Please check out my previous Storytelling posts here. And my 365 Reviews here.
Hope you enjoyed yesterday’s review of Short Order Crooks! If you did not get a chance to read it, click the link at the top right after reading this. Today I’m continuing my full week of graphic novel reviews with a sweet book full of them feels.
Title: Bingo Love
Author(s): Written by Tee Franklin; Illustrated by Jenn St-onge; Colored by Joy San
Publisher: Image Comics (2018)
Age Rating: 13+
This book has been on my radar for a bit now; my friends can’t stop talking about it. So while I was in my school’s library yesterday and witnessed a girl bring it back, I immediately checked it out and breezed right through it!
Bingo Love is the emotional story of two women in the 1960s that fall in love and are forced to abandon their love due to forceful family circumstances. Both women end up marrying men and have large families, but the story does not end there.
I don’t want to give away too much of this, on the short side, graphic novel, but I will say that this book does a fantastic job of dealing with love, loss, family, and turmoil. It helps that the characters in the book are round and dynamic in ways that most graphic novels do not capture.
My one criticism is that the ending of the book feels like the ending of a major romance film that came out a few years ago. I won’t say which one, but if you’ve seen it, it’s fairly obvious. My wife, however, didn’t seem to mind; she still thought the ending was sweet and appropriate. And I won’t say it wasn’t sweet, but it did bug me a bit, and I think that’s because I enjoyed the realism and uniqueness of the entire book, and the ending took me out of that as I compared it to the film I had seen a few years ago.
Seriously though, this book is a must read for fans of the medium. The pacing for such a short book is unreal; the art is light-hearted and fun (even in the midst of crazy drama); and the characters are beyond real.
Check back tomorrow for another graphic novel review. I got more good ones coming all week, fam.
Happy reading!
Eric
Twitter: comics_teacher
IG: @comics_teacher
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