A SISTER is a story of blooming of emotional and sexual desires of a 13 years old boy ANTONIE! And It's just it! Not more not less! But realistic and relatable? Well it depends!

First and foremost, HOLY COW! It's been adapted into UN FRERE (!) It was shocking for me! I loved that movie, I truly did! But here my problem with the manga is,

a. Age of our MC! Antonie is fucking 13 years old! And IDK man, maybe It's Because I myself was a late bloomer, so reading about such strong sexual desires of someone at this young age (13, Man he's just a kid) was hella uncomfortable for me. See in movie they made the mc tad a bit mature like 16/17 (I guess) which completely justfy their action! But here in this comic, its an exclamation mark!

b. In movie adaptation, our mc was both guy and their confusing sexuality made the plot more fluid and interesting. And as I watched the film first and was subconsciously attached to the characters, so unfortunately this comic could not provide me much engagement.

Anyway, both the previous points are completely on me, it has nothing to do with the artist or the story! Truth be spoken, I really enjoy many aspect of the comic. Firstly it got right the relationship of siblings. From the first scene, the way they fought, snarled and also shared a deep affection for each other is reasonably sweet and practical! Then family influences and character development everything was on point! Helen's sexual tension towards other boys (including Antoine) was age appropriate for her! Her character perfectly captured the teenage stupidity and madness.


So all in all, I'll go with 3 star! It's a good story but I enjoyed the movie adaptation better!


[Thanks NetGalley for providing me this ARC copy. I really appreciate that]

“A Sister” by Bastien Vivès is a contemporary graphic novel of a summer romance. Romance actually seems too mild a term, a sexual awakening is more accurate. The book is not for every hand as it is graphic and I’m sure talks more to men than women.
I really liked the illustration style, pure lines, focused on the two main characters, simple black white lines and grey volume for a very simple holiday at the beach story. It is elegant and fits the mood, we can see the awakening love in the hero’s eyes for the pretty Helen.
But the story is a little too raw for my taste. I guess it didn’t talk to me - not my feelings/way of seeing things, not my memories, not my generation, just a little off, this will give nostalgia to people who are going to be 30 soon and grew up on Pokémon under the internet booming of sex addiction.
You know you are not in for a soft ride when the opening dialogue in the car is about a friend of the family having a miscarriage. The discussion is truthful, the parents are open and honest with their preteen and just 13 years old boy, but you just know if this is the beginning you can expect a story that doesn’t put on the brakes on anything. At first I thought it was interesting, the first few questions it pauses I would have liked to see played out. But it took a different direction, focused on other interests that did not resonate with my own. It reads like an autobiography. Which I usually like. But the subject matter didn’t interest me. I just think it was for a different audience.

This graphic novel by French artist Bastien Vives has nothing to do with the title but instead is about the sexual awakening of a 13 yo boy when his mother's friend's 16 yo daughter comes to stay with them. The art work is stunning and has a certain gentleness to it, but I think it's a bit too graphic for the intended audience. This is a hard to review book. I appreciate it as a work of art, but I'm not sure how this would resonate with very young teenagers (like, Antoine, the MC is 13) or how their parents would feel about them reading this. Perhaps the parents should read it first and then have a discussion with the younger reader about it. I'm all for telling it as it is in YA, but an older teenager showing a younger teenager the ropes of the sexual world feels a lot like molestation, and telling that story under the guise of the title 'A Sister' feels a bit odd. There are no references to her being a 'sister-like' figure except once where a secondary character asks if they are related. I flew threw the book and was curious to see where the story goes and I wasn't disappointed, but I would definitely recommend a parent going through this before handing it to a younger teenager.

Well ..... let’s see how I’ll start talking ...

On this coming-of-age graphic novel, we'll see Antoine and - as Rihanna almost have said in “Man Down” - what started out as a simple boy-and-brother-living-childhood-and-drawning-pokémons- etc-story turned into a boy-and-girl-discovering-his-sexuality-and-doing-this-à-la- “Call me by Your Name” (which is not a good comparison, because CMBYN didn't invented the two-teenagers-in-the-summer-loving-each-other-and-doing-sexual-things-story, but you understand me, I hope).

I really liked the art style, but I didn’t like the story. It was …… hetero too much for me (what isn’t a big problem, but it is something I don’t really like too much, but nevermind). I felt a little uncomfortable with some things, but I needed to remember of myself as a 13-year-old boy and what was happening in my life, and then I understand Antoine, but I still tought the story boring… :)

thanks for the opportunity to read this, netgalley and everyone in between.

First of all, I usually prefer more detailed art in graphic novels.

Second, the first thing that made me question reading this, was an uncomfortable scene involving children using vulgar language, stealing from each other and a knife.

But, third, this graphic novel is about a 13 year old boy experiencing things he should not be experiencing with a 16 year old girl. It starts off with them sharing a bottle of wine. The rest of the story gets more and more uncomfortable and I definitely wouldn’t have finished if I didn’t need to leave a review

This was actually a really sweet and well done exploration of growing up. The art was gorgeous, and it dealt with some pretty heavy topics while still keeping the tone lighter. The combination of the art and the quick pacing made it feel a little magical, like a memory of a weekend long ago. Quite well done.

A Sister by Bastien Vivès is a coming-of-age graphic novel about 13-year-old Antoine who's visiting the french seaside with his brother and his parents. Then, unexpectedly, his mom's friend joins their trip together with her 16-year-old daughter Hélène.

The description says this story conveys the stumbling awakenings of adolescent desire. I don't think that "awakening" was handled well at all. Not only does Hélène get Antoine to drink and to smoke, but they also have a sexual relationship. It's explicitly drawn. I believe a sexual relationship between a 16-year-old and a 13-year-old shouldn't be acceptable in the first place, and there surely shouldn't be a grown man drawing that and selling it to other adults.

I also thought the character of Hélène was a perfect example of the male gaze. Her body is constantly in the frame, almost always only half covered. She takes her shirt off more often than you would think possible in such a short book. We're constantly seeing a 16-year-old girl as a sexual object. Her character can be summed up as 'rebellious teenage girl here to give the innocent boy some new experiences', in a way that felt very predatory to me, as Antoine was even more of a child than Hélène was.

I do have to say the art style was nice and perfect for a graphic novel. The dialogue was incredibly realistic and there were a lot of relatable moments I recognised from my own family holidays (the ones where Antoine fought with his brother, not the other stuff luckily). I would've liked this a lot more if the characters would've been both 17 or something similar.

Thank you Diamond Book Distributors for providing this copy via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

So I had to sit on this book for a little bit, just because the last half left me feeling very uncomfortable and I wanted to place where this feeling of discomfort came from.
I think that part of it is the fact this book is called "A Sister" and the first half falls into motion similarly as you find that bond growing between them but then in the second half instead of seeing a familial we move into a relationship that makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable.
Partially because of the relationship we are lead to believe to be happening, and also the maturity difference between someone who is Sixteen and someone who is Thirteen. The power dynamic becomes incredibly gross.

It really stinks because that overshadows the well-done relationship building that is depicted and could have been interesting if Sex had not been approached like it was.

This book makes you remember childhood experiences. The art is gentle and whimsical. It may have too much implied sexual scenes for many libraries, but it is real and modern.

I can't remember being this conflicted about giving a star rating to a book. This is a warm and warm-hearted tale of the summer when a young lad grows up a little, featuring under-aged sex. It excellently shows the doldrums teenagers can feel when their parents are having their kind of holiday, with all their wine expos, barbecues and plans for staying out late, but it does portray under-aged sex. I think it shows you can have a sassy young woman, much more mature than the boy infatuated with her, that is a likeable character – so often they're not, and so often they're the usual blunt stereotype, but this example certainly seemed to be on the page to titillate, and she is seen having sex with a minor. You know, proper under-aged sex. Apart from the ending, which awkwardly tries to leave us with – well, I don't know what, to be sure – it was readable, attractive, wonderfully inked, and a very good evocation of a time and place and certain specific events. But – yeah, I'll leave it at that.

Unnervingly Creepy

I was going to caption this "Cartoon Blowjobs Are Still Blowjobs". This is supposed to be a tender tale of a young boy's "coming of age". Well, there are touches of that. Our thirteen year old hero finds himself sharing a room with the sixteen year old daughter of a family friend on a beach holiday. It looked like he would find his proximity to a nubile and sexually mature young woman a challenge and something of an eye opener, and that seemed like fertile ground for a tender and engaging story.

Well, our heroine is aggressive and unrestrained. That's an interesting choice. It leads to a casual blowjob in a field, a more thorough blowjob later, and a handjob in a shared shower. So we get a sort of French Penthouse forum sort of story. But whose fantasy is this? Here's something to give one pause. Another alert reviewer wondered how we'd feel about this book if the hero were sixteen and the tender heroine thirteen. Would we still get the warm fuzzies as he taught her the fine points of oral sex? Probably not. So, not only is the overall story creepy, it even manages to score as sexist. (And the title, "A Sister", is a head scratcher, unless we think a hint of pretend incest added something.)

Even the art is weird. When the two play "I'll show you mine" we are treated to cartoon pubic hair that is only slightly better than the waves that come off of angry cartoon characters. It feels like the artist was vaguely embarrassed about drawing this. (The boy's penis looks like something a bakery baked for a bachelorette party.)

So, there are ways to approach the matter of one's initiation into sex in a valid, touching, and affecting fashion. If one is being charitable, that's probably what the author was going for here. But we went too young, it all came out of the blue, context was lacking, real feeling was lacking, and it didn't work.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Mmmmm ok, but CLEARLY things are different in France because this is supposed to be some kind of sweet coming of age story of nice little childhood memories, but for me, an American, a story about a 16-year old girl who gets a 13 year old boy drunk, gets him to smoke, and then repeatedly molests him is NOT sweet. It's gross and messed up. If the genders had been flipped people would lose their damn minds.

A Sister follows thirteen year old Antoine as he and his family travel to their cottage by the coast to spend their summer holiday away from the distractions of home. On the drive there Antoine overhears his parents talking about a friend of the family has just had a miscarriage. When asking his parents about it Antoine learns that his own mother miscarried before he was born, and that he could have had an older brother or sister.

Once at their holiday home the family settles into their routine of spending time at the beach, playing games around the house, and visiting the local village to shop and eat out at restaurants. Antoine spends much of his time with his younger brother Titi, and the two of them get along well. One morning, however, Antoine wakes up to find a girl asleep in their room. It turns out that his parents invited their friend and her daughter, Helene, to the holiday home to unwind after her miscarriage.

Now, from here, thanks to the title and the idea supplanted into our heads thanks to that first conversation in the book about Antoine missing out on an older sibling I thought that this would be where the book was going to go, that Helene, three years older than Antoine, was going to end up becoming something of an older sister to Antoine. This isn't really what happens, as Antoine and Helene develop a sexual relationship over the course of the summer.

The book is marketed as a 'coming of age- story, but I don't really see that myself, there's not much that happens to Antoine over the course of the book that makes him mature or change as a person other than him discovering sex; but perhaps that was what Bastien Vives was going for, that becoming sexually active is a coming of age. Other than performing sexual acts with Helene Antoine ends the book very much how he began, as a thoughtful and caring person, one who doesn't seem to want to bow to peer pressure. There is a moment towards the end of the book where Antoine almost does something incredibly stupid because he's being goaded into it by some older kids, but chooses not to; but this doesn't feel like any kind of growth, more that Antoine is being true to the person he was at the beginning of the book.

I don't know if Vives was trying to put a message into this book, and can't help but feel like if he was I must have missed out on it, because it just came across as a story about a thirteen year old boy being groomed by a sixteen year old over the course of a summer, encouraged into performing sexual acts that he did not seem ready for at all.

The artwork is fairly simple throughout, with a somewhat messy art style that uses black and white shading instead of colour. It took me a while to get used to this, but after a few pages I didn't really notice how different the artwork was from other books, and just settled into the story. But if you're looking for a book that's going to wow you with its art, or that you can spend your time looking through just soaking up the artwork this might not be the right book for you.

Overall I enjoyed A Sister, but I couldn't really narrow down why. Nothing much really happens in the story, there's content there that didn't make complete sense, and the artwork didn't wow me, but I read it through in one sitting and never felt bored whilst doing so. This might not be a book for everyone, but it's one that I'd definitely say to give a go.

I wasn't the biggest fan of this graphic novel. I didn't know what it was about. but the "coming-of-age" story featured a lot of sexual acts between minors which made me uncomfortable. I think agree with other reviewers, there should be a content warning.

This was.... disturbing.
What appears to be marketed as a coming of age story, is more or less not something I enjoyed or would recommend at all.
There could be a big culture difference (as this novel appears to be French) but in no way is it okay that a 16 year old girl seduces a 13 year old boy.
I struggled to get through this story and it's sad as I was really looking forward to reading it.
I'm sure there's people out there who could enjoy this story. Sadly, I am not one of them.

The drawings are great, full of emotions and expressive. While reading, I felt like I was watching a film, so no wonder it will be adapted. Highly recommended to read this and looking forward to the film adaptation.

This graphic novel is VERY French. My god. The art style is fairly understated and enjoyable, and the 'plot' is fairly slice-of-life and chill. However, the central relationship between the main character, who is 13, and a family friend's daughter, who is 16.5 is...a bit disturbing. [Minor spoilers ahead] Their increasingly sexual relationship is depicted in detail, and I agree with other reviewers that a content warning for underage sex should definitely be included with the work. While the relationship is consensual, the age gap and the coercive aspect of the older girl initiating everything makes this...icky, to me, at times.

Really interesting. This graphic novel is hard to categorise. I think the title is really misleading because I was expecting something about sisterhood or the lack of it but instead, it was mostly about the sexual awakening of Antoine, the main character. It is well written but due to the title, I always kind of saw Helene as a sort of sister teaching stuff to Antoine but not the kind of stuff you expect from a sister.
Apart from that, if you forget the title, it is actually a very good graphic novel. The drawings in black and white are really nice and expressive. If you analyse it a little bit, you’ll see that faces are not often drawn, only when there are some emotions to convey. You should know that there are some explicit scenes. It’s quite a cute story between Helene and Antoine. There are no useless elements in this story, it’s not redundant. I think boys will prefer this graphic novel because it is more relatable for them. I recommend it to everyone because it is still an interesting story.
3.5/5

Ah the French and sex. Perhaps to the French is perfectly natural to have a 16 year old girl seduce a 13 year old boy. Some have called this a coming of age story, but to me it feels more like she is a sexual preditor, forcing herself on him.

The story is about a young boy and his brother, who are spending the summer at the beach, when their mother invites a friend and her daughter to spend some time there. The daughter, being older, wants to hang out with the older kids, which is a bit too much for Antoine. She gets him drunk, gets him to smoke, gets him to do things he is not really comfortable doing, including having him fondle her, as well as she give him blow jobs.

But, perhaps there are people out there who find this perfectly normal and I am an old prude.

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

At first when I started reading this I wasn't too sure that I would like it. This is a coming of age story about Antoine who is a 13 year old boy, tiptoeing into his young adult years. Every summer he and his parents and younger brother spend the summer in their seaside holiday home. This year is different. Antoine wakes up one morning to find that they have guests. Hélène is 16 years old and her mother has just had a miscarriage. Her mother is a friend to Antoine's parents and so they have joined Antoine's family at their holiday home.

Antoine is entranced by Helene and stumbles along following her into drink, partying and sexual petting. Helene encourages him and finds comfort in him as their friendship and desire for each other increases. They are both innocent but reaching for more as some young people do. I didnt like Helene because I felt as if she was older and should have known better, but should she? In the end we see the two teenagers trying to manage their sexual desire, friendship, loneliness and fraternal care. In the end their friendship and care actually protect Antoine and the story ends on a hopeful note.

I liked the artwork. The black, whites and greys are a great way to tell this story of emerging love, friendship and desire. It is a many layered story because there are different aspects of the story occuring at the same time. The parents are blind to the children and their activities, so underage drinking, partying and fondling happen beneath their noses. They are focussed on their own things leaving Antoine to supervise and entertain his little brother. Helene is older than her years and quite lonely. Antoine provides her with companionship and hope, best of all is the way their care of each other actually keeps them safe.

All of the intricacies of this story are gently conveyed through the artwork. It would be well worth reading a physical copy. It surprised me how much I actually liked it in the end. Although I do think the parents should have had greater supervision of their children!

Copy provided by Diamond Comics via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.