Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

It's a sweet story, good for young readers.   Still, I wasn't crazy about the art style, and I felt that there was a lot that could have been done better.   This is Callie's story, and she's on the stage crew at her middle school.   She meets two new boys - twins, I believe - Justin and Jesse who can sing, and who also like musicals.   Justin gets a part singing while Jesse, the shyer of the two, also joins the stage crew. 

Callie also has a good friend who's of color - as are Jesse and Justin.   There are also gay characters and one who isn't sure if he's gay or bisexual.  Unfortunately, all of these are dealt with rather superficially: even when one of the gay boys confesses that he thinks his dad knows but isn't ready to hear yet, and he's not sure he's ready to come out, there's no further conversation about that aspect.   It's all about Callie, the white girl, after all.   And it feels as if everyone else is there to be part of her story. 

That's not quite fair to Telgemeir.   She turns plot points on their heads, and plays around with some character stereotypes.   It's just not enough to make up for everyone else being a token character to support Callie.  

Since this was also based a lot on Telgemeier's experiences, I wonder how much Callie is a stand in for her.   It really doesn't help that the things Callie goes through are central and the important issues that could be discussed here are dismissed so long as they aren't relevant to Callie's story.   It just left a bad taste in my mouth, as if Callie were the only important person.  The fact is that most of her friends had something that could have made them at least as interesting, and some were struggling with far deeper issues.   By focusing only on hers - a lot of which revolved around getting boys to like her - this felt shallow.  

Still, kudos to the author for bringing up these issues at all.   Also, with it so hard to get female characters to stay friends - a topic discussed in a Readercon panel last year - more kudos to having Callie and her best friend Liz stay together despite Callie losing her mind over boys and abandoning her at one point.   

So overall, a mix of good and bad.  Still, it was a really quick read, and I've been curious about Telgemeier's work since she's so popular.   My sister had to read this for a class and then passed it onto me.    I probably wouldn't have read this otherwise.   Doubtful I'll look at more of her work, especially since I've read about some problematic issues with Ghosts.   It sounds like Telgemeier glosses over things, or appropriates them, and I'm not really interested in that given the fact that I don't particularly enjoy her art style.