Review also posted to my blog.


content warnings: sexism, racism, sexual harassment (challenged), a kiss between an adult and a minor (dream sequence, one-sided from the 17 year old)
representation: chilean main character, black main characters, latinx main character, side characters of colour

“Here’s a super random question... Have you ever met a homeschooler who’s black?”
“Huh, not that I can think of.”

I have some conflicted feelings about this graphic novel. It's a graphic memoir about a summer in Hazel Newlevant's life where they got a job clearing out English Ivy with a group of other teens. Over the course of the summer, Hazel, who has been homeschooled their whole life, realises that they've been living in a white, middle-class bubble their entire life.

Before reading this graphic novel I had no idea what the premise was other than the fact that it was a graphic memoir. After reading two chapters I came onto to log that I was currently reading it and was shocked when I read the description because in those first two chapters (which, keep in mind, is nearly half the book) barely touched on what was apparently the main story of the novel.

This has a similar problem to another graphic memoir I didn't really like, Spinning by Tillie Walden, in that the pacing felt way off. To be fair, I thought it was far less egregious in this, maybe because it's nearly half the length, but it felt like there was so much prologue before getting to the meat of the story. Not to say that those first two chapters are unenjoyable necessarily, they just feel like a completely separate story about Hazel getting a crush on their much older boss.

But when this does get to the main story, it's great. I really liked how reflective Hazel was of their teen experiences, especially the mistakes they made. There's some really good commentary on the privileged bubble that they lived in for their entire life, as well as some discussion of sexual harassment and victim blaming.

I also really liked the art style. The ARC copy is in black and white and has some pages which aren't quite finished yet, but from what I know the finished copies will have some greens added to it, which I'm sure will only enhance the already gorgeous artwork.

In general, I did enjoy the story (once it finally got around to telling it) and the art style, I just wish that the pacing were a bit better. I would still definitely recommend picking this up when it comes out in August.


I received this book for free from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.