Harare Review of Books

Expected publish date: Jun 14, 2022.

Genre: Graphic novel, Memoir.

CW: Explicit content.

Thank you to NetGalley and to IDW Publishing for this eARC.

I’m not a huge reader of graphic novels — probably because the digital form is always so difficult to consume, and I’m a digital first reader. I also didn’t know at all what to expect, going into this one — but what happened was that I stayed up late reading it, and finished it early the next morning.

So, this is 3 love stories, apparently true: the ups and downs of relationships, sex, drugs, break-ups, young love, first love, and so on. The graphic style is really scrappy, especially at first, but I really grew to like its raw honesty. The content is sometimes funny, and often really, really sad: I started to feel really good about my own love stories 🥺😅 (You know how you think your own path is uniquely bad, until you hear about someone else’s).

There’s also a whole lot of sex depicted in here, but it isn’t gratuitous. Just a reminder that this is about young adults, and is aimed at adults, presumably, if you’re monitoring what your kids read, etc.

So, in all, an unexpectedly good read, really heartfelt. I hope Mr Brown found a good thing in the end.

Rated: 8/10. Read if this is your genre, and if you like things like the NYT’s Modern Love podcast/blog.