Not having read the first volume in this series, I was a bit lost. Shade the Changing Girl is definitely an interesting character, and I'm always glad to see Cecil Castellucci's name appear, but there was a little too much going on for me in this particular series. I might read volume one and give this another go afterward - if that happens, I'll update my review accordingly.

I received free access to this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This series builds upon the original Shade runs in new and exciting ways. It touches on subjects such as embracing individuality, conflict resolution, transitioning into adulthood, and identifying healthy / unhealthy relationships structures. The artwork and writing work seamlessly together to create a powerful and unique saga that is both highly relatable, yet unique. Volume two is a strong addition to Loma's story, and I look forward to seeing where her journey takes her.

Okay, it's difficult to review this one without spoilers, but a lot happens in this volume that sets up an entirely different (forthcoming) story arc. Trippy with heart, Shade continues to be one of my favorite new comics series. Librarians take note: at one point Shade goes to NYPL and gets assistance on the computers. It's hilarious.

Being a teenage girl is hard. It’s even harder when you’re not actually a teenage girl, but in fact an adult alien from another planet who came to Earth and possessed the body of the biggest bully in school.


Volume Two of “Shade, the Changing Girl” picks up where Volume One ended. Shade is now living a rather simplistic and low-profile high school life with her friends River and Teacup, the struggles of Megan trying to regain her body from Loma left in the past. The volume begins with Shade sharing details of her past, and the sort of society that exists on Meta, with the curious River and Teacup, who seem to fully understand just who– or rather what– Shade is. This insight is great; the readers are given some background behind Loma’s flighty behavior, as well as shown where her interest in Earth and Rac Shade’s poetry began. The details about Meta are also great world building, since it frames the sort of mindset and expectations that Loma grew up with, and how those things effected her, eventually leading into her stealing the Madness coat and becoming ‘Shade’.

Much of this exposition is done while the trio are out shopping for clothes for an upcoming school dance. Seeing the three interact, both Teacup and River invested and interesting in hearing about Shade, and also encouraging her with her list of goals she wants to accomplish while on Earth, was a nice way to begin this volume. While Loma technically isn’t a teenager, she is living the life of one while existing as Shade, and so this human experience seems to be something good for her. It is also good to see her bonding with human characters who really connect her to the story, rather than her sort of floating about aimlessly. That is something that becomes a problem later on in the story, when she leaves Valley Ville and goes to Gotham on her own, following an incident at the school dance.

Said ‘incident’ is Megan’s former swim team buddies coercing Teacup into setting up a prank on Shade. They pour glue and honey on her, then cover her in paper emblazoned with insults and slurs like ‘bitch’ and ‘whore’, as a way to shame and harass her, returning Megan’s years of abuse. The swim team girls doing this is understandable; what I don’t understand is why Teacup participated. Teacup knows that this isn’t Megan; it’s Shade. She knows that Megan no longer occupies her body. If the other girls forced her into it, then fine, she was bullied again, and that’s believable, given her lack of confidence and assertiveness, but later on in the volume, after being confronted by River, Teacup claims that he “doesn’t understand,” and that she did it because Megan was so horrible. Yes, Megan was awful; Shade isn’t Megan. With that knowledge, Teacup’s involvement felt forced, a way to further push Shade to leave Valley Ville that wouldn’t have existed otherwise. Following the opening scenes of the volume, where Teacup was shown just as involved and interested in growing closer to Shade, her betrayal came off cheap and poorly executed.

A decent amount of the volume is spent covering Shade’s time in Gotham City. Truthfully, this part fell flat for me. I struggled with keeping interest here, because truthfully, I didn’t find most of her adventures that interesting or exciting. Maybe it’s because it was all things that have been shown before time and time again in ‘alien ex-pat’ stories. Gotham City is the surrogate for New York City, and Shade spends much of the middle the story doing touristy things, only with an alien slant.

Another thing I struggled with during this part of the volume was something that would carry on through the entire rest of the story; the Madness coat, and it’s powers. I can’t remember if in the first volume of ‘Shade’ if we were ever given proper explanation of what exactly Madness is, or what it’s capabilities are, but in this volume, we aren’t told anything. The Madness coat seems to give Shade essentially any power she desires; she can make money out of nothing, she is able to fly and change the colors of the sky, and reverse aging. But, is this actual physical changes in reality, or is Madness simply effecting the people around her psychologically? Are her powers illusions or something else? With the undefined nature of the abilities, it makes it hard for me to feel as if there is any true ‘cost’ to her using these powers. We know from exposition that the Madness coat does cause the wearer to go mad, but Shade doesn’t seem to be suffering much from these effects. The only real threat to Shade is Loma’s body dying on Meta, but it is clear that she understood that risk when she took the coat and doesn’t regret it. I’m trying to see how her powers have any solid consequences, because it appears as if she always finds some loophole out of them.

Maybe I’m wrong with that assumption, and in fact the consequences are just building. In this volume, after meeting with her idol Honey Rich, Shade swaps her soul with Honey’s after the latter attempts to take her own life. Honey’s body is old and dying, and so Shade allows her to possess Megan’s youthful body while trying to find a way to keep her alive longer. While in possession of Megan’s body, Honey says that she can tell that she’s pregnant; Shade insists that she hasn’t had sex since taking over, though she did ‘sleep with’ Wes, Megan’s boyfriend, some time ago. Given the events at the end of volume one, I assume that Shade isn’t actually pregnant; I think it was a piece of Madness that entered her body with Megan’s consciousness. It seemed that possibly, Shade would eventually give birth to Megan again… At least, until Megan’s body was destroyed in an attack from Mellu, in her attempt to reclaim the Madness coat.

Mellu just did not come off as a well-written villain to me. Her motives were consistent, but poorly explained. She wanted the Madness coat, but it was only with volume two that we learn that she was a lover of Rac Shade, and she wanted the coat to reunite with him. When there is eventually that reunion, with Shade present as well, it’s… weird. Rac Shade is a poet, and I think the intention was to emulate his poetry in his dialogue but it was awkward to say the least. It was difficult to understand why he and Mellu had parted ways, and under what circumstances, and why he rejected her upon their reunion. There are claims of betrayal and exile, and pointing out how she has spent decades bringing harm to others, but nothing concrete is explained. That is the biggest flaw in “Shade, the Changing Girl”; lack of explanation. The story is interesting. The characters are interesting. The world building is interesting. But powers and histories and motives are not explained and too much of it seems to be built on alluding to mysteries that will be explained later, but then later doesn’t come soon enough. There is a balance found between intrigue and bewilderment, and this series hasn’t quite hit that mark yet.

At the end of the volume, once again, we are left wondering what happened, and what is going to come next. Megan’s body is destroyed, and so Shade has to find a new one to inhabit, with Loma’s dead as well. It seems that Mellu and Rac Shade somehow formed a new body for her, and we’ll see what the side effects of that is. I’m still curious about the clues left at the end of volume one, and I hope that isn’t a thread that was completely dropped, now that Megan’s body is destroyed. I’m curious as to how Shade is going to continue exploring the world without the connections that came with possessing the body of someone with family and resources. She has friends River and Teacup, but in a modern society, there is a lot more required for existence than that. I’m undecided in how I feel about “Shade, the Changing Girl”. I feel it has a lot of good concepts, some which are executed well, and others that are good attempts, but not quite done as well. I want to know what happens from here, so I will likely pick up the next volume, and I hope that we will be finally connecting some loose ends that have been neglected since volume one.

Very pretty to look at, but not meant for olden individuals. Clearly for a younger audience. Decent enough dialogue, but younger folks will eat it up.

Received free copy by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Shade, the Changing Girl Volume 2: Little Runaway collects issues 7-12, the second arc of this fantastic series. I reviewed several of the issues included here (beginning with issue 7), but some series are just so good that you want to review it by the volume too. Shade, the Changing Girl Volume 2: Little Runaway is all about Shade leaving her tiny town of Valley Ville and going out to see America—beginning with Gotham City.

To be clear, although issues 7-12 are collected here, the new arc doesn’t real take off until issue 8. Issue 7 is a standalone issue that provides readers with more information about who the Avians are and what their history is with the Metans. This background is useful as it is not only a helpful jumping on point for new readers, but it also clearly establishes why Loma is a character that has struggled to discover, or perhaps claim, her true self. This is one of the reasons that Shade, the Changing Girl is such a compelling coming-of-age story, and, although it is about a body-snatching bird-like alien, it is truer than many of the “real-life” comics I’ve read over the last couple of years.

With issue 8, the new arc really takes off as Shade does all of the touristy things in Gotham City. However, Shade is not one to be deluded by the glitz and glamour of New York, and she actually spends most of her time with the impoverished. It becomes clear right away, however, that anywhere that Shade goes, madness is sure to follow. As the madness is slowly taking over Shade’s body, she wants to bring all of New York City with her, too.

One of her outings in this new place is a concert for a 1960s band called The Sonic Booms. Shade became a fan of this band because they were featured on her favorite classic television show Life with Honey. There is just one problem, however, as Shade doesn’t understand the concept of age, time, and just why everyone looks so much older than they do on television. So, what does Shade decide to do? She becomes determined to find the actress who plays Honey and to make her young and healthy again. And, this becomes the main mission in Shade, the Changing Girl Volume 2: Little Runaway.

There is a whole lot of traveling—across time, space, America, and, between bodies. While Shade is having her own adventures on earth, things back on her home planet Meta are becoming increasingly dangerous for her friend Lepuck, and things aren’t going so well for Shade either as her enemies are determined to locate her and the madness coat. So yes, the story is AMAZING, but we can’t forget to talk about the art, too.

Shade, the Changing Girl Volume 2: Little Runaway opens with issue 7—which had a different artist than the previous 6 issues. For someone who has been reading the series since day one, it took me awhile to become accustomed to the new style. It was more toned down than the trippy, psychedelic look of the first arc, but I think it works because it is primarily a background issue. After issue 7 though, the usual team is back in all its whimsical, bright, weird wonderfulness. As the madness amps up over these issues, it is reflected in the art. The final issue of this arc is what I deemed in my review: “brain melting.” And, just trust me—read it, and you’ll see what I mean. Oh, and for the record, that’s a very good thing.

Verdict:
Buy it. Although I was a huge fan of the first arc of this series, Shade, the Changing Girl Volume 2: Little Runaway amps up the madness in all the right ways. This is an impressive coming-of-series that perfectly balances humor and fun with philosophy and real-world issues. Also, be sure to check out the interview that Rogues Portal did with a few members of the creative team!

This is the first I've read of this series but I'll definitely be going back to read the first. Since I didn't know the back story, it did take me a bit before I understood what was going on in this novel but I didn't mind very much at all as I was just enjoying the gorgeous illustrations. At many points it reminded me of watching the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine," which I absolutely loved as a kid. It has a very similar vibe to it and that may be why I enjoyed it so much. The story was a bit hats to follow though. I don't think this is entirely because of my lack of prior reading either. The basis isn't that difficult but it's told in a rather round-about fashion. This is definitely not something I'd recommend to a younger crowd. It's not necessarily graphic in sexual content, language, or violence. But they are all in there to varying degrees. The reason I would recommend it to more mature readers is more due to the fact that there is a but if existentialism involved and the entire story is just not something that's aimed towards a younger audience. These books are targeted to a mature audience and should probably stay that way. Overall though, I did enjoy the ride and I will be looking for more in the series.

I would like to thank the publisher, author, and Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.