funny, romantic, gay, made me cry, and spooky? 5 stars easy 

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.

Trigger Warnings: (via an author’s note at the beginning of the novel) Moments of homophobia, misogyny, racism, domestic violence, animal cruelty, and confronting death

Sixteen-year-old Cade Muñoz has always loved the escapism of a good horror movie. Even though they’re scary, nothing is scarier than real life for the closeted queer Latino teen growing up in rural Texas.

When Cade gets sent to work his summer away with his step dad on his old army buddy’s ranch, he hates everything about it; the early mornings, the mountains of horse poop he has to shovel, the endless list of chores… But there are some things he does like - the company of the two teens who live there, especially the handsome Henry.

But, things are complicated. They’re in rural Texas after all. But Henry also won’t share about his mother’s death, and Henry’s father and him have had hushed, angry arguments Cade has overheard. Cade begins to wonder what secrets the family is hiding.

This is a beautifully illustrated and written romance about first love, grief, mental health, self acceptance, and the experience of being gay in rural, religious towns.

At first I was a little weary of the color pallet of being brown/maroon but it works well for this novel. It doesn’t take away from the story at all and it kind of helps set the mood of being out on a ranch. Also - the art is beautiful and I loved it!

I can see those who love the Heartstopper series also enjoying this book; Cade and Henry can totally give off Nick and Charlie vibes for sure… especially the hopeless romantic facial expressions of Cade. I shall indeed be recommending this book to any YA graphic novel, queer romance lovers.