Review Detail

GOTH GIRL RISING and THE ASTONISHING ADVENTURES OF FANBOY AND GOTH GIRL are two perfect bookends to be read all in one sitting, if possible. They are so delicious, the reader will likely gorge on the pages like Thanksgiving Dinner. Book 1 is from the perspective of Fanboy. Book 2 is from the perspective of Goth Girl. All the unanswered unspokens in book one come thundering back to the surface and are answered in full color (metaphors, so to speak). To balance Fanboy's comic book obsession, Goth Girl reveals her inner geek chick for a darker graphic novel with deep meaning, similar to what she believes she has discovered in Fanboy's own creation. Goth Girl also shares a poem that reveals itself throughout the book, until the poem, in its entirety strikes raw nerve.

Goth Girl is on a journey of her own. She too wants to escape the life where her mother died of cancer and left her to grow up alone, with a dad far too distant and lost himself without his wife to truly fill the emptiness that remains in Goth Girl's life. One minute she's determined to give Fanboy another chance, and the next she vows to pay him back for every last slight he ever crossed her with.

The story speaks powerfully to teens today and sends a message to those who march to the beat of their own drum. Dressing differently, falling into the category of social outcast, those who are a bit awkward in their teen years often have a good reason for such social rebellion.