I was very pleasantly surprised by this graphic novel; I thought it was very interesting and I mean it in a good way! I felt very invested in the story and I think the setting grounded in rural Texas really made the story work. I sometimes forget, because I existed in an ~unaware state~ about my own sexuality until I was an adult, that so many queer kids know who they are and understand that the world doesn’t always welcome them at very young ages. While my own (un)awareness of queerness as a kid stemmed from the lack of visible queerness in my rural, Midwestern hometown—for me that environment translated to never questioning, never understanding myself and kind of ended there. That said, I never experienced what it was like to know you were hated as a high schooler, as a middle schooler, or even younger. I think this novel handled that beautifully and with care. Especially given recent laws rolling out throughout the US and especially in the South this was honestly a really heartbreaking read to me. A side aspect to this was that the incorporation of horror, and specifically queer connection to the horror genre was suuuuch a good part of the storyline. Queer as monster, and monster as misunderstood—specifically in this setting and context?! I just felt that for a YA graphic novel they were able to pack a lot into barely 200 pages. A fun retelling (even if I haven’t read the original), and though I didn’t love every individual part of this, the overall gn really will stick with me for a minute. In conclusion I wanna go give every queer kid in the world a big hug and also kick the shit out of every bigot trying to make queer lives harder.