I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review. 

This one sounded really good, plus I am always interested in stories taking place during the Soviet rule. But sadly this one was, just like the previous comic I read today, not good. I was annoyed with all the characters, there were just too many of them that we follow (not just our young boy, but also Agatha (the crush), a girl who takes lessons and does much more there, then there are the friends of the boy). I would have liked it more had it focused on only the boy who wants a kiss, and the girl he wants to kiss. 

Plus there is one rape scene, we don't see anything happening, but we do know it happens, and I was quite startled with it, especially as we never find out what happens to her afterwards. Is she still alive?

It was interesting at points to see how the country was ruled, the rules, how indoctrinated people were, how the kids were treated and manipulated to tell on their friends. 

After all the things in the book, it felt weird to go back and give a conclusion to the first part of the story (the kissing). It was also cute and brought a bit hope to the sadness of the everything happening in the country... but still it was also a bit weird.

The art was a bit hit and miss for me. At times it was quite a nice style, but at other times I didn't like it at all.

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/

I was drawn to this book purely because of the title (which made me laugh out loud), the illustration, and the portrait of Stalin. I started reading it and was blown away by how powerful the story and illustrations were. I would love to use this book in my history classes, to give students a sense of political indoctrination in the Soviet Union.

You Can't Just Kiss Anyone You Want is a really interesting comic for it happens during the Soviet rule. A young boy tries to kiss his friend, a girl, in the middle of a movie about celebrating Stalin and it ends up in a big mess. The boys father lives and breathes resistance and many have secrets they aren't willing to expose, people disappear and you can't be safe unless you are silent and invisible. The story is like a snowball effect, although it doesn't end up in a disaster, but more like in a life lesson for kids about freedom and truth. I liked the story, although the kids seem slightly too intelligent and understanding and the ending seems so easy. I perhaps wanted something heavier and meaningful, since all it was in the comic already.

The art is great, slightly naive and the mundane and dark colors work well with the art. The art looks a bit like that of Hergé, but it's a good choice. There's not so much text and instead the story is moved with pictures a lot and Sowa can make it work. I love the panels and how they seem to be alive somehow and the shading works well too. The coloring reminds me of Raymond Briggs, so there's slightly this 1980s/1990s feeling to it. I like historical and pseudo-historical comics a lot, but perhaps this didn't feel very Soviet-like, but it was still a great reading experience.

Two young children (a boy and a girl) in a communist country are at school watching a film about Stalin. The little boy tries to kiss the girl next to him and she screams. The film is stopped and the teachers begin to interrogate the children. To them this isn't a childish prank, it is a form of resistance and it needs further investigation

And so an investigation starts which leads to the young boy's father who is a poet, but the ripple effect touches the lives of others who are coping with this communist regieme. The story explores how different people cope with life under a communist regime and how some dont survive.

It is an interesting  multi layered story and I am not sure i understood everything but I enjoyed it. The art was clear and the story is told at a steady pace.

Copy provided by publisher via Negalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

This book is fine when it takes a bittersweet look at the repercussions of a young kid trying to kiss a school-mate, but a polemical ending tries its damnedest to negate the benefits of what's gone before.  Before then, the tightness of the story, the surprises it can offer, and the conveyance of the character of Soviet life, are all to its credit.

This unusual graphic novel shows a slice of life under Communism through the eyes of school-children, revealing how small, innocent acts can have unexpectedly significant consequences in a society where it seems that everyone is lying, both to others and often to themselves. It begins with a childish kiss that forces a stop to a Stalinist propaganda film and ends with a small child being pressured to steal the work of his dissident poet father while his friends in turn find themselves revealing harmless pieces of information which could amount to a denunciation.

It’s a curious and not quite stable mix of the child-like and the more adult with the view-point of children on scenes of violence and oppression as well and truth and ethics and sometimes this makes it difficult to identify the intended audience. At times it veers close to an interpretation that seems a little too black and white, the good people too good and idealistic the bad people too bad (and idealistic too) but the glimpses of the personal lives and thoughts and doubts of the teacher and headmaster, as the representatives of the loyal, just prevent it from becoming too simplistic to be effective.

The artwork is beautiful, the depth of the scenes and the range of expressions on the face of the characters subtle and moving. The fear and suspicion pervading society is powerfully portrayed when children are placed under interrogation and used as evidence against their parents and there is a powerful message for independent thought and a defence of small truths in the service of larger ones, the small resistances in the face of oppression. Overall a thoughtful and beautifully produced story that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be or for whom.

Dark and twisty. This definitely did not end up where I expected from the cover and discription. Very dark.

Although it isn't named, this story is taking place after World War II in what, in the west, was known as the Eastern Block, the Eastern European countries that the Soviets took over. The children are being taught to love Russia and especially Stalin. It is at one such screening of a propaganda film that the little boy, in the title of the story, tries to kiss a little girl, and she screams. The film is stopped, and he is questioned, more than one would imagine for such a minor incident. His father is a writer, and the authorities think he is writing something that he shouldn't.

This is all being told from the view of a child.  The child knows his father writes, but doesn't quite understand, in the beginning, why this is bad. As the child says in class "We can think whatever we want, but we can't say it."

It is a gripping, sad, thoughtful story of the little things you can do to not have the "state" take over your very thoughts.

Good, quick story.  Recommend it highly. Very well translated.

Here are some examples of the artwork, which says so much with just a few pictures and words:
<img src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/poverty.png">
<img src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/classroom.png">
<img src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Screen-Shot-2018-02-05-at-1.27.56-PM.png">

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.