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Hello Hello! I hope you are all well.
Today I’m going to be doing my first graphic novel review on my blog! I only started reading graphic novels a few months ago and I’ve started to really enjoy them. I never thought that I would because I wasn’t a comic/manga fan growing up, in fact, I really don’t like mangas, I don’t know if it’s the art style or the writing style, but I just don’t like them.
However, I really wanted to start reading graphic novels, I’ve seen so many people gush over them that I wanted to give it a shot. My first-ever graphic novel was Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell and it was so cute, I loved it so much!
I read Heartstopper Volume 1 last year I believe, and it’s taken me so long to get my hands on Volume 2, so thank you again to the person who gifted it to me recently!
Title: Fence (Volume 1, 2 and 3)
Author: C.S. Pascat
Published: 2018 (Volume 1), 2019 (Volume 2 and 3) – Boom! Box
Format: Ebook on Scrib’d – 112 pages each
MY REVIEW
I had heard so many people talking about these graphic novels for the past 3 years, and I didn’t want to buy them in case I wasn’t going to like them very much, so I’m glad I read them on Scribd. We follow Nicholas Cox, a young fencer who goes up against a rival fencer called Seiji Katayama at the Nationals competition. Nicholas loses by a long shot, but he promises to beat him when he next gets a chance.
We then meet the boys once again at a private boarding school where Nicholas is on a scholarship (if he is able to make the team) and Seiji is at this school too, although he wanted to go to Exton. We don’t really know why Seiji is at this school, and this confounds everyone in these books.
Throughout the three volumes, there is a lot of fencing, I suppose it’s obvious, but I was expecting something more, like more of a focus on friendship or a relationship, so I was a bit disappointed when all three books were basically just guys fencing each other. We do get to learn a bit about each person’s families and pasts, but not as much as I would have liked.
MY THOUGHTS AND RATING
I was honestly quite underwhelmed by these books, they were obviously a really fast read, and I’m glad I didn’t actually buy them because I would have been annoyed at myself. I suppose this wasn’t the best choice for me since I’m not a sports enthusiast, but I have to say that I was expecting it to be less boring. I really was hoping for a bigger focus on the peoples’ lives or pasts, I was expecting a relationship or at least a friendship, and I don’t feel like I got any of that.
I suppose I would recommend this book to people who do have an interest in sports, but I don’t think this book is for me, hence the 3-star rating.
Purchase links: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3
Title: Heartstopper Volume 2
Author: Alice Oseman
Published: 11th of July 2019 – Hodder Children’s Books
Format: Paperback – 320 pages
MY REVIEW
I initially started reading this graphic novel “series” on Webtoon, and I completely fell in love with Nick and Charlie right from page 1. After reading through to chapter 3 and having to wait for an age for the next pages, I decided to purchase a physical copy of the first volume to reread it and it was such a great little experience.
I waited for an age to pick up Volume 2 and I’m so glad a lovely friend gifted it to me, it was a great little read when I eventually found time to read it last week.
In Volume 2, we keep following Nick and Charlie in their relationship as well as them navigating school, Charlie being already “out”, and Nick still not sure of his sexuality. I don’t want to say too much in case you haven’t read Volume 1 yet, but this one was just as cute as the first one! Also, the art in this graphic novel series is just so cute!
MY THOUGHTS AND RATING
I gave this one 5 stars, I just can’t find anything to fault this series, it is so cute, Nick and Charlie have my heart and I can’t wait to get my hands on Volume 3. This is such a lovely, quick and heart-warming read if you need a little pick-me-up and I would definitely recommend to everyone and anyone!
Purchase links: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3
That’s all for now, I hope you liked my little impromptu graphic novel review! I’d love to read some of your graphic novel recommendations so please comment down below with some graphic novel titles you’ve enjoyed recently! See you soon, stay safe,
Ellie xx
I have Fence on my bookshelf, but haven’t yet been able to buy Heartstopper. It looks so adorable!
Heartstopper is the cutest, you’ll love it! I think you will like Fence if you don’t expect a cute romance like I was expecting aha! To hear people describe it, in my head the two main characters were going to be enemy to lovers so I was waiting for that to happen, but it never did, so I was really disappointed because everyone keeps saying that its male/male romance and it just isn’t 😂 but the fencing part was cool, if you like sports 😂
I feel like Heartstopper is so hard to get ahold of! My library doesn’t have it and I checked the bookstore before moving and they didn’t either but I’ve been hearing so many amazing things I might have to try again.
Wow that’s so strange, this is the second time someone has told me this! I had no idea, I suppose you could read it on Webtoon for free, it isn’t the same as reading it paperback. Have you tried Amazon and Bookdepository? It doesn’t really surprise me about the library because in my experience they don’t have many graphic novels, and the ones they do are not representative of gender, sexuality, etc, so that’s not a surprise, but it’s weird that you can’t get this in bookstores. You definitely need to try to find these books, they are so cute!