Harare Review of Books

192 pages.

First published on July 5, 2022.

Genre: Graphic Novel.

Thank you to Chronicle Books and to Edelweiss for this gorgeous DRC.

This graphic novel is based on a mini comic that was originally Kickstarted, Wash Day. The graphic novel is the story of four Black women, a group of friends, their lives, and their hair, and is broken into 5 linked parts: Wash Day, Group Chat, Bright Side, La Bendición, and Ride or Die.

In the completely relatable for me Wash Day, Kim goes through all of the steps of her wash day routine (and I found myself going yes, YES, gurl!). In Group Chat, we’re introduced to Nisha’s complicated love life as she chats with her friends while she gets her hair braided. Bright Side is Davene’s story of a day in her life with what looks like clinical depression. Cookie goes to visit her gran in La Bendición, and doors the work of forgiveness. In the final story, the girls all get together to see Kim perform.

The artwork is perfect (really great colour work!) and all of the characters are great, and relatable. It is absolutely ✨ WONDERFUL ✨ to see Black women’s lives in this format; I hope to see much, much more of this kind of representation. And the stories are also really fun, and sweet.

CW for a stalker, and some drug use.

Rated: 9/10. This one went straight to my heart, and I’m absolutely going to get a copy for myself (and for my sister, and maybe a few friends).