review 1: great book. just beautiful FANTASTIC art (as one comic artist to another I understand how well is technique is) i love the back stories and side stories, and what an interesting version to be from the view of his teenage self. I absolutely hatesd the characters, but Im pretty sure Im supposed to. After all, who doesnt hate teenagers? Dark and sad with some casual banter and humor mixed in made it really come alive for me. review 2: ive been on a graphic novel kick. i wanted to love this book. i even wanted to like it. But i can't. i know it tries to make a statement about economic decline.. immigration and racism..how people and communities have a hard time dealing with immigrants... but in the end it feels not so much like fluff but barely scaped surface o... moref.. hey.. maybe we shouldn't hate people who look different to us and change things... you can come away from this book thinking both ways. we need be colorblind yet this perpetuates the idea that immgrants (that read as asian) can destory your perfect white suburbanville where people care about their lawns and make everything be icky asian food and grafitti filled urban ghettos. i wish author would have included at least some acknowledgement of aboriginal/colonial issues or some protagonist other than the ooo dealing with icky aliens is harddd type sentiment. this left a bad taste. too bad. its excellent artwork and can tell a talented story teller. just did not go far enough. less
