My overall impression is that this is a nice, heartfelt read. 3.5 Stars

The premise is that three young adults in a 1900s village in Norway create their own found family after their community basically shuns them. (Although, in reality, there are four of them. Not sure why they leave one character out of this.). Their way of life flies in the face of this traditional Christian town because none of them want to conform for everyone else's "comfort."

I really enjoyed that we get to witness each of these characters coming into their own, rather than being thrust into the midst of it. This book shines in showing personal and intra-personal conflicts. I also love that the author lovingly constructs this family where internally they accept themselves and each other, despite the town.

The story itself is simple and character-driven, and there's a lot to love about these reckless youths.

Let's address the elephant in the room: it's billed as a diverse cast, and it IS, however, it is not racially diverse. I think the representation the book does show is great, however, I also think it's important to identify or other readers WHO is being represented. Each and every protagonist (which is great, you don't see that often) is either LGBTQIA, has a physical disability, or struggles with mental illness. In several cases, there's overlap. We even get an awesome Ace character who is portrayed really well. While I think there could have been room for more racial diversity, it seems to have been a choice based on time period and location.

Also, the author shares some really interesting historical insight at the end of the book as to how she chose to represent certain disabilities, to be more correct for the time period without also being ableist. I think this is phenomenal and should be the norm for authors. It's proof that you don't have to resort to slurs just because they may have been historically accurate.

(Although I did find it weird to keep referring to the Pagans as heathens....they even called themselves that.)

All in all, it's a sweet story about marginalized teens who form deep familial bonds and support each other. Even when it's hard, and it feels like the world is against them.

It's kind of hard to put my finger on what would have made this a GREAT book instead of just a GOOD book, for me. The dual perspectives also confused me at times. However, I know this will be a great book that many people will see themselves in. I myself related to Asta on many levels.

Content Warning: physical abuse, suicidal ideation, dark humor (joking about suicide), animal abuse. All in all, fairly mild, except one of the protagonist's constant talk about offing himself did bother me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Soho Press for sending me an ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

Thank you to NetGalley and DC Entertainment for giving me a review copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

Beast Boy Loves Raven is the third installment of the series where worlds finally collide. After the respective characters had their own solo arc, they both end up in Nashville to meet Slade (which they both believe they're doing alone). The two keep bumping into each other, and are inexplicably drawn to the other. The time comes for them to meet Slade, unbeknownst to the other, and, well...that's where s**t hits the fan. It's fun :)

This is a really awesome addition to the Teen Titans! First of all, getting to see not only the origins of Beast Boy and Raven, but to FINALLY have this relationship be cannon is super satisfying. DC knows what they're doing, haha.

Anyway, this installment has a fairly straightforward storyline with some really cute moments showing the beginnings of a sweet relationship between Gar (Beast Boy) and Raven. The art is really fantastic—there are some pretty cool panels, but beyond that the character design is just so spot on.

It's really special to get to see these characters I love in a new way, where they're coming into their powers and don't really know how to control them yet. Not to mention, we get to see how everything connects to Slade (a classic TT baddie), and their realization that he's not as helpful as he has pretended to be.

You can tell that a lot of love and care has gone into this, and the writer and artist love this fandom as much as the readers.

I really have one critique: sometimes the story jumped around a bit in a way that wasn't easy to follow, or was just uncohesive. There were only a few "glaring" moments of this, though, so it didn't have a major impact on my overall enjoyment.

Vaguely spoiler-y:
We also get to see Damien Wayne (AKA Robin, eventually) and Max, who is an original character in this series. And they've got a little flirtationship too. PLUS, we get to see the back of Starfire's head, and Slade is hunting her too. So we've got a pretty good setup for the next installment, where hopefully the whole team will join together.

This is such a sweet story, and I love how all the little details unfold and then get tied up, one by one. It’s a masterfully writen (and illustrated) tale with a lot of heart, and each of the characters brings something special to the story. A great read about self discovery and finding your power

This is such a heartwarming and bittersweet read about finding your place, growing up/older (and the differences), and holding onto that ~magical~ quality of being a kid.

I was drawn in by the warm and witchy aesthetic of the art, and I stayed because even as a twenty-something adult the theme resonated on a deep level. It’s possibly the exact thing I needed to read this particular week.

The author weaves the lives of the various characters in beautifully simple ways that captures what it’s like to love people and grow in and out of relationships.

Ultimately I gave the book only 4 stars because I think some concepts, like the beginning montage, could have been more clear (like I kept thinking it spanned a few years when it was actually a few months), and some panels were hard to see because the colors were too similar. Overall it didn’t detract too much from the reading experience, though.