Adam P. Knave

2.5/5 stars

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through Edelweiss.)

THE AIRLESS YEAR follows a young adult named Kacee as she navigates a calendar year in middle school - hard enough on its own, but she's failing math and French; her two besties are also warring twin siblings; her parents are the worst; and she's a queer, Black girl with an unrequited crush on a super-cool nonbinary artist. In order to "succeed" - in school and relationships - she has to learn who she is, what matters most to her, and how to ask for (and accept) help.

I really wanted to like THE AIRLESS YEAR, but the story mostly fell flat for me. Maybe it's because I'm not the intended audience - it's been decades since I was Kacee's age - but very little here struck a chord in me. It's not that Kacee's struggles aren't relatable; I still remember what it felt like to be 13, impossibly awkward, and with few friends to fall back on (or at least I think I do / still am, I guess). Rather, the story just felt underwhelming.

One example: Kacee's family dynamics. Kacee is a dark-skinned Black girl; her mother is Black, but lighter-skinned, and dad is very clearly white. Both parents are kind of terrible - unsupportive scolds who badger Kacee night and day without offering any actual help, and who actively mock her (few) friends (!) - but Dad is clearly the worse of the two. One word comes to mind when describing his behavior: misogynoir. But, since race isn't really discussed at all, we're mostly left guessing over this guy.

(Yes, it's great to create a diverse story without having to actively address things like race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity and orientation, and religion ad nauseam, but I feel like throwing in an overbearing white dad without explanation is questionable at best.)

The artwork is a bit of a mixed bag for me. Whereas the alien landscapes Kacee escapes to her in head are quite lovely, I'm not a huge fan of the people - everyone has the same weird, lumpy shape and oddly shaped head. Definitely a distraction.… (más)

I have always enjoyed Arthurian stories, so I saw this was available on Edelweiss and decided to try for it. I got approved for it, but never got around to reading it. Finally, I decided I should probably do that and get it off my Edelweiss shelf. I can’t say that this was a favorite read by any means. The story and how Rani gets the magical Excalibur felt a bit (umm, how to say this without being too spoiler, but at the same time letting you know how WTF it was for me) anti-climatic (did that work?). While I was not expecting like glittery sparkles for the moment, it was seriously like “okay, she has it now.” I seriously wondered if the writer knew from the get-go that he was only going to get 5 issues, so he had to force things through or what the heck went on in his mind to make it seem like anyone could have rolled up on the sword and taken it. It made me very sad, overall.

The part of the collection that I did enjoy was the fact that this really explores modern day sexualities, but it does not do it successfully to me. See the cover? Poly is all I am going to say, so I don’t give away everything but the kitchen sink. There is even some asexual representation in this, but it all feels so rather forced. Congrats for being diverse, but can it feel more natural? Probably for a different writer or a bit more editing on this writer’s part. It felt like it jumped so much between the two side characters romancing the main character that at times I felt that the main storyline suffered from this. I understand that a single issue of the comic series has limited space and that this particular style means that certain tropes and formatting has to be followed, so I think overall I probably would have enjoyed this more as a well-thought out graphic novel with multiple volumes instead of as this collected 5 issue set.

I will say I loved that this was not an immediate “Morgan Le Faye” is the bad guy story. Morgan appears, but who she is and how she fits into the real world I loved! Seriously! As a book blogger there was no way not to love it. Want to know why the love? Read the darn thing. Find out if you like the things that I disliked about it. Maybe it will give it another volume that can help flesh it out better than this one does. Some of the sketches seem to allude that there was some elements that they wanted to do in subsequent volumes, so maybe if someone throws some money at them they can produce those issues.

I feel that this is one that most people could avoid and just be fine with it. People who like Arthurian stories will at least enjoy those subtle nods that it gives to it. I try to not be overly negative in my reviews, so this is probably the most negative review I will ever give on here. The reality is that this just wasn’t done well for me, as a reader. I saw a lot of cracks in the veneer and simple ways to fix those issues. As a reader though, I recognize my own biases and recognize that sometimes I am just not going to enjoy what I read. This was one of those reads. Someone else may have a completely different experience with it. Good luck to those that take it on.… (más)

This collection is the third in a series but I have not read the two previous ones so it all starts off quite confusingly.

This volume takes place in a world where magic is commonly used and a variety of races co-habit peacefully. Amelia Cole, the central character, has a golem and is the Protector. She has to escape from a body called the Council who are trying to siphon all the magic to themselves.

Meanwhile another story runs concurrently about a bunch of soldiers fending off the attack on another world from monsters. These get through into Amelia’s world where Amelia’s friends are fighting for their lives.

The rest of the story tells of the battle between the forces of good (Amelia and company) and the magic-siphoning monsters with a cliffhanger ending leading into the fourth volume.

A little too colourful for my liking, the artwork is good without being special.
… (más)