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Blue is having a hard time moving on. He’s in love with his best friend. He’s also dead. Luckily, Hamal can see ghosts, leaving Blue free to haunt him to his heart’s content. But something eerie is happening in town, leaving the local afterlife unsettled, and when Blue realizes Hamal’s strange ability may be putting him in danger, Blue has to find a way to protect him, even if it means… leaving him.
This review is a bit late, since the 6 year old living in this household stole my copy of TAPROOT and ran off with it for a week. When I finally snagged it back and immersed myself in the beautiful, eerie world that Keezy Young created, I completely understood the 6 year old's urge to read it over and over.
Pitched as "a story about a gardener and a ghost," TAPROOT is part love story, part ghost story, part spooky fantasy. If, like me, you don't love horror but do love Halloween, this book is perfect for the season. There's a lot of eeriness to be had, particularly when Blue (the ghostie) starts being pulled through the veil. Said eeriness is balanced with beautiful verdant plant imagery and a sweet love story that transcends the limits of space and physical vitality. Without giving a spoiler, I'll warn romance readers that the HEA isn't what you probably expect/hope for in a romance.
You'll notice that I let my 6 year old read it - it's definitely something you can give to kids to read. There's a kiss, there's a bit of spooky, and some peril at one point, but it's very cute and the ghosties are kids and teens.
As for the art, you can get a pretty clear idea of Keezy Young's style based on the cover. The book is in color, with a palette of greens and browns and a muted blue that suit the book's themes of nature and life. It's a style that will either appeal to readers or be sort of "meh," and I think I fit into the latter category. The story, however, resonated with me enough that I eventually settled into the art style and ended up loving the book as a whole.
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From the author of The Witch Boy trilogy comes a graphic novel about family, romance, and first love.
Fifteen-year-old Morgan has a secret: She can't wait to escape the perfect little island where she lives. She's desperate to finish high school and escape her sad divorced mom, her volatile little brother, and worst of all, her great group of friends...who don't understand Morgan at all. Because really, Morgan's biggest secret is that she has a lot of secrets, including the one about wanting to kiss another girl.Then one night, Morgan is saved from drowning by a mysterious girl named Keltie. The two become friends and suddenly life on the island doesn't seem so stifling anymore.But Keltie has some secrets of her own. And as the girls start to fall in love, everything they're each trying to hide will find its way to the surface...whether Morgan is ready or not.
Leia Weathington’s sword-and-sorcery epic The Legend of Bold Riley is illustrated by Leia and a host of talented artists. “Who is Bold Riley?” you might ask. She has hunted the wildest game and dallied with countless beautiful girls, but still longs to know the world beyond the city walls. Princess Rilavashana SanParite, called Bold Riley, leaves behind her station and sets out to travel through distant lands and find forgotten ruins, fearsome enemies, inscrutable gods and tragic love.
THE LEGEND OF BOLD RILEY is an adventure comic featuring a (bold) princess who fights monsters, seduces ladies, and uses her wits to help people as she travels around Southeast Asia. The compiled book I read (not the standalone issues) includes several short stories, each with a different artist and plot. Riley is smart, beautiful, daring, and kind. I would have gladly spent more time with her.
We've rated it "R" for lots of nudity, violence, and some post-coital snuggling. With several different art styles, you probably won't like every story visually, but the sometimes sad, sometimes humorous, sometimes gory tales are an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon.
Featuring 19 comics by 23 different creators, THE OTHER SIDE is a celebration of queer romance and the paranormal! Inside, you'll find positive romance stories featuring a wide variety of queer and trans protagonists -- as well as poltergeists, shadow monsters, guitar-playing hypnotists, lost angels, genderfluid vampires, trickster ghosts, and many more!
THE OTHER SIDE features the talents of: Kou Chen, Mari Costa, Natasha Donovan, Melanie Gillman, Kori Michele Handwerker, Gisele Jobateh, Margaret Kirchner, Hannah Krieger, F. Lee, Kate Leth, Mildred Louis, Sfé R. Monster, Katie O'Neill, Amelia Onorato, Aatmaja Pandya, Fyodor Pavlov, Bitmap Prager, Ezra Rose, Britt Sabo, Bishakh K. Som, Sarah W. Searle, Laurel Varian, Mary Verhoeven, and CB Webb.
As a reader of comics and paranormal romance novels, I was reeeeally excited about this anthology. While I ended up really liking it, it wasn't what I was expecting, so here are the talking points summarized for you:
If you want a light, happy read in which you can find some queer people finding happiness with paranormal entities, this is the book for you.
Our comic was inspired from Tchaikovsky’s “The Swan Lake”. However we have twisted the characters, events, and setting into our own shape and made a story of loyalty, love, duty and greed that we are very excited to share with you all.The comic begins, as fairy-tales so often do, in a faraway land, with mysterious events on the edge of a forest that will put the Prince of the kingdom on the path of an adventure that will forever change his fate, and the fate of two kingdoms.
Paris, at the dawn of the modern age:
Prince Sebastian is looking for a bride―or rather, his parents are looking for one for him. Sebastian is too busy hiding his secret life from everyone. At night he puts on daring dresses and takes Paris by storm as the fabulous Lady Crystallia―the hottest fashion icon in the world capital of fashion!
Sebastian’s secret weapon (and best friend) is the brilliant dressmaker Frances―one of only two people who know the truth: sometimes this boy wears dresses. But Frances dreams of greatness, and being someone’s secret weapon means being a secret. Forever. How long can Frances defer her dreams to protect a friend? Jen Wang weaves an exuberantly romantic tale of identity, young love, art, and family. A fairy tale for any age, The Prince and the Dressmaker will steal your heart.
Pitched to us on Twitter as a "comedy/drama about some queer boys in the 90's, mostly dealing with abuse."
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15-year-old Corinth was just trying to clean up the beach; she never expected to meet a mermaid, let alone be nearly drowned by one. It was the start of a very strange friendship!
After Skylla, the deadly fanged mermaid, mysteriously lets Corinth live, they grow closer through a cautious exchange of stories, gifts, jokes, and sign language. Mermaids, it turns out, eat people, but however terrifying Skylla may look, she’s a little younger, a little smaller, and perhaps a little too soft for all that. Bewitched by Corinth and their growing bond, she learns about all the best things in life on land: books, burgers, donuts, and this strange chattering human sound called laughter. But a storm is brewing – both at sea and in Corinth’s increasingly dangerous relationship with her obsessively jealous boyfriend – and a magical bargain may be the only thing that can save her, at a tremendous cost.
A whimsical dark fantasy retelling of “The Little Mermaid,” The Sea in You upends everything you thought you knew about magical creatures of the deep, on a whirlwind journey to a whole new world you’ve only dreamed of before!
The follow-up to the smash-hit The Secret Loves of Geek Girls,this brand new anthology features comic and prose stories from cartoonists and professional geeks about their most intimate, heartbreaking, and inspiring tales of love, sex, and dating. This volume includes creators of diverse genders, orientations, and cultural backgrounds.
Featuring work by Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale), Gerard Way (Umbrella Academy), Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind), Dana Simpson (Phoebe and Her Unicorn), Gabby Rivera (America), Hope Larson, (Batgirl), Cecil Castellucci (Soupy Leaves Home), Valentine De Landro (Bitch Planet), Marley Zarcone (Shade), Sfe R. Monster (Beyond: A queer comics anthology), Amy Chu (Wonder Woman), cover art by Becky Cloonan (Demo), and more!