Monday, March 10, 2008

Breaking Up by Aimee Friedman

Chloe and her three best friends attend an arts high school that they've dubbed Fashion High. Chloe is an artist, Mackenzie is into fashion, Erika a musician, and Isabel a dancer. Chloe chronicles her friend's junior year in a comic book that deals mainly with the ups and downs of their friendships and their various relationships with boys.

So what is the storyline? Well, basically it follows the four friends and their friendship through a year of high school. There are warning signs right from the beginning of the year that things have changed and their friendships may not be as strong and iron clad as they thought they were. This inevitably leads to more and more hurt feelings, secrets, and eventually to fights that stem from misunderstandings, squabbles about popularity, pressures to have sex, decisions about who to date (should you secretly date a hot guy with a girlfriend? Is it worth it to date a boy who isn't popular...even if you really like him?) and so on. It deals with a wide range of everyday high school experiences with all of the melodrama but without feeling bogged down with too much angsty seriousness.

The comic is in black and white and I really liked the illustrator. The characters were clearly differentiated (unlike in Manga when half the time i can't figure out who is who). It was really cute and to my mind will appeal mostly to girls who are in upper elementary and middle school even though it features characters who are in high school.

1 comment:

joanna said...

I thought it was all fluff. I think you're right about the age appeal, too.