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Just finished "Match Point!" by Maddie Gallegos, an excellent graphic novel about racquetball, dumpster diving, best friends, and pressure from Dad. The characters and their fromance are super cute, and while I'm sure some might find the ending too happy, I'm usually fine with seeing the aspirational version of relationships because it can serve as a good role model, while other narratives can help explain how to handle worse outcomes.

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Yesterday I finished "Marshmallow and Jordan" by Alina Chau. It's an excellent cozy graphic novel about a friendship between a wheelchair-using athlete and a baby elephant in Indonesia. It's got lovely vibrant art, an interesting plot, and a final twist that fits nicely.

Not sure it's totally realistic about the accessibility of water polo, and it's not #OwnVoices but the author made what to me seems like a good effort to be both respectful and neither too-positive nor too-paternalistic about disability. Would be curious to hear the perspective of someone who use mobility aids about this of course.

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Yesterday I finished "The Other Side of Tomorrow" written by Tina Cho and illustrated by Deb JJ Lee. Lee's "In Limbo" was an excellent graphic memoir, and this similarly has wonderful art, although I didn't make the connection until checking the authors after reading to the end.

This book is a realistic fictional account of two childrens' escape from North Korea via China, Laos, and ultimately Thailand where they could declare themselves refugees at a US embassy and get sponsored to live in America. Along the way they're helped by various members of the Asian Underground Railroad. I'll avoid spoilers but yet definitely encounter difficulties along the way.

The ending definitely hits different now (while also accentuating my disgust with the current US regime). Like "Libertad" that I also finished recently, the "escape to the US at the end" plot line is going to become less prevalent going forward, although Libertad involved a good measure of complexity around that point.

I was a bit disappointed in one of the later plot points where a different and more-real-world-probable turn of events could have served as a better message for society, with the "lucky" outcome as written reinforcing regressive notions of family, and as an ex-Christian the Christian elements of the story made me feel a way. I'm an agnostic, not an atheist though, and can respect the idea that those willing to risk torture and death for their faith have every right to stand by it and take inspiration from it. Most (very valid) critiques of big western Church institutions just don't apply to underground churches in northern China who are helping people escape the horrors of deep fascism.

Overall a really good book.

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Just finished "Pearl" written by Sherri L. Smith and illustrated by Christine Norrie, based at least in part on "Hiroshima in the Morning", a memoir by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto. A concise, wonderfully-illustrated, and fascinating story of a Hawaiian-born girl sent to visit her dying great-grandmother in Japan in 1941 and then trapped there throughout World War 2. I won't spoil things beyond that, but the book digs deep into the horrors of the war on both sides, showing just how cruel the geological ambitions of nations can be to people who belong to both cultures.

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Just finished "How I Made It to Eighteen" by Tracy White. It's a graphic novel with relatively simple art, but that ends up suiting the subject matter well: it's an autobiography focused on a stay in a mental hospital dealing with depression and bulimia.

It doesn't get as deep into mental hospital mechanics as I might have liked, instead focusing on the author's life, but in presenting both her own life, some flashbacks, and some perspectives from her friends, it's quite interesting. As is typical of real life, there's no neat resolutions to the various threads of interest because they're not imaginary plot lines constructed to wrap up neatly but instead are events that actually happened.

In any case as is par for autobiographical graphic novels, it was super interesting.

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Just finished "Far Sector" written by N. K. Jemisin and illustrated by Jamal Campbell. I don't normally go for Marvel/DC comics stuff and this was a good reminder why. Jemisin's authorship was the draw for me here, as well as some curiosity about what I might be missing out on by avoiding the classic comics lineage. I won't go into too much detail about particulars, but suffice to say it ends up feeling to me line a very neoliberal story dressed up in a veneer of radicalism, which is not what I'd expected of Jemisin. Particularly in light of current events, the "good cops" aspects of the storyline ring truly hollow. There's still a lot of neat parts, but I guess I also wound up disappointed by the sci-fi aspects in a lot off ways. I truly think Jemisin is capable of better than this, based on her other (excellent) work.

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Just finished "I Shall Never Fall in Love" by Hari Conner. An excellent graphic novel about some queer friends (and more-than-friends) in Georgian England.

I'm not usually a fan of such settings as the imperial harms abroad on which those societies are predicated make it harder for me to sympathize with the characters, but this book actually addresses that (if imperfectly) and there's enough nuance for me not to hate it, so I really enjoyed the cute romance.

I just wish there were more historical narratives written from lower-class perspectives that didn't make their characters seem unintelligent.

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Just finished "Dream On" written by Shannon Hale and illustrated by Marcela Cespedes with colors by Lark Pien. It's a wonderful book about grade-school friendships and dealing with unhealthy social pressures.

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Just finished "Libertad" by Bessie Flores Zaldívar. An #OwnVoices novel about being queer in Honduras, both personally and politically, that grapples aptly with complicated questions of politics and belonging at a personal scale.

CW for domestic violence and lethal state repression.

It wasn't everything I'd hoped for from the cover, but my hopes weren't exactly reasonable and it *is* very good.

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Just finished "Kirby's Lessons for Falling (In Love)" by Laura Gao. I'd previously read her autobiographical graphic novel "Messy Roots" which was excellent, and this book continues that trend. Yet another complicated look at a Chinese-American immigrant experience, wrapped into a queer romance with a dose of spirituality in there as well. I think the background metaphor of falling is really strong, and gets used in so many senses it's beautiful.

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Just finished "In Awful, Thanks" by Lara Pickle. A good story that serves as a guide to managing emotions, although it's actually a cute story too, not just framing for the mental health discussion.

That said, I feel like it doesn't get far enough into the details of accepting self-control as our only form of real control vs. understanding that some events outside our control aren't fair or are others' attacks, and trying to manage our own emotions as our only response is a disservice to ourselves and others. Even further, I suspect that the HR resolution depicted here, while not impossible, is less frequent than much worse outcomes, which is part of a larger pattern of systemic assaults on our mental health that aren't totally solvable with individual emotional regulation.

Sure, leveling up one's control of ones own emotions and learning to accept and manage a range of emotions is super useful and it's a good thing overall, but the systemic problems of late stage capitalism are real, and making it seem like everyone is responsible for managing their own mental health in the face of these problems helps avoid confronting them.

Still, it's a good book overall, with vibrant art and a well-structured plot.

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Just finished "New Kid" by Jerry Craft. An excellent graphic novel about navigating middle school as one of only a few Black kids at a rich private school. I love how clear Jordan (the main character) is about the racism he encounters and how it affects him and his friends. Even though his parents have done a good job of preparing him for the realities he'll face, getting through them isn't easy. Still, rather than a book about "learning how racist the world is" this is a book about "navigating the expected racism" and it's a refreshing difference.

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Just finished "On Starlit Shores" by Bex Glendining. It's a really excellent graphic novel about grief, memory, and a bit of magic. I love the way that it isn't an adventure, and how completely usual the queer relationships in it are. The art is stunning, and the palette is especially excellent and truly harmonizes with the narrative.

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