eloise_bradbooks's Reviews (801)

This is really quite incredible.

A very nice graphic novel about a kid struggling with PTSD after witnessing a particularly violent event, and how the friendships he makes, and adventures they have, can, to some extent, help him cope.
It was a truly heartwarming piece while presenting in a brilliant way how it muust feel to experience PTSD, how to ground and open up despite the topic being so hard to talk about.
Finally, although it is being promoted as an LGBTQ+ graphic novel, know that the rep isn't explicit on page, but it can clearly be read as a queer romance (and they're adorable).
As much as I appreciated this story, I do however feel like I was missing a little something. A little more explanation, a little more info on the road to recovery, a little explicit romance, a little more side-character development, a little more of everything to be honest.

Il est où le patron traité d'un sujet si important : le sexisme, mais en se concentrant sur le monde de l'agriculture.
On suit surtout trois femmes paysannes, voisines au marché, et on découvre, en même temps que certaines d'entre elles à quel point les collègues paysans mais aussi des clients, des amis et de la famille peuvent être extrêmement sexistes envers elles.
On nous montre leur quotidien, ce qu'elles font au jour le jour, les commentaires auelles reçoivent mais aussi leur camaraderie entre elles (c'est ce qui m'a le plus plu).
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C'était un peu tout ce à quoi on pourrait s'attendre sur le sexisme dans l'agriculture.
Je dirais même que pour moi c'était presque trop "vérité commune", tout le monde devrait déjà savoir tout ça... Mais peut être que je me trompe. Et en fait s'il y a tellement de personne qui ont des commentaires comme on peut les lire dans cet ouvrage, alors c'est clair que certains auront peut être les yeux ouverts par cette BD. Encore faudrait-il qu'ils s'imaginent un jour la lire.

Well I guess it's nice to see a main character figuring out his demisexuality, there aren't enough books with MCs going through that questioning.
But even with that, honestly, I wasn't really into this book.
The demisexuality part was very fast and simple (which in some sense could be nice and refreshing but in this case it felt rushed and not developed at all).
The characters weren't particularly interesting. If I thought at first I appreciated the communication between the characters turns out that didn't go well at all.
Didn't care much about the characters and thus their cause to save the drive through.
I guess the one thing that was well done was the main character's friendships.

I'm so torn with these four volumes...
On one hand, it is a beautiful depiction of queer people accepting themselves, living happily and finding a home in each other. Especially in manga, it's great to see. It was, despite everything else i'm going to say in this review, quite heartwarming.
But on the other hand, it's full of extremely triggering words and actions which aren't challenged enough, sometimes aren't challenged at all.
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Extremely homophobic or transphobic ideas are a huge part of the story, and if that's what japanese society is like, then I can understand. But in fictional stories like these, there is no reason not to show and explain WHY these ideas are hurtful and SHOULD NOT BE SAID.
Isn't the point of stories like these to show that queer people are just as "normal" as cis-straight people, and to show they should have happy lives too? Then maybe that could be stated more clearly when teh world seems to be proving them otherwise.
And maybe making the MC fall in love with a guy who was extremely homophobic to him (and making him love him even more AFTER he treated him that way) isn't the best idea ...
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It is also difficult to say that the story is a great representation of the queer community, because to me it isn't. Yes, there are gay men, lesbian women, trans characters. But there is still a very binary way of looking at things, with not a single mention of bisexuality or the idea of liking more than just one gender, no mention of any other gender identity other than trans.
And what hurt me the most was the character descrived as "asexual", a label which would explain why said character is independant, doesn't make friends easily, doesn't "care" about making friends ??? How ??? Also, they are clearly described as aromantic but I guess that term is way too advanced to be used here ...

This was really good!
I loved the environmental moral in this story, but obviously what hits the most is the main character's fear of not being accepted by her friends and family for being queer and that was beautifully explored.

3.5 This book wasn't bad. But it didn't quite meet my expectations.
What I really appreciated about One For All was that it centers around a girl with chronic illness (what's now known as POTS I believe) who wants to defy society's gender norms of her era and be a musketeer.
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On paper, I'd love the element of fellow female musketeers banding together, being each others family, sisters in arms. And this is clearly what the book wanted us to feel. However I felt like, to some extent, I can't fully appreciate this found family element as it is practically forced upon them, as a rule, when they meet. They MUST protect each other, they MUST fight for each other. It's a rule of their academy. I much prefer found family when it takes time to settle in and happens more by choice than force.
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I also read on some list that this book was sapphic and went in thinking it would be the main character when it clearly isn't. There is sapphic rec in side characters.
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In the end, I just couldn't quite gel with the vibes as I wanted to. I didn't get to the point where I cared enough about characters or their motives if I'm honest.
It does still remain a good book which I'm sure many others will love.

For once, I went in with way too high expectations.
This book was far from being bad, it was good. But it had been hyped so much and it's written by two wives and that cover is gorgeous!!!

But at the end of the day, reading She Gets The Girl was just an okay experience.

The characters were okay, and ... well, there's nothing much else to say, as nothing else happened.
It felt like there was way too much missing. Missing the daily life of starting college, missing things that were talked about that weren't just trying to get Molly to date Cora. Molly doesn't even get to make friends like she clearly wanted to at first.
The only slight interesting secondary plots in this book were the girls' relationships with their moms.

It's kind of sad that the only thing that happened in this book was Alex helping Molly get a date with another girl.
I didn't quite get behind the whole "oh actually I love YOU" revelation that comes to either one of them by the end because it didn't really get time to develop.

The estranged sister of an unhappy bride falls for the bride's best friend.
It's fun, sweet, heartwarming, and oh so spicy hot