Reading: JULIET TAKES A BREATH - Gabby Rivera (author), Celia Moscote (illustrator)

Prose (Story): Gabby Rivera takes her much-loved novel and, along with artist Celia Moscote, transforms it into a graphic novel in which nineteen-year-old Bronx resident Juliet Milagros Palante - Puerto Rican, lesbian, and barely out of the closet - discovers her inner feminist upon reading a book by the popular feminist author Harlowe Brisbane. A heartelt email to the Portland, Oregon-based writer lands Juliet a much-needed internship for her college, so with caution to the wind and a whole lot of faith, Juliet outs herself to her family just before leaving New York, taking control of her life even if she wonders if her mother will ever speak to her again, and arrives in a new city ready for adventure ... even if unprepared for some surprises life, and Harlowe Brisbane, throws her along the way.

Don's (Review): Within a handful of pages I was instantly smitten with Julia - a thick, beautiful girl with big hair and bigger dreams. Still very much feeling her way around this thing called Life, she arrives in Portland already stressed about leaving her mother - who she now thinks might hate her - and her painfully white girlfriend behind, and from the beginning tries to go with the flow when her feminist mentor Harlowe also comes off as a bit of a nut. Juliet's naivete and shyness, even as she is determined to stay strong and get what she can from this experience, is absolutely endearing, and I was rooting for this beautiful "baby dyke" with a heart bigger than the great outdoors from first page to last (proof being that I found it hard to put the book down until I was fiished) in her struggle to find both herself and her place in the world. A wonderful, beautifully-illustrated graphic novel of trying to fit in while standing out, Juliet's story is as funny, sweet, satisfying, and heartwarmiing as its heroine herself. (Available November 25) 5/5 stars

NOTE: I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley and the publisher, in exhange for an honest review.

Reading: OLLIE'S GARDEN - Riya Aarini (author), Virvalle Carvallo (illustrator)

Prose (Story): The third book in the Carefree Ollie early reader series finds little Ollie this time as king of his own garden. Serving over its flowers, trees - and the creatures who live among them - Ollie's skills as ruler are put to the test when bickering breaks out between different factions of the ladybugs, the squirrels and chipmunks, and frogs and toads. Can Ollie, dissension growing in his garden kingdom, show the animals and insects a way to co-exist - even become friends - in order to restore peace to his land? 

Don's (Review): While I felt the first Ollie book, Ollie's Backpack, was a bit disjointed in the beginning, in the end I loved how it came together and the lesson it had in store for its reader. Ollie's Haffiness was even better, Ollie learning some genuine responsibility, and I loved how the book depicted both him and his friends, emphasizing diversity. And while Ollie's Garden fits perfectly into the series, Virvalle Carvallo's bold and colorful illustrations as charming as ever, for me this one felt a bit too "on-the-nose" in its message, also definitely honing in more to its intended audience of children, over the slightly broader appeal of the two previous editions. But then, who else is the book for?  3.5/5 stars 

NOTE: I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. 

Reading: LONG WAY DOWN: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL - Jason Reynolds (author), Danica Novgorodoff (illustrator)

Prose (Story): This graphic novel, adapted from the award-winning novel by author Jason Reynolds (this time working with illustrator Danica Novgorodoff), follows fifteen-year-old Will who - as the story opens - has just lost his older brother Shawn to a gang shooting, an all-too familiar hazard where Will is from. In shock and grief, only made worse by the devastating toll Shawn's death is having on their mother, Will nevertheless remembers The Rules, passed onto him as a child by his brother - No Crying. No Snitching. Get Revenge - and is determined to live by them. Breaking into a drawer in Shawn's dresser that Will had alway been forbidden access to, the young man finds his dead brother's gun and, sure of who Shawn's killer is, sets out avenge his brother - little realizing that an act as simple as getting in an elevator and pressing the down button could prove to have reverberating effects on his life and future. Maybe even save it. 

Don's (Review):  I read Jason Reynold's moving, heartbreaking and deeply profound novel about a year ago, unable for weeks to shake its effect on me (to this day, remembering it sends me back to the dream-like state that overcomes you when reading it). Told in free verse as opposed to a straight narrative made the novel all that much more powerful, putting the reader into Will's head from his first words, but I did wonder how that writing style would work in this form. Sure enough, the book's narrative has been changed up a bit to accommodate the graphic novel, but the words are no less powerful - the story no less sugar-coated in the face of reality - and illustrator Danica Novgorodoff's choice of watercolors, blues and reds and purples runing and smearing into each other over beautiful line drawings that capture the mood of life in the city, the devastation of life where Will and his family live in particular, give the words and story a whole other level of visual impact beyond the novel. While the novel remains my favorite, its mark left permanently on my soul just by reading it, the graphic novel is no less brilliant, and no less a must-read. Not so much a companion piece, or even off-shoot of the book, this is more a gutwrenching visual representation of what it's like to live in Shawn and Will's world - if you're allowed to live in it at all.  5/5 stars

Reading: THE SURVIVORS - Jane Harper

Prose (Story): Kieran Elliot has returned home to Evelyn Bay, on the Tasmanian coast, with girlfriend Mia and baby Audrey in tow, to help his mother Verity after it's been decided that Kieran's dad Brian - diagnosed with dementia some years back - is to be put into a convalescent home. Kieran wants his parents closer to him, in Sydney, but comes to help in the transition closer to home ... even as the memories of a horrible accident twelve years earlier, during a storm, still has him losing sleep from guilt and pain. On that day, Kieran had become stranded out by the caves during the worst of the storm, and in trying to save him Kieran's brother Finn - along with Finn's friend Toby - died when the stormy sea capsized their boat. From his brother's death to the now-chilly relationship with his mother to his dad's descent into mental illness, Kieran feels responsible - and when, soon after his arrival in town, a young server at a local restaurant/bar, in town only for the season, is found strangled to death on the beach, the crime in the normally-peaceful Evelyn Bay opens up old wounds and new investigations that may or may not tie into the unsolved disappearance of a teenaged girl twelve years ago, during that same storm ... as well as answer what really may have happened the day Kieran found himself stranded in the ravaging waves; the day Finn died.  

Don's (Review): I was introduced to Jane Harper with The Lost Man, her standalone mystery release last year that blew the very head off my shoulders, going on to become my favorite read of 2019. A genuine masterpiece. Though I knew I had her two previous titles to read, I was amped upon hearing about The Survivors, and did my best to get my hands on a copy even though it's not released in the States until February 2021. Here, we follow a guilt-ravaged Kieran as he comes back home to help his parents, reuniting at the same time with the core gang of friends he knew back then - including Sean, brother of Toby who died on the same boat as Kieran's brother Finn, and Olivia, whose little sister Gabby was the girl disappeared in the wake of the record-breaking storm twelve years ago, only her backpack washing up on the beach days later. When Olivia's co-worker is found strangled, the police can't help finding some common threads between her murder and Gabby's disappearance, and as we read on Kieran himself tries to cope with his recurring memories and guilt of that awful day - while at the same time, following clues and facts that don't quite fit together in his own quest for answers, even if they're answer he might not want to know. Another masterful mystery from Harper, with a tense ending following revelations both surprising and sad in order to get there. While not quite The Lost Man - I felt the book could have been edited down just a bit more, tightening up the suspense and condensing some scenes that went on a bit - The Survivors still solidifies Jane Harper as a master of her craft. I'd read a dissertation on the benefits of dryer lint, were she to write it. 4.5/5 stars

October Wrap-Up: Let's Get Graphic Here

Having moved in late September - then adding the burden of a roommate I hadn't intended on, who is one of the most difficult people I've ever lived with - plus working again, when you put all this with the upcoming elections, I found my concentration wavering throughout the month. Unable to focus for long on novels for some reason, I realized I also had a hefty bunch of graphic novel and manga ARCs I had to complete because they were releasing soon ... so that's where we went for the majority of the month!

Which didn't end up being a bad thing, either. But starting with Vivien Chien's cozy mystery novel, Killer Kung Pao, the month started off with an awesome cozy mystery - one of my favorites of this series! From there on, I got to hang out with the Teen Titans awhile ... also a distant relative of Mary Shelley ... and even discovered a really unique, interesting twist on the iconic Sherlock Holmes nemesis, Professor Moriarty!

Not even realizing how much this was gearing me onto some serious Halloween reading, I then picked up volume one of Tokyo Ghoul - which blew me the heck AWAY - before segueing into a couple of kidlit titles with another creepy graphic novel in-between.

Also got two episodes into a new Brazilian series on Netflix - "Spectros" - and again, more creepiness. So far, so good!

Sadly, no reviews done for October yet. In fact, not quite caught up with September! So if still reading this, please check back for those reviews ... and for November? God knows. I am determined to finish more novels, definitely, but also am doing NaNoWriMo for November (eee!) - and, quite frankly, all of it would most likely go to hell depending on how the elections go. I write this the day before Election Day, scared to death about what may happen should this election be "won", or worse yet stolen, again by a lunatic.