e-book, 320 pages
Release Date: November 7, 2023
Published by: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Read from: March 24-31, 2024
Stand-alone
Source: Library’s Libby
TW:Bullying, Death of parent, Grief
For Readers Interested In: MG, Realistic Fiction, Graphic Novels, SportsA rivalry between sisters culminates in a fencing duel in this funny and emotional debut graphic novel sure to appeal to readers of Raina Telgemeier and Shannon Hale.
Sixth grader Lucy loves fantasy novels and is brand-new to middle school. GiGi is the undisputed queen bee of eighth grade (as well as everything else she does). They’ve only got one thing in fencing. Oh, and they’re sisters. They never got along super well, but ever since their dad died, it seems like they’re always at each other’s throats.
When GiGi humiliates Lucy in the cafeteria on the first day of school, Lucy snaps and challenges GiGi to a duel with high sisterly stakes. If GiGi wins, Lucy promises to stay out of GiGi’s way; if Lucy wins, GiGi will stop teasing Lucy for good. But after their scene in the cafeteria, both girls are on thin ice with the principal and their mom. Lucy stopped practicing fencing after their fencer dad died and will have to get back to fighting form in secret or she’ll be in big trouble. And GiGi must behave perfectly or risk getting kicked off the fencing team.
As the clock ticks down to the girls’ fencing bout, the anticipation grows. Their school is divided into GiGi and Lucy factions, complete with t-shirts declaring kids’ allegiances. Both sisters are determined to triumph. But will winning the duel mean fracturing their family even further?
*MY THOUGHTS*
Graphic novels are always harder to read because of the story not being 100% told. It’s not always a problem, but I find that I sometimes struggle with graphic novels and novels in verse in this area. And unfortunately, this one falls into that gray space.
Now don’t get me wrong, this was REALLY good. It was more so the ending. I liked it up until the end. This whole time they’re being like this to each other and then at the end they just fix it in one panel by themselves? No. It gave me a disconnect to the story. The amount of things they did and said to each other? I don’t think they could have fixed that in one convo. And I get it, this is a MG book, but I feel like this is the time where they should have been trying to show that they were learning and growing together. Like at the very least they should have had an adult there to help. It was like an on and off switch.
The graphics were amazing tho. I don’t really know how to explain it. The colors were great, the drawing style was also amazing. Idk what it is, but I just love the way graphic novels look on screens. I read them on my iPad and it makes the colors so much more vibrant and I get to blow up the panels as large as I want to make sure I can see every single detail. And yes, sometimes when I had to blow up each panel it was annoying, but it was also beneficial for me to see everything “up close.” I also really enjoyed that this was all colors. Normally in graphic novels there’s a lead color and it’s used in all frames. So I was happy. It also helped more because it was like a realistic story and seeing it in full color was cool.
Although I had some struggles, this was a really solid graphic novel. I do hope there’s more either in a series or just more in general. This could be a solid series and this is a solid writing duo. I really hope to see more of them in the future.
Overall, I give this
