Apr 24 2024
Contrary to the title, this book actually is something quite special. Callie Benson has always felt like something of an outcast, even in a world where humans and non-humans more or less co-exist (tho in large part due to the fact that most humans don’t actually believe that non-humans like Callie and her dad are …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/04/24/nothing-special-vol-one-through-the-elder-woods-by-katie-cook/
Apr 16 2024
Oh my goodness, I am so obsessed with this manga-style graphic novel, I literally finished it with cathartic tears streaming down my face! Our heroine Taka is a self-styled Notorious Delinquent. Having grown up on the mean city streets alone, she has no friends, no interest in developing any, and only really cares about one …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/04/16/taka-by-ryan-jampole/
Mar 15 2024
First of all, the No-Girlfriend Rule is bullshit. If you’re new to role-playing games and are told that your partner’s group doesn’t allow girlfriends, I don’t want you to have to spend time reading this (excellent) book to learn that that “rule” is manifest garbage, and you either need to find a new partner or …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/03/15/the-no-girlfriend-rule-by-christen-randall/
Jan 29 2024
You know you’re getting old when British YA diary novels are no longer compared to Sue Townsend’s or even Helen Fielding’s oeuvre. For all that I am now an old, I thoroughly enjoyed this tale of Kat Evans, the fifteen year-old girl who wants to be a good feminist even as she worries about friendships, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/01/29/diary-of-a-confused-feminist-by-kate-weston/
Dec 12 2023
This somehow slipped through the cracks for me at Halloween, but it’s a really tremendous read for the end of the year — or any time of year if you’re struggling with your emotions, and especially if you’re LGBTQ+, teenager or otherwise. Confetti Realms starts in a diner on Halloween, with three high-school-age friends making …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/12/12/confetti-realms-by-nadia-shammas-karnessa-hackto-oshiro-micah-meyers/
Sep 21 2023
What a vast and welcome improvement on the tepid first volume! In fairness, that compliment applies strictly to the story, as Pablo Tunica’s art has been excellent from the very beginning. His illustrations are as consistently kinetic and majestic and grotesque as the sea and its inhabitants, truly leaning in to the weird, hardscrabble nature …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/09/21/sea-serpents-heir-book-two-black-wave-by-mairghread-scott-pablo-tunica/
Aug 03 2023
It’s been almost a year since Rana’s best friend died, inexplicably going too fast in a car that he typically drove over-cautiously. Louie was smart, sensitive and accepting of Rana’s struggles as a closeted Iranian American Muslim lesbian with a difficult home life. Her dad works back in the Middle East while his family stays …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/08/03/rana-joon-and-the-one-and-only-now-by-shideh-etaat/
Jun 20 2023
Secondary schoolgirls Grace and Lola are bffs, united by many things but, most recently, by an utter bafflement as to the meaning, if not outright point, of love. In an effort to figure it all out, they begin a project called The Love Report, filling out a notebook with observations of people in love at …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/06/20/the-love-report-by-beka-maya/
Jun 16 2023
I really admire how well each of the books in this engrossing urban fantasy series lead in to one another. In this volume, Esteban, Tristan and Sarah, a.k.a the intrepid explorers of the Nightmare Brigade, are finally ready to plunge into the sleeping mind of Leonard, one of the Clinic’s most difficult patients. They’re going …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/06/16/the-nightmare-brigade-3-finding-alice-by-franck-thilliez-yomgui-dumont-drac/
Jun 13 2023
My only regret is that the ARC I received of this wasn’t completely in color. This is understandable — graphic novels ain’t cheap! — but I was so in love in with the illustrations on the few pages that were full-color glossy that I know I lost a little bit of the story’s impact by …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/06/13/constellations-by-kate-glasheen/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire