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Artwork: 5 starsPlot: 2 starsThe artwork was STUNNING in this book but that's where my love ends. I felt this could have told a bigger story and made a bigger impact but it felt very open ended honestly. I did resonate with the mother so very much ( you'll know once you read the book)But I wanted more plot, more depth.The artwork though? A++++
3,5* - I can see why this is not that popular but I really enjoyed it. The art style is absolutely beautiful and I love the subtle messages this book tries to send.
This was a tiny bit of a disappointment :(The thing about graphic novels is that you have TWO giant elements: the writing AND the art.The art in this book was phenomenal. Absolutely wonderful. I have not a single complaint. There was a giant combination of different types of panels - squares, rectangles, splash pages.. and all of them were gorgeous. And it was all purple! I loved that it was all purple. Very moody and lovely.The writing/story, however.. meh :( It felt a little boring, and not fo...
6/22/21: Reread with summer class on YA Comics and Graphic Novels with Kick-ass Main Characters, and loved it again, and the class--those that have finished it, ahem--say they love it. A coming of age story that focuses on ONE summer and on girls and women and their relationships with (in the focus of this story, at least) with men. Girls 10 and 12 on the cusp of being teens; teens, teenaged pregnancy; adults with kids who are trying to have more kids. A classic.7/10/19 Reread with a small group...
Will it embarrass you if I gush?Aw, hell, it doesn't matter.Here I go. I'm going to gush.I'm going to gush, going to tell you that, as far as graphic novels go, this is best in show.I didn't only turn the pages of this illustrated story with great enthusiasm, I experienced moments of great reflection here (held my breath a moment or two, too).This book knocked me out.The writer/illustrator team of This One Summer, Jillian and Mariko Tamaki, are Canadian cousins who have clearly listened to how p...
The huge bummer of the graphic novel is that someone labors for ages over their creation and then you sit down with your pint of Chubby Hubby and make mincemeat of the both of them within the hour. I always feel a little awful about it, and this is probably the kind of thing the French have a word for--the sorrow of beauty’s brevity.Anyway it’s hard to imagine a [French-word-for-the-sorrow-of-beauty’s-brevity] more hollowing than the end of summer. Those last days of August nearly slaughtered me...
here is the review, in its entirety, that i wrote about this book when i read it back in 2015:this book was kinda cute, especially windy. there wasn't much of a story to it though.also i'm very biased against this book bc my local library does a battle of the books and this one beat we were liars for the YEAR'S PRIZE and that's just unbelievable to me.for context, i only three starred we were liars then. so i guess i thought this was really bad.part of a series i'm doing where i "review" "books"...
I rarely write GR reviews, but I almost didn't pick this up because of some of the reviews I've seen, so I wanted to add my five stars. This is a quiet book. Much of the action is observed rather than experienced by the protagonists, but the impact it has on them is deeply felt. If you're looking for grand resolutions or "boy did I learn my lesson" closure, you won't find it here. And that's exactly as it should be. This One Summer beautifully and poignantly captures a particular moment in girlh...
This story follows Rose's yearly summer trip with her mom and dad to a lake house in Awago Beach. It's their getaway, their refuge. Rosie's friend Windy is always there, too, like the little sister she never had. But this summer is different. This One Summer felt like a great summer read. And even though the plot wasn’t the most exciting, it still kept me flipping page after page. Plus, the friendship and banter between the two main characters added some needed humor to the story.(Windy’s dance
This One Summer is worth a read for the breathtaking artwork alone. Check it out:Unfortunately, the story didn’t do much for me. I really liked the idea of a summer of firsts and lessons, but when it was all said and done, I don’t really think the main character learned anything. There’s some slut-shamming done and she never understood why it wasn’t okay to say certain things. Though her friend did correct her a few times, she seemed to just write it off. The book also never felt like it actuall...
This was a unique and very different graphic novel but I really, really liked it.I read this in one sitting which shouldn’t be surprising as it’s a graphic novel but I couldn’t put it down. I think with this one, readers will either love it or hate it. The reason I say this is because as much as there is stuff going on within the story, there isn’t much resolution. I know I am still left with unanswered questions but I still feel content with the way it ended. I also think that part of me enjoye...
Everyone has said it. I concur, the art is superb.What I don't understand is how people thought nothing happened in the book... Hmmm, I suppose things didn't blow up, and there were no car chases, and true there were no explicit sex scenes. So nothing like that happened, I agree. But a lot of things that may seem insignificant to adults or to anyone other than the few children, teenagers, adults involved in the story happened. A lot happened in their lives. Perhaps people have forgotten how impo...
Me the whole time:
This book is so incredibly, wonderfully beautiful that it almost hurts me to give it two stars. The art is all but perfect, with exactly the right level of detail. The individual characters are drawn as exactly that, individuals, and I never doubted who I was looking at. The expressions are also very clear. Best of all, the art is reproduced in the same lovely, smokey shade of blue as on the cover. If this had been a wordless book, I think I would have been perfectly happy.But it's not. The bigg...
Two boring teen girls spend their summer hanging out at the beach with their families. Nothing happens for 300 pages and then something does to give the narrative an unearned sense of purpose. This One Summer? This one sucks. It really is surprising how little happens in this book. Mariko Tamaki writes a convincing portrayal of some teens’ summer holiday experience except is it worth writing when it’s this banal? She has nothing to say about the girls, nothing to say in general, nothing happens
Possibly my favorite thing about this book is that it is blue.I mean, I love the plot and the characters and how the problems of growing up are presented and then not easily resolved like tying a bow; I love that there are parents who have their own problems; I love that the dialogue is spare and meaningful and that the art is gorgeous.This One Summer is a wonderful book.But I love that Mariko and Jillian made the creative leap to think of this book in another color -- this book was not drawn in...
This is a hard graphic novel to rate for me. There's a lot of poignancy and well-meant subtext surrounding girls discovering what society is like for women and how easy it can be to fall prey to internalized misogyny and tearing each other down, but at the same time, I don't think any of it is addressed clearly enough for the target demographic. If this were a graphic novel geared towards adults or the older YA range, I wouldn't think twice about the fact that nobody really calls Rose out on cal...
I wish there was a clearer evolution of charcter development but this is the first graphic novel ever where i've been able to relate to a character and I adored the art and plot!
The marriage between the story & the graphics are a beautiful relationship!!!You couldn't have the graphics without the story, and you couldn't have this story without the graphics. The story is bittersweet, powerful, charming, and sad.....a coming of age young adult gorgeous graphic......dealing with real issues. Two young girls are dealing with their own set of problems while adults in their lives are also struggling. Lots of details hidden in the graphics..... truthful expressions built into
The ending was so disappointing! Nothing was solved in terms of the mother's depression, Rose's romantic interest, etc. I wish things could have been more developed. This One Summer felt like a story entirely made of fluff, which was fine, I guess. Not all books need to have huge plotlines or twists and turns. So, it wasn't so much that I minded the simplicity; rather, I would have liked some closure towards the end. Otherwise, the story feels unfinished.