Bolero

I was kind of with this for the first half, but it felt like the plot never really coalesced. The ambiguous nonlinear collage thing is clearly inspired by Evangelion, but it relies on a clarity of vision and thesis that I don't think this book possesses at the end of the day.

The trans character in here also feels kinda off. Why doesn't she have breasts? I get that he's doing a "she's trans but it's not the point" thing but it's weird that we do get to see a bunch of her interiority and gender isn't a part of it AT ALL, even in her childhood (which is set in a time when transitioning in high school was EXTREMELY unusual). I didn't even know that Brandon Graham was apparently heavily involved in this book behind the scenes when I was first starting to feel squirrely about it, but learning that from the endmatter makes me extra uncomfortable with the whole thing. And again: where are her tits???

I took out this book from my library on a whim. The cover art was quite interesting, and, despite not really liking science-fiction, my curiousity was piqued. I was relieved that the graphic novel wasn't entirely rooted in sci-fi.

The mechanism that the book hinges on is really unique. As things progressed, I got a bit a concerned for the protagonist. Things would start to improve but then suddenly go a different way entirely. This happened a few times. A lot of these detours were purely due to the protagonist's actions. The protagonist is one that I could see being controversial, but I saw a lot of myself in her, so I let it slide. By the end, I wasn't fully convinced of her growth arc, but it was better than nothing.

I will say, a lot of what kept me reading was the art. The art is extremely beautiful. The artist does not shy away from the naked body, so take caution when reading this in the presence of others. Throughout the entire thing, I got Evangelion vibes, and, in the author notes, the writer talked in depth of just how Evangelion inspired this story was. It was cool to read someone to nerd out about it and then make their own art out of it, too.

All in all, a great journey. I gotta buy myself a copy, it's that good.