There are sooo many things I loved about this book. The coziness. The vibes. The heaviness of grief over a life stolen from you by people who refused to see you as your own person with agency. The decentering of romance and the focus on familial love and chosen family. The fierceness of platonic bonds, and how you would go to any and all lengths for them because they are what ground us. What make the beauty of life something that matters. People, in however we relate to them, are what make us alive. 

The reason this isn't a five star read is simply due to the writing quality. It really needed a round of intense line-level editing. There were lots of moments where I didn't understand how the transition from place to place happened. The first person italic thoughts got on my nerves, though I did get used to them after a while. And all of these wonderful concepts described above just didn't hit quite as deep because they weren't as developed as I wanted them to be.

SO. If you love the sound of paragraph one and aren't picky about writing craft, then you'll probably love this book! Please show it some love because the author and Meg's imprint deserve all the best.

Thank you to NetGalley for the review copy in exchange for an honest review. 

This story had lovely art with lots of variety in body shapes! I really appreciated seeing fat characters in this graphic novel, especially with the emphasis on looking cute and enjoying fashion. Koko was def my favorite character.
I really love how this book is structured. The story is told through little snapshots of life so that it feels a bit like a short story collection with all the characters entwined. It really is the tale of a big friend group. I do wish they had more time all together but I suppose that's for later books. Because by that RUDE ENDING there are more books. I do wish we'd gotten a bit more resolution in this one but I guess we can't have everything. At least we have cute fat gays and theys.

FINALLY. A B&B retelling that I love. Full review to come!

This book was REALLY GOOD. Like. That thought hit me in a wave about halfway through, and then again at the end. The beginning might feel a bit slow to some, but I loved the time and care taken to let us get to know our characters so we could root for them when things began to spiral into horror. 

Speaking of character--I ADORE the character work in this novel. Erin was definitely my favorite. She was so sweet and strong and gentle and kind while also still having very realistic and understandable flaws. She felt so real, and I was very invested in her journey. While Max frustrated and annoyed me a lot, I never got too fed up that I quit on him. And then when the end came barreling around, I was fully a Max fan. I have trouble with unresolved ed character conflict, so that probably made it harder for me to really like him at points, but I never stopped rooting for him. I also love how each character shows us a different experience of being trans. We get a lot of surface-level Max stories in media when people bother to acknowledge trans lives, but Max's took it deeper and showed the nuance and grief of living through that. And then Erin's especially--she just felt so human and real, and it was messy but so good for that.

I also loved that this story (mild spoiler)

has a happy ending

. I DNFed a horror collection because they were all too damn depressing, and I wanted horror that had some

triumph in it as well

. And this novel carries through on that! I felt nervous but hopeful the whole way through, and I loved how long we got at the end to see things resolved and wrapped up. Overall it was super satisfying. 

My only caveat (aside from how they could have sped up the beginning juuust a smidge) is how the word "fat" was used twice to describe someone we were supposed to view as gross and creepy. It jarred me each time. I'm not sure what other descriptive word could have been used, and also wonder if we could just not do the "fat=gross" man trope, sigh. It just felt cheap and easy and cliche (though I will admit
It to being very sensitive to this language as a fat person myself). But that's a rather small qualm, and the book's overall themes and heart made those word choices easy to move the past and still love the book.

F. T. Lukens has done it again. I'm telling you, no one does an ensemble cast like they do. If you loved So This Is Ever After, you'll love this book. The cast is similar, all with unique voices and personalities that are engaging and endearing. Lukens takes so much care in how they write relationships, never overlooking platonic bonds in order to uplift and praise romance. In this book especially, it really felt like the friendship between Al and Cam was the central point of the book, with the crushing on the sidelines. As an aroace person, I really appreciated the prioritizing of friendship here! And how we got to see so many different kinds of relationships in the various people who showed up for Cam. 

The world building was also very well done. It was straightforward while still being complex, and I enjoyed the politics around each group of magical creatures. That was really interesting to delve into, and appreciated that the book took the time to do so. The magic itself was epic--loved the plant magic especially. And Lukens does a fantastic job of doing the "super special powered MC" without it feeling too cheesy. I was so here for the ride, and having a great time the whole way. Watching Cam settle into himself and his powers was so good--and such a great metaphor for queerness, honestly. I kind of want to reread it specifically to focus through that lens. 

While I did overall love this book, I do have a few gripes: 1) the ending was just way too rushed. We didn't really get resolution to Al and Cam's relationship. Especially given Al's moms. That was frustrating, and with how much time we'd been given to invest in their friendship, it was frustrating not to get the payoff of them /really/ talking it out. The writing, especially at the beginning, was also rather repetitive, so we could have cut words down there and put them in the ending instead. 2) I would have like more time to resolve Cam's arc. I won't go into spoilery details, but I wanted Cam to truly be able to face their fears after the climax with the rest of the cast instead of just one friend. 

None of these complaints are deal breakers though, and I will still be whole-heartedly recommending yet another banger of a book from this amazing author! Thank you so much to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for the review copy. 

A lovely ode to creatives of all sorts. I felt very seen and understood by this short collection.