bethmitcham's reviews
3305 reviews

When it is good it is very very good. But the slow pace almost had me putting it down and neglecting to pick it up again. Read it on a hot day to really savor the vivid language; the descriptions of the winter storms are as good as an air conditioner.

A beautiful philosophy of life for the early reading crowd.

This book had two strikes against it for me. First, my usual graphic novel incompetence reared its head and I had trouble recognizing characters from frame to frame. This is all me and not an indictment of the artist at all. I am sure normal people would not have had any problems. But it meant I struggled. Also I had no clue what was going on in any action scene (which is very typical for me in all comics).

Secondly, I really dislike it when one kid is on the side of science and then they are completely wrong. So I was grumpy about the existence of cryptids, especially with magical powers. 

But people who don’t have my handicaps and prejudices should enjoy this story, with its great friend group and depiction of a kid making friends and learning to negotiate mistakes and a tight friend group opening up to a new member, plus the really cute Chupie and the complex situation it creates, plus the strive towards competence that adults sometimes accidentally hinder. Also I lived the insight into post-Maria Puerto Rico. Lots to love, is what I’m saying! 

This felt very fanfic-y, in that the author assumes that every detail of the characters’ physical attraction to each other is more interesting than the plot or even their thoughts and characterization. The world building is fine, although I found the extra letters annoying. Okay, you’ve discovered that your keyboard can make the ç, good for you! Sticking it in your fantasy is just a modern version of putting apostrophes in peoples names. 

This made me cranky about the third gender, which used the ç and also was completely unexplained. Look, gender is a construct so don’t assume how you’ve constructed yours is a basic principle of humanity, okay? It just made me feel bad about the people in the fantasy world whose gender doesn’t match up because they are feeling squashed. 

Tadik was great, especially in the back third once he learned to call E by his childhood nickname.

Final bits of crankiness: the anxiety stuff made the character annoying to read about for so long! Let him do something already! And the cover makes it look like one dude was falling asleep. Maybe the artist has problems with eyeballs so all the people keep their eyelids down… 

I’ve never worked in a restaurant so I liked the chance to see without having to deal with it myself. Also I appreciated that all the drugs were acknowledged but not dwelt on as I’m really squeamish about that stuff. 

These books bring sunshine to a cloudy day.