189 pages
Published 2023
Read from September 11 to September 12
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
I hadn’t heard of or known anything about this graphic novel until my partner R randomly found it while browsing the library. Fae enjoyed it enough that I wanted to try it out afterward.
This is a sweet, wholesome middle-grade paranormal adventure following two girls, Valentine and Lanie, who investigate local ghost stories for a school project and end up uncovering way more than they bargained for (and possibly summon a horror from another dimension along the way). Val is autistic and Lanie is trans; both get bullied and marginalized for who they are, but also find support and validation. Much like ParaNorman, the plot hinges on generations of bullying, trauma, and forced conformity, all in the name of puritanical control. It’s a solid kids-on-bikes mystery, which is always welcome.
I’m somewhere in the nebulous fluid regions of the gender spectrum myself, and most likely some flavor of autistic, both realizations I reached in my late 30s (though I knew both deep down in my heart when I was 19, I just didn’t have the words for it at the time). I immediately cherished both Lanie and Val as characters, though I felt that their representation here ranged at times into stereotype. Val describing her social interactions as an “algorithm,” which she followed while pretending to be a robot, felt especially trite. (My autistic teen self pretended to be a raptor, damn it. I had taste.)
That note aside, this is a charming book, full of lovely art, excellent character design, and an affecting storyline.
No comments:
Post a Comment