Reading: MY RIOT - Rick Spears (author), Emmett Helen (illustrator)

Prose (Story): Val, a white teen from suburbia who studies ballet and has pretty much spent a lifetime keeping to herself, is growing discontent with dancing and the constant pressures of dieting or - worse - smoking in order to drop weight. One night while working at her job at an ice cream shop, a riot breaks out in the neighborhood, and in the process Val's store is invaded by looters and badly vandalized. She also meets another girl her age that night, one of the looters no less, who seems the opposite of Val in every way - free-spirited, her own person, raging against society - and the entire experience clicks something in Val, in a way that changes her forever. With the help of the girl from the riot - now her new friend - Val forms a band and enters the world of punk rock, ditching ballet and dying her hair and embracing an entirely new and rebellious life. 

Don's (Review): I really wanted to like this one, especially after identifying with Val and her journey in the opening scenes. But as I read on, this graphic novel lost my interest, becoming predictable yet somehow straining believability at the same time. People of color - even a Black girl the ladies bring into their band, turning her into a major supporting character - aren't exactly depicted in an always flattering light, and the relationship between Val and her mom comes off a little farfetched when, in the beginning, the two seem to argue or disagree on everything Val wants to do, Mom essentially worried about Val because she's young and immature ... until out of nowhere the mom suddenly seems to have an epiphany and pretty much gives her daughter the greenight for whatever she wants to do. The artwork, by Emmett Helen, is really good, but for me the color palette of black and white pages saturated in or overlayed with blotches of pastel colors throughout - presumably to set the mood for the punk rock-themed narrative? - left me bored and easily able to put the book down (sadly, without being especially anxious to pick it up again). Nothing wrong with the story or writing itself really, and in fact the scenes where the  band is playing concerts in grubby venues or clubs befitting their musical style, are when the story comes to life; those scenes, brief as they are, kept me reading. It just sometimes felt like everything else, all that tropey story, got in the way of something that could have been so much better. 2.5/5 stars

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