Blue Is the Warmest Color in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Jun 02, 2022 Nadine in NY Jones rated it did not like it

Shelves: lotsa-buzz, graphic-novels-and-comics, coming-of-age, translation

I approach graphic novels as a sort of multimedia experience. The story, the art, the panels, the coloring, the lettering all need to come together to form a wonderful whole. This book let me down.

The lettering was thin and spidery and impossible for my old eyes to read - parts of it might as well have been still in French for all that I could see. Sometimes the dialogue bubbles were kitty corner to the speakers, which was confusing to follow. I switched to the e-book so I could zoom in on the I approach graphic novels as a sort of multimedia experience. The story, the art, the panels, the coloring, the lettering all need to come together to form a wonderful whole. This book let me down.

The lettering was thin and spidery and impossible for my old eyes to read - parts of it might as well have been still in French for all that I could see. Sometimes the dialogue bubbles were kitty corner to the speakers, which was confusing to follow. I switched to the e-book so I could zoom in on the words, and that's when the art smacked me in the face. I did NOT like the art. The people's faces look deformed.

I could look past my disappointment in the visual, but I didn’t much care for the story, either. It felt a bit basic, and the ending was so melodramatic. I appreciated the description of a young person questioning their sexuality identity, but that’s the only good thing here, for me. The characters were young, and I know drama is common when you’re a teen, but Clementine was so unfair to Emma. (view spoiler)

Don’t even get me started on the biphobic part of the plot.

It was pretty annoying that the story just suddenly jumps decades ahead, on one page Clementine was 17 and on the next page she was 30. I thought this book was about their relationship but we never got to see their relationship blossom and deepen. We just see the beginning and the end. Why? And why is blue the warmest color? ...more

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Mar 09, 2015 alana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: francais, females-and-feminists, graphic-novels, books-on-the-big-screen, art-school

Sweet heavenly Monday afternoons, the tears! Tragic love stories are not usually my jam, but Blue is the Warmest Color is a lovely book. High school Clementine sees a blue-haired young woman and her girlfriend strolling casually through Lille’s main square, and her life is never the same. Haunted by arousing and disturbing dreams, Clem begins to question her sexuality and seeks out advice from her guy friend Valentin who is slightly more comfortable with being gay. The two teenagers spend an eve ...more

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Mar 24, 2014 Kate McCartney rated it it was amazing

Shelves: graphic-novels, lgbtq, adult-fiction, 2014

Blue is the Warmest Color is a beautiful book about first love, coming of age and a teenage girl discovering and accepting her sexuality. The art is gorgeous.

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