The graphic novel given to me was Summer Blonde by Adrian Tomine. At first I was a little skeptical about this whole graphic novel assignment, but I was definitely going to give it a try. First looking through it, I felt I was about to read a comic book, but my friends laughed and told me there is a difference.

So this book has four different stories in it and none of them have the same characters. The first story is Alter Ego, and this one is my favorite. It is about an author, Martin who is trying to write another book. In the beginning he received a postcard from a girl back in high school names Samantha. He always liked her but never had a chance with her. When he went to find her, he met her sister Jenna. Jenna was in high school still, so there was definitely an age gap. Martin has a girlfriend, but for some reason I can sense that he was being drawn to Jenna. We know that Jenna likes Martin and I felt that he liked her back, but I was wrong. In the end, he pretty much explains that nothing can or will happen. Also, in the end, his girlfriend finds out about Jenna and dumps him. Finally, he knew what he could write about, his life.

The second story in the book is Summer Blonde it starts with a guy in charge of the Ads. He is a little lonely and goes to the card store to buy cards for different occasions, except he was no one give them to. Instead, he just throws then in a drawer in his office at home. His neighbor is Carlo and he is a bit of a man whore who tries to make these two girls make out, with each other. When the one friend wanted to leave, Nessa decided to stay and she and Carlo hooked up. One night, Carlo and Nessa were on the porch and Carlo was singing to her. The neighbor, remember he is very lonely, called the cops due to the noise.  From this, Carlo continues to play and he gets agitated. Towards the end, Carlo and Nessa start sniffing drugs, shooting heroine, and fool around. As Carlo and Nessa walk out of his house, we find out that Nessa has a boyfriend. So he proceeds to kick Carlo’s butt, and the story ends with Carlo in the hospital.

The third story is Hawaiian Getaway and I did not really like this one at all. It is about this girl who pretty much hates her job, and has the worst mother. Her mother rags on her for being fat, lazy, dumb, etc. and this girl has boy problems. So she gets fired from her job and wastes the day away. She gets by her windowsill and watches people walk by the telephone booth on the corner. She finally dials the number and has people answer. For the first few people, she says weird things to. Then she tries to pick up a guy and he actually goes on a date with her. To me this is just creepy! They go on a few dates, make out, have sex, and he promises her to go with her to her grandmother’s wake. At the end, she has this Hawaiian fantasy dream getaway, and then the story ends.

The final story is Bomb Scare. This story was alright, but it was not all that great. It is about this girl who is a total slut at her school and does anything with anyone. This one kid, Scotty, thinks his best friend, Alex, is gay. So he tries to not be too close with him anymore. The slutty girl, Cammi, gets so wasted at a party and makes a mockery of her. Everyone is not her friend anymore because she is gross and she is a slut. She tries to run for treasurer and Scotty helps her because he thinks they are friends. When the only reason they are talking is because she lost all of her friends. When she gives her speech to everyone, they throw toilet paper, diapers, and garbage at her. She runs out crying, Scotty follows her, and she swears up and down at him. A few days go by, and there is a bomb scare. Cammi and Scotty see each other and talk. She finds out how he has never kissed a girl, touched a girl, or anything of that sort. The story ends with her naked in his room.

Graphic novels are very graphic.  Mine had a lot of sexuality in it but the book was not that bad. I am not into picture books but I am glad I gave this book a chance. I am not saying that I will read graphic novels from now on but I might recommend people to try them.