The cover of this graphic novel says it is “A Modern Graphic Retelling of Emma”. I will share my age and say that when I read that my initial thought that it was therefore like Clueless. Except. You know. Clueless came out in 1995. So. Maybe not so modern anymore. Now that I’ve dated myself, let me add that while I have watched Clueless a lot, I have only read Emma once, so I can’t tell you how carefully this hews to the source material.
The graphic novel’s plot follows Evan Horowitz, a high school student who is head of his school’s Gender and Sexualities Alliance Club (GSA), a ballet dancer, an Instagram influencer, and thinks they are the best at matchmaking. The text shows us that Evan was successful at least once in the past, as he got his sister and the boy next door together, and then they got married. And now they have a cute daughter! This has tied the two families together, and Evan has remained friends with his brother-in-law’s younger brother, Davi. Evan takes a new transfer student (Natalia) under his wing and tries to … help her. He identifies her early on as someone deserving of pity, and then help, and decides to take her on as a project of sorts because he fears the school will eat her alive.
Of course, as Evan tries to work some magic on Natalia (who maybe really doesn’t need that much “magic” worked on her), things don’t go exactly as planned. A lot of relationships and attempted relationships, and failed matchmaking ensue.
I really loved how bright and cheery the art was in this graphic novel, even when the characters were not at their best, the colours and art style are very vibrant. I don’t know enough about art to describe what style it is, so here is a screenshot of the interior art:
I like it. A lot. It appeals to me on an aesthetic level.
I also loved how effortlessly diverse the characters are. A wide mix of characters is drawn in different body types, ethnicities and sexualities is also always great to see and read about.
Knowing the general plot outline I didn’t feel any real … surprise in how things ended up, or in the character development that Ethan experiences along the way. Yes, Ethan is kind of…. Not mean, but a little selfish and self-absorbed. I’m probably going to (again) show my age here, but Ethan also struck me as a teenager. I was selfish and self-absorbed in high school, and completely unaware of it. I did enjoy how the story did show growth though, even if it was (based on my skimpy knowledge of the source material) expected growth.
I liked how the story was written, and it felt true to the character, but it also felt a tiny bit rushed. This isn’t a slim graphic novel, my copy is 255 pages, but I think the sheer amount of plot and relationships that that needed to be tangled and untangled along the way means the plot needs to move along at a pretty rapid pace. I felt a bit breathless reading it, and sort of wanted to slow things down a bit and just enjoy the characters and the art some more.