Hector being awed by Ari’s old married couple parents making filo in perfect synch is especially touching.Īll throughout, Ganucheau’s artwork serves the immersive feeling by wielding small details, nailing small scenes. Other characters are often given clear desires and conflicts as well. With those basics so well-constructed, it’s easy to then get lost in depth of character, relationships, and the idiosyncrasies of behaviors. Does the plot eventually complicate those desires in ways he must take personal responsibility for…in other words, do some of his desires (wanting to do what’s right for his family) put him in conflict with others (wanting to make a big move for himself)? You bet. Do we know what he desires soon after? We sure do. Do we know who are lead character is from page one? Yes.

It’s a slice of life story that succeeds by feeling both urgent and immersive.īloom checks all my structural boxes for this type of book. Mistakes are made, things get complicated, there is growth. Ari and Hector then fall in love while working at the bakery. Ari is in a band-this is what he plans to do with his life-and other than that, his main pursuit is to find his own replacement, a search that brings him to Bloom’s other central character, Hector. His older sister has married and gone, leaving him hamstrung by a guilty sense of obligation. Bloom is the story of Ari, not quite an adult but no longer a child, toiling away in his parents’ bakery for one last summer before moving “to the city,” a plan exactly as vague and ill-conceived as it sounds. Written by Kevin Panetta with artwork by Savanna Ganucheau, Bloom is a coming of age tale that aspires to and obtains a rare emotional reality. Bloom, the new original graphic novel from publisher First Second, however, strives as a story to convey it all, to capture the pivotal and unique pain we all feel.Īnd it succeeds, gorgeously. No, I don’t think there is a singular extant word to apply. Those late teen years are hormonal, charged and unpredictable and profound. No, ennui is too grounded of a word, too reserved, maybe just a little too adult. I was torn between the old and new, listless and dissatisfied, waiting for something to come find me.Įnnui, which I’ve used in this headline, isn’t quite right. It was for me a time when it felt like everything and nothing was at stake, like I had little control over the world yet the decisions I made could potentially influence my entire life. It is, of course, a time churning with uncertainty over everything from one’s future to one’s education to one’s family to friendships and romance. There should maybe be a specific word to describe the time in life between high school and adulthood. Artist: Savanna Ganucheau Publisher: First Second

Bloom book graphic novel