Monday, February 27, 2012

Review: Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks

Publisher: First Second
Publishing Date: February 28th, 2012
Genre: Graphic Novel, YA
Pages: 224 pgs
ISBN: 9781596435568
Source: NetGalley

My Rating: 4 stars 

Summary from Goodreads

A coming-of-age tale with a spooky twist!

Maggie McKay hardly knows what to do with herself. After an idyllic childhood of homeschooling with her mother and rough-housing with her older brothers, it’s time for Maggie to face the outside world, all on her own. But that means facing high school first. And it also means solving the mystery of the melancholy ghost who has silently followed Maggie throughout her entire life. Maybe it even means making a new friend—one who isn’t one of her brothers.

Funny, surprising, and tender, Friends with Boys is a pitch perfect YA graphic novel full of spooky supernatural fun.


My Review: 
 I don't often read graphic novels but from time to time I really enjoying reading these novels. It is nice to read something that has such a visual component. I had heard quite a bit about this book, especially from Misty at The Book Rat and I was curious to see what this book was all about. I was lucky enough to be able to read this novel from NetGalley and I wasn't disappointed.

I loved all the images in this graphic novel and I thought that Hicks depicts a pretty typical family. I really dislike reading books with the "perfect" family and I was glad to see that this family had its quirks. The twin brothers were constantly fighting and Maggie is the only girl after her mother leaves. I think the author did a very good job at showing the idiosyncrasies of a family that has its ups and downs. I grew up with twin brothers and they were similar to the twins in this book. They were always together, always bickering and always trying to figure out who they were without the other half of themselves.

I also really liked the paranormal element to this graphic novel. Hicks does a great job of incorporating a bit of a ghost story without it completely taking over the plot of the book. The characters are interested in the ghost but they also have their own lives and their own issues to work out.

I am looking forward to see where Hicks goes with the rest of this story. Overall, I give the book 4 out of 5 stars.

 

1 comment:

  1. I don't read many graphic novels, but this may change since I purchased a Kobo Vox tablet. I would really like to check out more graphic novels.

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