At no point in my life thus far have I been interested in the Teen Titans franchise. If I hadn’t received a copy of this graphic novel from Girls Life Magazine as part of the Beach Blanket Book Club, I likely never would’ve picked it up. However, I was pleasantly surprised while reading.

I always find reviewing graphic novels to be a somewhat difficult task, due to their size and my inexperience with this particular format. While I have nothing to compare it to except a couple of very short issues of Lumberjanes, I enjoyed the art style. It’s comprised of a mostly dark color scheme, allowing the pops of color to emphasize significant plot moments.

I liked Raven and Max, and appreciated Max’s mom’s role as a supportive parent. I don’t think other characters were given enough page time to make an impression.

My only real problem was the periodic time jumps. A handful of times while reading, I would turn the page and see a scene that didn’t match the previous one, check if I skipped something, and continue, unsure, when I found I didn’t. Maybe this is something common in graphic novels I’m just not aware of, but as an infrequent reader of them, I’m not a fan.

Ultimately, this was much better than I expected. I’m not newly obsessed with Teen Titans, or anything like that. I don’t plan to consume any additional related media. But Teen Titans: Raven was a fairly fun graphic novel, and it did help me with my Goodreads challenge.

Representation:
• A side f/f couple.

CW: car accident, death of parent, grief, amnesia