I was initially drawn to this graphic novel because of the Latine representation. I'm always looking to read more Latine and Hispanic rep. I think it was good, what I love about graphic novels is how easy they're to read, there's no room to think about DNFing because of how short they are.

One of the things I liked the most about this book was Henry and Henri's characters. They're so alike in many ways, but the struggles they face are vastly different. I really liked their sibling bond and how they care for and protected each other.

The scenes where Henry and Cade got together were really cute. Also I loved how even though Henry had a hard time managing his anger and explosive feelings, he still tried to ressure Cade of their relationship. Yes, Henry kept a lot of secrets, but he was trying his best with what he was allowed to do.

However I do have to say the story fell short for me. Like I said before, since it was short I never felt the need to DNF it, but I wasn't invested in the characters and I'll probably forget about them in a few weeks. I liked the art style at first, but then I realized it looked a lot like Bloom. I think one of graphic novel's strongest points is obviously the art. Having a unique color palette and style will set your graphic novel apart from the rest. Even though I really liked the choice of color palette and thought it went great with the plot, in my opinion Northranger didn't do enough to acomplish this.

Also something else that bothered me but in a smaller amount is how I couldn't figure out the year this story was set in. I don't know if it's because I have no idea how Texas and rural Texas looks nowadays, but I thought at first it was set in the 60s or 70s, especially when Cade went to the movies. But then they mentioned something I don't remember but that made me think, "oh, this is recent. this only happened a few years ago wtf?" so yeah, I was confused. I don't know if the author did this intentionally or not.

Some spanish phrases felt worded weird for me. Like when Cade's grandma said Somos bendecidos, instead of Estamos bendecidos. But in general the spanish bits were okay and I didn't have a big problem about it.

I want to finish off this review with something good. I really appreciate this book for teaching me how important horror stories are for the queer community. It's something I've read before somewhere, but this book made me understand it better and Rey Terciero did a good job at implementing it in Cade's character and how he relates horror movie characters and tropes with being in the closet in Texas.

It has my favourite things:
Horror
People in Cowboyhats
Gay ppl 
So good, I'm obsessed 

“𝙸𝚝’𝚜 𝚘𝚔𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚊 𝚖𝚎𝚜𝚜.” 

“𝙸’𝚖 𝚍𝚎𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚢 𝚊 𝚖𝚎𝚜𝚜. 𝙰 𝚑𝚞𝚐𝚎 𝚖𝚎𝚜𝚜. 𝙷𝚘𝚙𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚍𝚘𝚗’𝚝 𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚖𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚖𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚢.” 

“𝙸’𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚖𝚘𝚙. 𝚆𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚋𝚎 𝚖𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚢 𝚝𝚘𝚐𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛.”

🍷🍷🍷🍷 / 5

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈 / 5

»»————-✼————-««

Review:

This was my first ever graphic novel! I was super nervous to start, due to my dyslexia I can be a skim reader so I was scared I was gunna miss parts and not realise what was going on😅 but i actually found it super easy to follow, the illustrations, are incredible and really bought the story to life making it so easy to follow and kept me so absorbed I read this in 3 sittings! If I’d had a day off work I’d have read it in a day😅

I’m not usually a thriller or horror fan (i much prefer my characters alive and fighting dragons😅) but I loved all the horror movie references and how the storyline reflected that of a horror movie! I loved the fast pace of the book and the timeline jumps were easy to follow and kept the story flowing! I loved the use of white and black borders to show night and day and all the illustrations are ✨stunning✨

Trigger warning, both Cade and Henry receive homophobic comments, and there are also mentions of racism and depression and suicide don’t forget to look after yourselves my loves🥰

For lovers of: