Tagarchief comics will break your heart

Review Comics Will Break Your Heart

Author: Faith Erin Hicks
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Miriam’s family should be rich. After all, her grandfather was the co-creator of smash-hit comics series The TomorrowMen. But he sold his rights to the series to his co-creator in the 1960s for practically nothing, and now that’s what Miriam has: practically nothing. And practically nothing to look forward to either-how can she afford college when her family can barely keep a roof above their heads? As if she didn’t have enough to worry about, Miriam’s life gets much more complicated when a cute boy shows up in town . . . and turns out to be the grandson of the man who defrauded Miriam’s grandfather, and heir to the TomorrowMen fortune.

In her endearing debut novel, cartoonist Faith Erin Hicks pens a sensitive and funny Romeo and Juliet tale about modern romance, geek royalty, and what it takes to heal the long-festering scars of the past.

I got this book as a gift after I fell head over heels for the storyline. Romeo and Juliet, comics, romance and Comic-Con? Count. Me. In. I was reading another book, but I just had to read this book immediately. And I’m glad I did. This book was endearing. I loved the slow and sweet romance between Mir and Weldon. It felt realistic and it was just adorable. But it could have used a bit more excitement. The storyline gave a vibe of real conflict, but that was not really the case.

Mir wasn’t really a special character that I really liked. She is fighting for something way before her time. She also felt a bit like a whiny child at moments. Whining about how unfair everything is. I did really admire her hard work. But it did not always make sense to me. But her character growth overtime was nice to see!

Weldon was a bit more clear, but he felt a bit cliché at times. The rich kid that’s getting into trouble to get attention from his parents. Not really something I haven’t seen before. There also wasn’t a lot of depth to him. That was something I was a bit sad about, I always love character growth and while Mir did have that, he did not.

I also did not really get the relationship between Mir and her best friend Rayleigh and her irritating boyfriend Jamie. I did not really feel like it really did something for the book, but that it was more like pagefilling. The friendship between Evan and Mir was great though! I would have liked seeing more of that. Together they went through a big growth and I adore that. I would love to see what they are going to do together in the future.

What I liked most about this book, was seeing the ugly side from comics. The fights and the consequences it has for not only their generation, but also later generations. I also had fun reading the parts where the grown ups are whining about how comic con isn’t about comics anymore and fake geeks and blablabla… That did feel realistic, since a lot of old school geeks are exactly like that, honestly.

I was dissapointed about the ending. I won’t spoil anything, but it felt a bit anti-climatic. I don’t mind an open ending, but this one felt a bit too open. I kinda wish there would be a second book, since I am really curious what’s going to happen between them a year later! But I haven’t seen any indication about this, so I guess it’s just imagining the best.

There’s one thing I would have LOVED to see in this book, and that would be comics. It does not even have to be in color. But I loved it on the cover and backside and it would have given the story so much more depth. I would have loved to see all the art they were talking about, it would be so GOOD! And with an author that’s also a comic artist, it would have been a match made in heaven. I think.

6,5/10

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