jost88's reviews
828 reviews

Quite simply one of the loveliest, most dazzlingly beautiful graphic novels I've ever read. 

The experience of an adventure out at sea as a small kid is one I hold close to my heart, since I share very similar memories. The best memories I have in my life are partly from the woods on the hill above our neighborhood where I hiked and climbed and played, where wild kids like us happily forgot about civilization, and partly from exploring the woods on small uninhabited islands my family sailed to on our little voyages in the southern Baltic Sea. Our tiny sailboat was like a ship to me and my sister. In this story that’s full of wonderful surprises, we follow the little girl Ximi and her big brother Tao and their parents Rudi and Sol, living a harmonious nature-connected life at sea, with many new friends in many cultures on islands and along the coast. 

Ximi loves the animals and nature she gets to see and befriend, but she also longs for lasting human friendship. In every other chapter, we see Rudi and Sol's past and why they chose a life as nomads, and we really do understand them and are happy for their journey from pain to joy and independence. It's so heartwarming for us readers to discover these welcoming wild places along with Ximi. As we eagerly turn the pages to see what will happen next, our smile grows with each new scene.

There are no words that can do justice to how much I love each word and each choice of lively line and sunfilled colour in each panel. True soulful beauty.

Julie Ricossé has shown us how a joyful and meaningful story should be, how it should end and go on long after, and for me, for lifting my soul at a time when I truly needed it, she's a lifesaver.

I had a very pleasant time with this highly entertaining tale, translated from Italian. We're diving into a romantic view of Tuscany during the Middle Ages. The adventure story is reminiscent of Robin Hood, Tosca being a female version of the legendary hero. Her brother tells her she shouldn't steal, because their parents were examples of honesty and justice. But she has a quick comeback: "Honesty. Justice. Exactly. They are my guides each time I go out looking for food! Some have too much, some have nothing! I'm just reestablishing balance!"

Our teenage protagonist, Tosca, is resourceful when she's out on her own. She is also uncommonly skillful with her bow. In the oldest legends, Robin Hood wasn't of noble birth, and neither is Tosca. She and her brother are poor orphans since soldiers burned down their village. Her eagerness to give to the poor is as much about making friends as about valuing equality. She happily robs the nobility who live sheltered lives with no conception of what it's like outside their guarded gates, and while their excesses sicken her, she doesn't, at first, believe she can change things, just give them the trouble they deserve.

We get to know a merry trio of comrades with a sparkling chemistry. Tosca's new friend is a young noblewoman, though the nobility is otherwise Tosca's enemy. But no sooner has she met Tosca than it is evident that Lucilla, as a girl, has little freedom, despite her privilege. We don't get the feeling she's ungrateful or out of touch with reality, rather that she is sympathetically reaching for real experiences of life as an unprotected tightrope walk without safety net. She's never passive, but Tosca is most active of all, the one driving events speedily forward, always wanting more, while Rinalto is infuriatingly content with living and breathing his sentimental art. Tosca could be described as an idealist and a troublemaker, a hellraiser and daredevil, while Rinalto, her brother, doesn't want to stir up trouble or rock anybody's boat and has no qualms about selling his troubadour service to the court. Rinalto lives rather in the world of poetry than in the real world. The pace of the story is head-spinningly fast and the lively energy and good jokes thrown into the mix make time fly by. The mood is invitingly summery. 

Taking us with her on this unpredictable journey, Radice exceeded my expectations (unlike some popular literal-minded writers who object to the go-to point about disproportionate hype that it’s not even a real emperor, just a H.C. Andersen fairy tale figure).  Intriguing subtlety and ambiguity spark our inspiration with what’s implied rather than stated. Much is left to our imagination, inviting our part in it as we happily head out into our daydreams to continue open-ended scenes in our heads.

Will Tosca risk her life for her privileged friend when her life is threatened as a pawn in a power struggle, and will Lucilla be free to choose the one she's falling in love with? There's a lot of fun had here, playing with archetypes, on the way to finding the answer to these questions. Such a sweet story.