This Place Kills Me

I recently borrowed this book from my local library. Libraries RULE!

This Place Kills Me is a murder mystery set at an all-girl private school in the 1980s. The main character is Abby, the new girl there who does not really fit it. She carries the baggage of being expelled from her last school for shady, possibly drug-related reasons. Also, she is a lesbian and catches a lot of flak from other students, which also affects her roommate Claire.

When a student commits suicide after a production of Romeo and Juliet, the two roommates begrudgingly join forces to investigate a few irregularities and find out a strange pattern that may explain what actually happened. The mystery is truly gripping, and part of the fun is figuring out whodunit.

This book has multiple strengths, chief among them the splendid and atmospheric artwork as well as strong characterizations. Abby's feelings of isolation really come through in the visuals, as well as the ornate decor of the school and many of its fancy students. I loved how the characters interact and how they did not end up making nice over the course of the narrative even as they collaborated. In many ways, this book seems like the "beginning of a beautiful friendship," with a pair of unlikely partners solving crime. And I would love to see more adventures featuring these characters.

This Place Kills Me was written by Mariko Tamaki and drawn by Nicole Goux. Tamaki is a prolific writer who has won a ton of awards, including multiple Eisners, being a finalist for the Printz Award (twice!), and a Caldecott Honor. She is known for the graphic novels This One Summer, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, and a few prior entries in DC Comics' YA graphic novel line, including I Am Not Starfire. Goux has several graphic novels to her credit, including Punk'n Heads, Pet Peeves, and Forest Hills Bootleg Society. Tamaki speaks about This Place Kills Me in this interview.

Nominated for an Eisner Award, this book has received much praise. In their starred entry, Kirkus Reviews concluded it was "truly exceptional; a standout." Sean Dillon called it "a thrilling story highly worth recommending." In an another starred review in the School Library Journal, Angie Jameson wrote, "Stunning illustrations coupled with a thrilling plot make this a standout title that belongs in all YA graphic novel sections."

This Place Kills Me was published by Abrams Fanfare, and they offer more information about it here. 

I Am Not Starfire

I Am Not Starfire is another graphic novel in DC Comics's YA line, and I'd say that this book is 2/3 YA book, 1/3 superhero adventure. It involves the relationship between Teen Titan Starfire and her daughter Mandy. Mandy looks nothing like her mom. She is stocky, pale, freckles, and prefers to wear goth style makeup and clothing. She resents the attention that she gets from others just because she is the child of a superhero, and she really only tolerates Lincoln, who is "the most annoying person in the world" and also her best friend.

Mandy has lots of things on her mind. There are plenty of rumors about who her father is (Starfire won't tell). She is stressed about taking her SATs and does not want to take them or go to college. And she feels overall inadequacies because she has no powers of her own. Things take an upturn when she gets paired with the super-popular, athletic Claire on a school project and the two begin a friendship that turns into a fledgling romance. Sparks also start to fly when Starfire realizes what Mandy plans (or does not plan for her future), and matters kick into a third gear when Starfire's estranged sister Blackfire comes to Earth to kill off any threats to her reign.

This book is terrific, and there are two things that really recommend it. One, the artwork is eye-popping and incredible. Each page conveys a great deal of emotion and dynamism. It is truly splendid to behold. Two, this book has a lot of heart. In one way it is about a strained mother-daughter relationship, but it is also an immigrant tale about a parent who wants a better way of life for her child. The characters are fully developed and interesting, and this version of Starfire is an adult one that combines aspects of superheroism, celebrity, and the personality made popular in the Teen Titans cartoons. Although the plot went pretty much as I expected, this was a fun book to read. It is an excellently rendered, beautifully drawn piece of genre fiction.

This book was a collaboration between writer Mariko Tamaki and artist Yoshi Yoshitani.  Tamaki has won a ton of awards in comics, including multiple Eisners, being a finalist for the Printz Award (twice!), and a Caldecott Honor. She is known for the graphic novels This One Summer, Skim, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, and a few prior entries in DC Comics' YA graphic novel line, including Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass. Yoshitani is an illustrator with a long list of prestigious clients and has also drawn the graphic novel Zatanna and the House of Secrets.

All of the reviews I have read about this book have been positive. Emily Lauer called Mandy "pretty damn relatable" and also noted that she appreciated how "unlike many parents in YA, Starfire feels like a fully realized character." Ray Goldfield called it "a fun story that I imagine a lot of girls will see themselves in." Kirkus Reviews summed up, "Equal parts entertaining and thought-provoking."

I Am Not Starfire was published by DC Comics, and they have more information about it here.

Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass

 

I have read a few of the YA graphic novels that DC Comics has published the past couple of years (you can check out my two reviews here and here), but this one really took me by surprise by how much I liked it. I don't mean that I underestimated the talent who collaborated on this book, as writer Mariko Tamaki is one of the best writers working in comics today, and I have enjoyed artist Steve Pugh's work for decades now. 

Dear readers, I suffer from what I call "Batman fatigue." I used to love the character, and there was a time when I felt it was the greatest superhero creation ever. But after decades of reading some great stories, I have gotten to the point where there is just too much Batman out there for me. Sure, I admire writer Tom King's meta-commentary comics when I have read them, and works like The Dark Knight Returns, The Dark Knight, Batman: Year One, Batman: The Animated Series, and the 1966 Batman TV show are some of my favorite things ever. But I am over the umpteenth "final battle" between Batman and the Joker, and I am sick to death of the latest "most ultimate, extreme version ever" that has driven the comic books over the past two decades. Plus, I have some issues with Harley Quinn, who has come a long way, but whose origins truck in some pretty toxic masculinity and decades of abuse in her relationship with the Joker.

What impressed me most about this book was how well it imagined this whole universe that I found not only fresh and riveting, but that also left me gasping for more when the book ended. That is no mean feat.

Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass re-imagines Harley Quinn (or Harleen Quinzel, as she starts out) as a troubled youth who was sent to live with her grandmother in Gotham City, only to end up living with a large Asian drag queen named Mama and her coterie of drag performers. 16-year-old Harley goes to school, gets into trouble, but also befriends a girl named Ivy, here conceived as a mixed race, activist teenager with a Black father and Asian mother. Ivy is an environmentalist who finds solace in the community garden, but the entire neighborhood is threatened by aggressive gentrification perpetrated by the Kane Corporation (who are a sort of evil version of Starbucks). She and Harley also also have a major beef with Gotham High's Film Club, which is run by their classmate, elitist jerk John Kane.

Ivy presents one option of using social activism to combat this injustice, but Harley also meets a masked stranger who calls himself the Joker who offers an alternative course of action, to use terror and bomb and burn the city. None of these changes comes off as ham-handed, but they are rather nuanced, logical, and thematically apt. Also, this books turns the convention version of these characters on their heads, confronting issues of toxic masculinity, classism, racism, incarceration, and misogyny head-on. 

The story and themes are augmented by the artwork, which is incredibly detailed, so that the entire city and its motley cast of characters comes alive. There are a few key players who are important throughout the book, but the backgrounds, crowd scenes, layouts, and setting also loom large and add so much personality and ambience. This book is fantastic, an incredibly smart, moving, and suspenseful reworking of overdone characters. If this is the future of mainstream comics, sign me up please.

Like I wrote above, both of the main creators involved with this book are accomplished comics veterans. Tamaki has won a ton of awards, including multiple Eisners, being a finalist for the Printz Award (twice!), and a Caldecott Honor. She is known for the graphic novels This One Summer, Skim, and Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me. Pugh's most notable works in the US have been multiple runs on Animal Man, drawing the Saint of Killers mini-series, and a recent run on the utterly great The Flintstones mini-series (For real. Go read my review.). Both creators speak about their collaboration on Breaking Glass in this interview.

All of the reviews I have read about this book have been very positive. Ray Goldfield wrote that he felt "it’s the most essential read for anyone who hasn’t seen themselves represented in DC Comics yet." Kirkus Reviews summed it up as "a riotous read." Publisher Weekly observed, "Harley is a relatively breezy character whose questionable ethics often mirror those closest to her, and pairing her with a found family of drag queens and community organizers directs her chaotic whimsy toward a social justice bent."

Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass was published by DC Comics, and they offer more info about it here.

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me

 

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me has been on my shelf for way too long, one of those books that has been universally praised that I have extremely high expectations for. It lived up to them and more, I must say. I was especially caught up in the last third of the book, and it had me utterly transfixed. 

The protagonist here is Freddie (short for Frederica). She is a bi-racial, 17-year-old lesbian who is in a toxic relationship with Laura Dean. Laura is White, beautiful, popular, and narcissistic, constantly stringing Freddie along with false promises, lies, and capricious attention. Freddie's friends know the score, and they are supportive of her without being judgmental. They wish she would dump Laura, but she just can't seem to bring herself to do that. She seeks the advice of a fortune teller and an advice columnist as well, but she does not really attend to anyone.

In addition to the major plot-line involving this romantic entanglement, this book is also one about friendship, particularly Freddie's with her best friend Doodle (Deidre). Doodle tries to support her but is frustrated by her failure to take up for herself. Also, she has quite a few issues of her own going on, issues that Freddie is too preoccupied to notice or offer support.

This book is exceptional in two ways, as a powerful narrative and as a phenomenally drawn book. Both combine to actualize strong characters, as even the secondary ones are vibrant and unique. Just as important is the setting, Berkeley, California, a place full of diverse people in a variety of senses. It is also a bohemian place full of coffee shops and organic food restaurants. All these factors combine to make a realistic, vital story. I very much appreciated how the relationships are depicted, warts and all, as well as how the individuals are shown as strong but flawed. This cast was great to spend time with and get to know, even when I was frustrated by some of their actions. This book really captured the ambiguity of being in a failing relationship but also feeling powerless to end it. I love how it disrupts simple notions of romantic love.

Both of this book's creators have won multiple awards for their work in comics. Writer Mariko Tamaki is known for This One Summer, Skim, and a number of more recent works for DC and Marvel Comics. Artist Rosemary Valero-O'Connell is best known for a number of excellent short stories that have been collected in Don't Go Without Me. Both creators speak about their collaboration on Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me in this interview.

This book has been hugely celebrated, winning Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz Awards, and all the reviews I have read about it have been excellent. Kirkus Reviews concluded their starred review, "A triumphant queer coming-of-age story that will make your heart ache and soar." Shanda Deziel called it "fresh and exhilarating." Oliver Sava described it as "complex, experimenting with form to find different ways to expressively convey information."

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me was published by First Second, and they offer a preview and more info about it here.

Congratulations, Tamaki Cousins!

The American Library Association announced its youth media awards today, and Mariko and Jillian Tamaki's This One Summer brought home two major honors. It was named a Caldecott Honor book, and it is the first graphic novel to earn that distinction. It was also named a Printz Honor book, and it is the second graphic novel to be recognized for that prize (the first was Gene Yang's American Born Chinese, which won the Award).

These are impressive accolades, and I congratulate them and their publisher First Second!

This One Summer

This One Summer is about two teenage friends who meet up every year during their summer vacations. Rose is slightly older than Windy, and her family situation is pretty tense. Her mom and dad have been trying to have another child, and there are complications. Windy's family is more free-wheeling and quirky. Together, the two girls get involved in the local scene, which revolves around a small convenience store, where the duo goes to rent scary movies. Rose has a crush on the clerk, but he is pretty oblivious. Windy is simultaneously encouraging, bemused, and critical of this arrangement. All of these situations add up to a summer full of new experiences, some unpleasant and some quite fun.

I know a lot of this sounds cliched, but this graphic novel has a quotidian quality where I felt that I was involved with the characters in a very direct way. There are many small details that make the story come alive, many of them coming through the fantastic artwork, which is bursting with personality and energy. Just look at this sequence from early on in the book:

At a conference recently, my friend Laura and I were talking about it, and I called it "a Viewmaster into the soul." I think that's a great way to sum the book up, and I will stand by that statement here.

This One Summer was created by cousins Mariko and Jillian Tamaki. The two have collaborated before on the multiple award-winning Skim. For her work on This One Summer Jillian won the prestigious Governor's General Award in the category of Children's Literature Illustration.

This book has been well reviewed in prominent venues. It is also appearing on many year-end, best-of 2014 lists. Susan Burton called it "moving, evocative book" in her New York Times Sunday Book Review. CBR's Kelly Thompson gushed that it " is a near perfect book and an example of two creators working in such perfect sync they appear more as one creator than two." The Comics Journal's Sean T. Collins had much good to write about the book, stating that "Jillian’s art is like Proust’s madeleine, calling to mind half-forgotten memories with real sensual power" and adding that Mariko's writing "is often equally vivid."

This One Summer was published by First Second. They have teachers guides and much more here. Jillian Tamaki has a preview and more here.