to Olly was hilarious. Very much had the vibes of a middle school recess comeback.
However, I wanted some more substance from the Lost Boys’ group dynamic. There wasn’t as much time for the kids to forge their own bonds with Rose and Millie, so they felt more like a collective than a found family where I could be attached to all the members. Ben, however!!! I loved how his struggle as a caretaker was handled and how that so clearly paralleled Millie. He was such a strong character and his journal entries brought me to tears.
And this is a minor thing, but at the beginning, when the world was still being introduced, the writing somewhat covertly used Rose’s interest in reading as a way to describe it. Books themselves, too, are a motif throughout—usually, to mark privilege and access to resources—and that was such a creative method of worldbuilding???
This might become a favorite of mine. “The Flicker” had the character beats I adore in apocalypse narratives, but with a quarter of the on-page deaths (key words: “on-page”), and almost half of the usual stress. I’m curious to know what younger readers actually within the demographic think, though! (Maybe I’ll find out from a parent’s Bookstagram or if I get the chance to go to an author event, who knows.)
*************
pre-review:
Was this a particularly unique post-apocalyptic universe?? By no means. Was I still invested the whole time? Oh absolutely.
RTC
The Summer Hikaru Died, Vol. 2 by Mokumokuren
4.0
gay baby eldritch horror you have to stop. your delicate balance between being horrifying and wholesome is too different. your swag too off-putting. your yaoi too toxic. they’ll kill you
Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White
Things I didn’t like:
The reviews across StoryGraph and Goodreads seem to still be overwhelmingly positive, but I’m very curious to see everyone’s thoughts because I can definitely see this becoming the most divisive of Andrew Joseph White’s books.
guys I lied about not creating a review oopsies (jk. I just changed my mind.) However, bc my brain turned into a soup with all the different opinions I read on this book, I give up on trying to give it a star rating. (Also because I feel this was comparatively weaker, in regards to AJW’s published works.) (P.S., I raised my TSBIT rating up by .25 stars.)
I’ll be doing my review in a list format, a la my I Feed Her To The Beast review.
Things I liked:
I’ll be doing my review in a list format, a la my I Feed Her To The Beast review.
Things I liked:
- As per usual, AJW’s autism rep hits, and the gore is fantastic.
- It’s incredibly rare to see alloaro rep in YA fiction and I liked how the questioning arc was handled.
- Lady!! Not only was she a dog that stayed alive, but she was also an active character, and I rarely see or read that in thrillers/horror. I’ll admit I could tell when she was included for narrative convenience, but at her core she was very much just a dog, and existed outside of being a last-minute option for help.
- Miles’s moral dilemma regarding the murder was very interesting, even though it
didn’t appear much in the plot after Cooper’s death. - The family relationships were all interesting! They all felt like pretty realistic dynamics, too, and I especially liked how the adults were brought into the final act. And on the topic of characters, I also enjoyed Miles and Dallas’s friendship. Dallas was a lovable character and I loved how while they offered some support for Miles(even though they had very little information, too!), they still had moments of visible vulnerability.
- Despite how difficult the story was for me to read (I’m in a pretty stressed and terrible emotional state right now), I couldn’t put the book down! There’s so much lore embedded into the Abernathy history and the entire plot, too.
- The bits of text speak were realistic for teenagers, actually.
- The tension, in the first quarter especially, was splendid. I loved how the story threw you into the action without a warning, and how Davies remained not just menacing, but a genuine threat to the cast.
- I listened along to the audiobook for the last 15 or so chapters (it sounds like a lot, but some of them are very short), and holy shit the narrator was fantastic!! They absolutely nailed each character’s emotions and personalities. Now I wish I’d listened to the entire book, too.
Things I didn’t like:
- While I have no issue with important characters that aren’t meant to be good people, I could predict where Cooper’s arc would go from the moment the haircut scene happened.
Him turning out to be a transphobic shitheel and betraying Miles’s trust reminded me too much of Theo from HFWU, and I found the deadnaming from him specifically to be unnecessary. I think I’m just starting to notice a trend in AJW’s books though where the guy the MC trusts most to affirm or support him ends up completely turning against and misgendering him. - While I appreciate that YA with radical politics (and bits of strike history) like this one can exist, a lot of the concepts and philosophy felt repeated. (I also feel like the ending was a too optimistic when it came to the overwhelmingly conservative population statistics… surprisingly, a lot of Miles and his family’s actions went unchallenged?)
- Re: politics, socialism and communism were talked about interchangeably…
- The tension was slightly lessened by the pacing. Miles had a lot of shit to figure out, between his family’s safety, coming out, figuring out his sexuality, and figuring out he’s autistic, but it buffered the plot. I was expecting more carnage from the intense beginning, and very little of the book after that was actual murder.
- While the story is technically paranormal, the ghost elements are sparse. Not in a way that makes them ambiguous, though, so it just becomes a little frustrating to see how little they affect the events of the plot?
The reviews across StoryGraph and Goodreads seem to still be overwhelmingly positive, but I’m very curious to see everyone’s thoughts because I can definitely see this becoming the most divisive of Andrew Joseph White’s books.
Cosmoknights: Book One by Hannah Templer
3.75
standard action comic storytelling with some kickass art and canon gay rep… what more could you want??
Gonna be like one of those annoying comp title things and say this is perfect for fans of those late-2010’s Dreamworks reboots like She-Ra and Voltron
Gonna be like one of those annoying comp title things and say this is perfect for fans of those late-2010’s Dreamworks reboots like She-Ra and Voltron
The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen
4.5
I am here, in part, because of Murray from Murray Out Of Water! However, I am also here because I read half of this in the library in 2020 and would like to finish it. (It left a lasting impact on my art style.)
This was phenomenal!! (And I might up my rating to 5 stars! I almost teared up reading a couple parts and I never do that with comics.) I haven’t seen a graphic novel mix textual and visual storytelling so well in a long time. The art was stunning, and I loved the change in fairytale aesthetics depending on the cultural upbringings of the characters!! (I spotted a small amount of that on my own, but most of that I only found out because of the author’s notes.) Tying different retellings into immigrant stories and self-identity is such a creative premise.
Ending was a little more abrupt than I expected it to be, though? And I also wanted to see more on Tiên, the story was mostly in his mother’s perspective and I wasn’t expecting that from the summary. However, overlapping his story with Tâm Cám’s made it extra emotional, and goodness… I just love all the parallels drawn throughout.
This was so charming, though. I’ll definitely recommend this to a lot of people.
This was phenomenal!! (And I might up my rating to 5 stars! I almost teared up reading a couple parts and I never do that with comics.) I haven’t seen a graphic novel mix textual and visual storytelling so well in a long time. The art was stunning, and I loved the change in fairytale aesthetics depending on the cultural upbringings of the characters!! (I spotted a small amount of that on my own, but most of that I only found out because of the author’s notes.) Tying different retellings into immigrant stories and self-identity is such a creative premise.
Ending was a little more abrupt than I expected it to be, though? And I also wanted to see more on Tiên, the story was mostly in his mother’s perspective and I wasn’t expecting that from the summary. However, overlapping his story with Tâm Cám’s made it extra emotional, and goodness… I just love all the parallels drawn throughout.
This was so charming, though. I’ll definitely recommend this to a lot of people.