Every word of this novel ached with grief and heart. I want to fold myself within the pages and sit with the heartache. This book captures grief, loneliness, and mental illness in a way I've never read before. The imagery of this novel serves to heighten the themes it conveys, rather than just making the writing sing, and every part of this novel is a melody to the deepest, darkest parts of the soul.

Leigh was such a realistic YA protagonist, which I loved. She made mistakes. Her and Axel's relationship was one of my favorite parts of the story, which surprised me. I normally roll my eyes at most YA romances, but this one had me rooting for them to work things out and get together at the end. Their relationship just felt so genuine and real, and they both cared about each other so deeply, it made my heart ache. Sure, I rolled my eyes a bit (mostly at the drama involving Axel's other love interest) but that's high school for you. They pulled through in the end.

In short, go into this book with your heart prepared to be ripped up, because Pan doesn't hold back.

3.5 stars (I think? gah this is a hard one to review!)

I just have so many feelings, and Nick's scatter-brained-ness is wearing off onto me.

All in all, this was a fun read. It was hilarious. And cheesy. I read lots of reviews before going into this, and most of them said not to expect anything too deep or substantial and that was true. I recommend this if you want to escape the world for a while and have fun with disaster queer high schoolers and superhero cliches that are embraced for what they are.

I don't know whether this book wins or loses brownie points for the narrator. It was so clear what was going on while Nick was completely clueless--so much so that, at times, Nick was almost /too/ clueless to be believable? It was very frustrating. I was screaming through most of this, and had to put the book down multiple times because I couldn't handle it. But it was also really fun. Like. I just purely enjoyed this book. It was like watching a corny superhero movie.

This book loses a star for the police glorification in this book (which I also saw in reviews before reading, so I went in being conscious of it). There were a lot of problematic elements with how the police were portrayed, and while they're not the US police system, brushing off witness assault is not okay in any world. Nick adores his dad, but still. It did kind of cause some mixed feelings while reading--feelings that I want to sit with and feel uncomfortable with, because I know that has something to teach me.

I'm all over the place, I know. I'll sum up: highly recommend if you want to escape the world for a few hours and laugh over the disaster gay that is Nicholas Bell, not so much if you don't want to read about how great the police are and want something literary and thought-provoking.

This was really hard to get through. Heart-achingly written, beautifully illustrated, this memoir took my heart and broke it into a thousand little pieces. Omar and Hassan's story is something so foreign to me, having grown up in a middle class family in the safety and luxury of the United States. It's so very important that stories like this are given to young children here, so that we can have perspective on the world and see the power we have by simply living in America to reach out and help those who need it.

I highly recommend this book. I've never known much about what life might be like in a refugee camp, and this graphic novel painted the picture clearly and vividly. I also recommend checking out refugeestrong.org, the nonprofit organization Omar Mohamed founded. They have a breakdown of how much a donation will give a child, and it's pretty stunning just how little money it takes to make a big difference.