So cute! I loved the illustrations, the fantasy world was beautiful, and I think every relationship/character can be interpreted as queer and as charaSo cute! I loved the illustrations, the fantasy world was beautiful, and I think every relationship/character can be interpreted as queer and as characters of color. Also the tea dragons were like cute puppies....more
Eh. This book was kind of disappointing. I really enjoyed the first one and I’m definitely still looking forward to future books in this series. More Eh. This book was kind of disappointing. I really enjoyed the first one and I’m definitely still looking forward to future books in this series. More thoughts later.
Spoilery Review Update on 1/9/218: (view spoiler)[ A new character is introduced in this volume. I can't remember her name, but she's the new girl at school; a goth-y white girl in foster care with a history of trouble and she's an untrained witch. Charlie tries to make friends with New Girl, but Charlie forgets to call when she said she would, and New Girl gets mad and curses Charlie with a very violent and scary bit of magic. This goes on for a bit: Charlie does her best to be nice (and is pretty darn successful at being nice), New Girl takes any little slip-up super personally and responds with violence. This cycle happens several times. The implication is that New Girl doesn't have any reason to trust people, she's had a rough life, people are mean to her, she hasn't had consistent love, etc etc and she's saved by the power of friendship! But. Charlie (a young black woman) does an immense amount of emotion labor for New Girl, who only responds with violence. This is work for adults, not children. And it's especially weird to see a Black character doing so much for a white character, who tries to hurt her physically in response. This would not be okay in real life, and I'm not thrilled about it in fiction. Boundaries are important, taking care of yourself is important, you do not need to continually put yourself at risk to take care of someone who only tries to hurt you. Since I was already feeling weird about this story-line in this book I was sensitive to some other strangeness over the course of the book. There's a part of the plot where they ask a character to do something that makes them uncomfortable, but only once and only because it's an emergency. I'm not thrilled about this crossing of boundaries either. And then the way that they heal New Girl is the Bad Guy from the last book physically takes on her demons and dies because of it, and she's okay? There is no corollary for this in real life. Maybe it's because I'm boring, but I'd much rather see a healing plot that's about a long recovery more similar to therapy and community than some sort of transfer of badness that makes another bad character die. I don't know. I'm hopeful that I'll like the next book better. (hide spoiler)]...more
The Wicked + The Divine continues to be excellent. Possibly my favorite comic? But what happens next??? So many cliff hangers. I Must Know What HappenThe Wicked + The Divine continues to be excellent. Possibly my favorite comic? But what happens next??? So many cliff hangers. I Must Know What Happens Next....more
I used to love Saga. At some point along the way this story lost its luster for me, and I'm not really sure when or why. It makes me sad: I wish I stiI used to love Saga. At some point along the way this story lost its luster for me, and I'm not really sure when or why. It makes me sad: I wish I still enjoyed the story. It's an imaginative romp through space with lots of fantasy creatures and the moral of the story is Let's Stop Killing And Hating Each Other, Okay? Cool. So, what's not to like? I can't quite put my finger on it. But this volume definitely marked the end of my relationship with Saga. A trans character is introduced in this volume. The creators of the comic are trying to be cool about it, but they miss the mark. Some of the characters are in a women's prison, and Hazel (the child narrator/protagonist) runs into the shower room and finds a trans woman. And we know she's trans because she's naked (she's taking a shower and posing in this real weird way?). Uuuuuuggggggg, could we not please? It's been awhile since I read this and I can't remember lots of details (for example: what is this character's name? no clue), but I'm not going to go back and read it again, so all you get are my vague recollections. After being introduced in a weird way, she has an uncomfortable story line. There's a whole bit about how she's prejudiced against people from the culture that her people are at war with. (See look, trans people can be prejudiced too. Okay, Brian, what is your point?) And then there's this thing where her people are Not Cool with trans folks, but the culture their at war with with Are Down with her being trans, but not with her ethnicity. And, I don't know? The whole thing was very cringe-y to me. Do not recommend. Let's all go read The Wicked and the Divine instead, okay? I like the story much better and it has infinitely better queer representation, including the way Wic + Div handles its own trans woman of color. ...more
For some reason, I had it in my head that the main character of this book is a bisexual girl. (I don't know why I thought this, it doesn't say that anFor some reason, I had it in my head that the main character of this book is a bisexual girl. (I don't know why I thought this, it doesn't say that anyway about this book.) The main character of this book is a straight girl. I was expecting a book with a story about what it's like to be a queer kid. Instead I got a story about what it's like to be a straight kid with a crush on someone who doesn't reciprocate your feelings (view spoiler)[because they're queer (hide spoiler)]. It was a disappointing book for me....more