• Author: Kevin Panetta
• Artwork: Savanna Ganucheau
• Publisher: :01 First Second
• Publishing year: 2019
• Pages: 363
• ISBN: 978-1626726413

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626726413/bloom

Review:

Ari’s just out of high school and together with some of his friends he has a band and plans on going to live with them in the big city, where they will live of their music. But Ari’s dad wants nothing to hear from these plans, Ari needs to help in their bakery. So Ari comes with a plan: if he can find a replacement for him, he can do whatever he likes.

Hector has come to live in the seaside town to clean up his nana’s house after she died. So, for the summer he’s living in her house, going through her stuff and doing what he loves best: baking. So when he finds the flyer for a job in the bakery he’s very eager. As much as Ari wants to escape the life, the more Hector would love to stay and bake.

During the Summer the two boys grow closer towards each other but their differences keep them away from each other as well. And then all starts to crumble. Ari and his friends start growing apart, their original plans don’t seem to work out anymore and then a disaster happens that tears the growing love between the two boys. Will Ari be able to live with the ramifications and will he be able to become happy again, like he used to be?

This is a classic coming-of-age story where two boys meet, fall for each other but don’t know how to express their emotions, their real feelings towards each other. And yet there’s something more to this story. Because even though there’s the tension between the two boys, Ari and Hector, the main story is not about them falling in love but more about how each have their own personal problems to deal with and life paths they need to go on but both feel that there’s more to be found somewhere else, at least that’s what they hope and think. But life is never as easy as it seems. And making wrong decisions can have big consequences but is also something natural to growing up. You only have to learn from the mistakes made.

What I love best in graphic novels such as Bloom and Heartstopper is that the drawings speak for themselves and don’t always need words to express emotions.

In the back of the graphic novel you can find a playlist you can play while reading.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/23evVwSnttp7qH7LjhWND1?si=caxlaEw_R_uOjnsQncvs4g&pi=e-8Jle5G8ARbGi

Deze graphic novel is in het Nederlands vertaald en in twee delen uitgebracht bij Dutch Venture Publishing onder de naam ‘Bloem’! Een aanradertje!