#rosemary valero o'connell
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Made an unbelievably indulgent flash sheet for a tattoo artist friend inspired by the “out of this world bishoujo” page in the holy book aka How To Draw Manga~
#tattoo sheet#how to draw manga#manga#bishoujo#angel#mermaid#tattoo#flash#artists on tumblr#illustrators on tumblr#illustration#digital art#art#rosemary valero o'connell
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Rosemary Valero O'Connell - The Whisper Queen
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle
by Rosemary Valero-O’Connell
#Rosemary Valero-O’Connell#Rosemary Valero O'Connell#teenage mutant ninja turtle imagine#Ninja Turtle#ooh wow#art#design#iconic#comics
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really enjoyed Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me 💕
Laura Dean in this honestly looks a bit like Haruka Tenoh, which to be fair - as a teenager someone looking like her could’ve led me off a cliff 5-6 times, lemming style, and I wouldn’t even have been mad.
The book discusses polyamory in a thoughtful, open way??? And contrasts healthy relationships with unhealthy, toxic ones. Like…when did media get this progressive? Shit like this DID NOT exist when I was a bb. We had Julie Anne Peters and like, fanfiction.
recc me other graphic novels if y’all want?? I read bloom and then this and I’m on a high lol
#laura dean keeps breaking up with me#mariko tamaki#rosemary valero o'connell#graphic novels#varya summer reading club!!!
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I've posted about some books I read everywhere else but here. Not like what I say matters, but when I dig something, I'll share it around.
I just finished reading Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, I dig it a lot!
It's a nice sad tale of going through a toxic relationship, love the protagonist and her friends, they're a lot of fun, and the art is straight up gorgeous. I highly recommend it.
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My annoyance at Chip Zdarsky's Bat aside, I am looking forward to this.
Mostly because that Oni Lady is GOALS! (Life Goals Wife Goals)
#Oni#oni lady#the whisper queen#kris anka#fiona staples#rosemary valero-o'connell#muscle babes#image comics#wednesday spoilers#blacksand tales#chip zdarsky#independent comics
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It's true that giving can be a part of love. But, contrary to popular belief, love should never take from you, Freddy.
#booklr#book photography#laura dean keeps breaking up with me#mariko tamaki#graphic novels#books and nature#rereading is reliving#rosemary valero-o'connell#queer books#wlw#the refuge of books
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Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me
Writing: Mariko Tamaki
Art: Rosemary Valero-O'Connell
#laura dean keeps breaking up with me#queer comics#lgbt comics#Lesbian#Lgbt#mariko tamaki#Rosemary Valero-O'Connell#My posts
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The Whisper Queen #1 (Image, May 2024) variant cover by Rosemary Valero-O’Connell
#rosemary valero-o'connell#the whisper queen#comic books#comics#image comics#variant covers#comic covers
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Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me is a bittersweet, beautiful graphic novel about being a teenager in love with someone who can’t seem to stop breaking your heart. The novel follows Freddy Riley, a young lesbian on the cusp of adulthood, navigating her relationship with her friends, her family, and her on-and-off-again girlfriend Laura Dean, who’s broken up with her three times (even though it never, ever lasts). Though Laura Dean is certainly a queer book, its focus is on recognizing toxic relationships, making tough decisions, and the relatable experience of struggling in one’s first love.
Genre: Graphic Novel, Fiction, LGBTQIA+ (Michael L. Printz 2020 Honor Book)
Target Age Group:
14-18
Justification:
This novel has been on my to-read list for a long time, and I was delighted to find it on the Printz Honor list. The cover is marvelously eye-catching, and I confess I have a weakness for the color pink – it’s the only color used in the illustrations in the book. Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me was a must-read as soon as I found out about it.
Evaluation:
For this review, I will be evaluating the illustrations, characters, and theme. As a graphic novel, obviously, the illustrations are arguably the most important part, and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell’s fluid and precise art truly elevates the book to a new level. Characters’ expressions are subtle but expressive, with subtle details like freckles or changing earrings that give each character a lovely understated piece of personality. Pale pink is used throughout as an accent color, standing out starkly against black, white, or gray. Though most lettering throughout the novel is typewritten, Valero-O’Connell uses handwritten cursive script to emphasize dramatic dialogue, making the text stand out and yet integrating it overall into the soft, flowing style of the art.
Mariko Tamaki, meanwhile, writes characters that shine. The protagonist, Freddy, is flawed and stubborn and insecure, and creative and hopeful and loving—all details provided by Tamaki’s carefully written dialogue, which combines with Valero-O’Connell’s illustrations to reveal character insights that prose alone might not have conveyed. Each character feels unique and realistic, with tiny details given that strengthen our impressions of each character: Laura Dean’s mother is never shown, Freddy’s mother never took her father’s last name, Doodle’s father only refers to his child as Deirdre. These are the characters we see the least of in the story, but these small pieces of information give them a brilliant shape, enhancing our understanding of them as Freddy interacts (or doesn’t) with the adults in her life.
The theme is perhaps the most important part, at least to me. Unlike other YA novels with queer themes, the theme of Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me is not inherently queer. Many novels in the same genre are focused on expressing the queer experience, either attempting to echo the experiences of queer teens or make their experiences more relatable and understandable to a non-queer audience, but Laura Dean’s theme is young, toxic love, and freeing oneself of those relationships. That is a theme that endures throughout sexualities and ages, and while homophobia and other queer issues do arise throughout the course of the novel, the focus is on a teenager’s experience with teenage life. It expands the queer experience beyond this is what we experience as queer people and into this is what we all experience, it just happens to be a queer story on top of it all.
In short, everyone should read this book. Teens going through heartbreak, teens who feel like no one’s had the same experience, adults who have dealt or are dealing with toxic relationships, anyone who loves beautiful art. Laura Dean is a book I’m going to be thinking about for a long time.
References:
Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me. Macmillan Publishers. (2021, July 20). https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626722590/lauradeankeepsbreakingupwithme
Tamaki, M., & Valero-O’Connell, R. (2020). Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me. Groundwood Books.
#TAG: young adult#a: mariko tamaki#i: rosemary valero-o'connell#laura dean keeps breaking up with me#michael j printz honor book#mjp honor 2020#g: graphic novel#g: lgbtqia+#g: fiction
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laura dean keeps breaking up with me is an essential romance comic. A mostly lighthearted drama about dealing with heartbreak and maturing in love and in friendship. It reaches across the aisle to teach us all something about love and what it may mean to us.
#laura dean keeps breaking up with me#lgbtq#comic books#graphicnovel#Mariko Tamaki#Rosemary Valero-O'Connell#cw abortion#romance
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More from Golden Record! Two silent spreads to take a rest between poems~
#artists on tumblr#illustration#drawing#digital art#illustrators on tumblr#rosemary valero o'connell#golden record#silver sprocket#chapbook
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LAURA DEAN KEEPS BREAKING UP WITH ME
#laura dean keeps breaking up with me#Mariko Tamaki#Rosemary Valero-O'Connell#romance#queer#sapphic#graphic novel
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"All Freddy Riley wants is for Laura Dean to stop breaking up with her.
The day they got together was the best one of Freddy's life, but nothing's made sense since. Laura Dean is popular, funny, and SO CUTE ... but she can be really thoughtless, even mean. Their on-again, off-again relationship has Freddy's head spinning — and Freddy's friends can't understand why she keeps going back.
When Freddy consults the services of a local mystic, the mysterious Seek-Her, she isn't thrilled with the advice she receives. But something's got to give: Freddy's heart is breaking in slow motion, and she may be about to lose her very best friend as well as her last shred of self-respect. Fortunately for Freddy, there are new friends, and the insight of advice columnist Anna Vice, to help her through being a teenager in love."
#title: laura dean keeps breaking up with me#author: mariko tamaki#artist: rosemary valero-o'connell#country: usa#tumblr polls#comic poll#book poll
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A Short and Sweet Manga about choosing between dating the hottest girl in school or being a good friend. Lots of queer characters and an all around quick and lovely read.
However, I found this to be quite confusing at parts... and there were several times that I had to go back and reread things for clarity. The pacing can be an issue... Like it's a great story but the art can be difficult to follow. Overall I would give this a 3 out of 5 stars because it can be so difficult to follow.
It's a beautifully drawn piece though, so lots of eye candy to ogle over.
#mariko tamaki#Rosemary Valero-O'Connell#Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me#thegays#sapphicwork#comingofage#genre: romance#genre: contemporary#uplifting#taglinemode#leadinglady#manga
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part 2 of the 2023 version of this post: young adult books!
part 1: middle grade books | part 3: adult books
this is a very incomplete list, as these are only books I've read and enjoyed. not all books are going to be for all readers, so I'd recommend looking up synopses and content warnings. feel free to message me with any questions about specific representation!
list of books under the cut ⬇️
aces wild by amanda dewitt
the chandler legacies by abdi nazemian
bruised by tanya boteju
juliet takes a breath by gabby rivera
picture us in the light by kelly loy gilbert
when we were magic by sarah gailey
iron widow by xiran jay zhao
the rise of kyoshi by f.c. yee
jane unlimited by kristin cashore
summer of salt by katrina leno
the wicker king by k. ancrum
the dead and the dark by courtney gould
wilder girls by rory power
i kissed shara wheeler by casey mcquiston
her royal highness by rachel hawkins
tell me how you really feel by aminah mae safi
the weight of the stars by k. ancrum
you should see me in a crown by leah johnson
last night at the telegraph club by malinda lo
the grief keeper by alexandra villasante
crier's war by nina varela
how to excavate a heart by jake maia arlow
imogen, obviously by becky albertalli
in other lands by sarah rees brennan
carry on by rainbow rowell
cemetery boys by aiden thomas
felix ever after by kacen callendar
i wish you all the best by mason deaver
little thieves by margaret owen
technically you started it by lana wood johnson
the gentleman's guide to vice and virtue by mackenzi lee
the infinite noise by lauren shippen
bonds of brass by emily skrutskie
the darkness outside us by eliot schrefer
simon vs. the homo sapiens agenda by becky albertalli
what if it's us by becky albertalli and adam silvera
aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe by benjamin alire sáenz
like a love story by abdi nazemian
different for boys by patrick ness
history is all you left me by adam silvera
twelfth grade night by molly horton booth, stephanie kate strohm, and jamie green
across a field of starlight by blue delliquanti
heartstopper by alice oseman
check, please! by ngozi ukazu
bloom by kevin panetta and savanna ganucheau
laura dean keeps breaking up with me by mariko tamaki and rosemary valero-o'connell
the princess and the grilled cheese sandwich by deya muniz
if you'll have me by eunnie
on a sunbeam by tillie walden
the girl from the sea by molly knox ostertag
always human by ari north
rust in the root by justina ireland
dread nation by justina ireland
pet by awkwaeke emezi
the darkest part of the forest by holly black
elatsoe by darcie little badger
i was born for this by alice oseman
loveless by alice oseman
i hate everyone but you by gaby dunn and allison raskin
you know me well by nina lacour and david levithan
the black flamingo by dean atta
spinning by tillie walden
dreadnought by april daniels
a lesson in vengeance by victoria lee
all the bad apples by moira fowley-doyle
clap when you land by elizabeth acevedo
summer bird blue by akemi dawn bowman
the miseducation of cameron post by emily m. danforth
we are okay by nina lacour
radio silence by alice oseman
we used to be friends by amy spalding
a neon darkness by lauren shippen
i hope you get this message by farah naz rishi
are you listening? by tillie walden
alone in space by tillie walden
all out edited by saundra mitchell
out now edited by saundra mitchell
out there edited by saundra mitchell
#lgbtq+ books#queer books#book recommendations#gay books#ya books#lgbtq+ ya books#book flow chart#part 2 of 3!#dear god this almost twice as many books as the previous flow chart. and it's JUST YA.#mp
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