Have you requested a book from the library and when you get the notice that it is in you pick it up and say, “Why in the world did I want this book?” Well, I do that probably more than I should. However the kicker is, 8 out of 10 times I enjoy it. I think forgetting why one was getting an item/book is a good way to allow yourself to not go into something with any preconceived ideas. And Hummingbird Heart by Travis Dandro was one of those reads.
This graphic novel is a mostly wordless story about coming of age with some unusual and familiar twists. Supernatural and realism mix to show how the pains of growing up happen and how we sometimes do not handle it as well as we could, but then again, it is the only way we can. A reread might be in order as the first round might not be enough to pick up all the nuances.
And that second (or even third) read is needed because the art probably will not help you. Or at least at first with the combined trying to read both text and images. I had to remind myself that it was a finished copy and not a reader copy as the imagery was almost totally nothing. Things feel incomplete, faded (though that could be due to the age of the book (from 2022) and maybe how many times it had been taken out) and just concept ideas. The black and white lines made me want to color them in to make things feel fleshed out. And the eyes of our main character, Travis, were even more creepy than his dead grandparents taking him for a ride in the country.
Perhaps the best way to describe things is to say Travis is at the end of his high school career, unsure of what will happen next. He is dealing with the suicide of his estranged father, a cranky but beloved grandmother dying of cancer and a single over worked mother. His siblings seem to be afterthoughts, his best friends and he are feeling the tension of the end and there are pumpkins.