The Girl From the Sea is a sapphic young adult graphic novel with a summer romance between a human teen and a selkie. Ostertag's recognizable art style is rendered here more clearly than in The Witch Boy series and Maarta Laiho's colors are beautiful. But yet again, I'm annoyed at a publisher for putting only one name on the front of the book when it's a collaboration. Colorists are so important and deserve credit, dammit. Worse, Laiho isn't listed anywhere on the book page on Amazon. Here's why it's especially important in this case: I think Laiho did a better job than Ostertag usually does and therefore this is a better product. It feels almost abusive. *shakes fist at Scholastic*
Moving on.
This book was definitely a book. I liked it well enough. I want to say I was transported, felt all the things, etc. But I didn't. The ending in particular wasn't what I wanted and while I think it works for the story, I wanted an HEA and didn't quite get it.
The art, especially the ocean scenes, was lovely, but the characters themselves felt somewhat flat and I wasn't rooting for the central relationship the way I should have been. I rushed out to buy it, was so excited to find it a couple days early at Barnes & Noble... but I read it in two sittings because I wasn't inspired to finish it. I'm not sure how Ostertag's rep was, but it felt like maybe it was limited to a last name and chopsticks in one scene. I want to be able to yell positive things about it but the best I've got is "it's sooo pretty."
And because my favorite thing about this book is the art... CREDIT THE COLORIST.
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Content Warnings: seals and ecosystem in peril, absent father/divorced parents, fear of coming out (everyone is totally on board)
I purchased this book.
