This comic was so wonderful that I read it in one sitting.

I love watching the characters' growth, accepting themselves and learning that to receive love, you first need to love yourself.

This Comic touched on what teenagers often struggle with - love. What is love? How do you know if you are in love? And the answer is - you don't until it's there, in front of you. At these points in a teenagers life, love can lead to cruelty, obsession and this comic showed that not everything you read in magazines or online is true, and I loved that the most.

This story was beautiful, and the illustrations were perfect - I will definitely recommend this to others!

Demasiado realista. Demasiado duro. Demasiado doloroso como para ser "solo un cómic".

Este cómic no nos narra una historia de amor de verano más, sino una historia que sin lugar a dudas durará más que un verano. El romance que se desarrolla pareciera que no será la gran cosa pero luego, al complementarlo con el contexto y los personajes, todo parece encajar a la perfección y conforma un cómic maravilloso. Este cómic me ha dejado un sabor agridulce y un dolor en el pecho, una decepción en cuanto a mis esperanzas de que el amor fuera para siempre, que los protagonistas estuvieran juntos siempre... Pero como dice al final del libro, quizás lo que "el amor para siempre" quiere decir es que la marca que te deja en ti es para siempre.

¡Muy recomendado!

Perfectly reasonable Italian evocation of teenaged holiday romances. Our heroine, with her flat chest and her penchant for making a diary like Wimpy Kid's but with A-levels, is intent on hooking up with the guy from school she has hots on, when a few of her friends and their families all descend on the same southern beachside resort complex. Only, their apartment isn't free so they get stuck away from town, and with that her resentment of her mother, her lot and so on only escalates. She can still have time with her friends, needy, judgemental, not her type or whatever they may actually be – but will she be of a mind to generate a true, natural friendship with someone when the chance arises?

All told it's a more than decent portrayal of a young woman finding herself, despite her tempers, despite boys, and despite everything else in her way. It's given depth and further emotions when she befriends two elderly lesbians the camp seems to have sided against, and while it doesn't exactly let rip and allow for providing something new, it doesn't fully stick to the usual path. Finally, the soundtrack (Blur, Ace of Base, Fool's Gold etc) either dates the story terribly and for no real good purpose, or suggests this is based on personal memories. You decide. I decided that this had a warmth I wanted, and for everything it had about it that was too obvious, it was well worth my time.

"Maybe this is what 'love is forever' means: it's not timeless, but it leaves a mark so deep that it accompanies us all our life."

Viola is 15 and on holiday with her family. She convinced them to spend the summer in the south of Italy, close to the sea, where all her friends and her current crush are. This summer will be special for Viola: not only she will experience her first love, but she will also meet two incredible women that will leave a mark on her life and on her way of seeing the world. At the end of the summer, Viola won't be the same...

What a nice story! Forever is a sweet graphic novel that tells us the story of a teenager from her point of view. I felt close to Viola, I see a lot of myself in her at that age: a bit shy but curious, wanting to be free but at the same time afraid to disappoint her parents, interested in knowing more about the world. Thanks to her curiosity and naivety, we get to see her learning about different topics: her first love (and what is love really?), the weight of society that imposes a certain behavior or look to teenagers, different forms of violence against girls/women perpetrated by boys/men, homosexuality.
All these topics are very important, especially for Viola's growth, however I do wish that Lili and Paula were more present in the story: not only their relationship is the best representation of love here, but Viola learns so much from them about the world and herself too. Their support and help during the summer is essential for our protagonist and, even if for a short time, they do become like parents for her.

The artwork of this graphic novel is very well done and totally accurate: if you check out this book you'll see exactly how Italy looks like, with its bars next to the beach, buildings where they're not supposed to be, songs and parties by the bonfire... The story takes place (I believe) in the 90's so you'll also see the classic Italian telephone booth and the little game kids used to do with the coke can. What a blast from the past!

A very sweet and interesting story, recommended especially to young readers!
4 stars.


* I'd like to thank Assia Petricelli and Sergio Riccardi, Europe Comics and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

*Disclaimer: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautiful graphic novel which explores different types of love, romantic, platonic and familial.

I was impressed by how much depth the author managed to get into the characters with so few words on a page and the illustrations were perfect. Each of the characters were distinct and there were side-plots that didn’t detract from the protagonist’s journey.

Overall, this was a near perfect graphic novel. There were a few storylines that I would have loved to see expanded slightly but on the whole, I thoroughly enjoyed this and will definitely be recommending it.

4 out of 5 stars!

This graphic novel follows a girl named Viola who is vacationing with her family over the summer. She navigates new friendships, long term friendships, crushes, and romance.

This book was originally written in Italian, and I sometimes felt like the writing was a bit stilted but I think that may be because of the translation, so it didn't bother me too much. I had some mixed feelings about the art, but I think that is more about my particular taste when it comes to art in graphic novels, and it didn't detract from the content of the book. However, I did have a bit of confusion in a couple places because of the similar character design between Viola and one of her friends, especially in shots where I only saw part of one of their heads/faces -it was a little difficult to tell who was who.

I like several of the themes of the graphic novel, especially the focus on body image, but I felt that for such a short graphic novel is may have tried to focus on too many things. I didn't feel like all of the themes/issues touched on in the book got all of the development and discussion that they needed, and I would've liked this to be a bit longer. Some things got wrapped up very quickly at the end,. I also felt like there were several slightly offensive things that different characters said that the text was not condoning, but that didn't get explicitly addressed and I would have liked to see all of that examined in text,

I was also a bit confused about what the age of the protagonist of the graphic novel was, and I went in thinking she was about 16-17 and was shocked at the explicit art of the main character because of what I thought her age was. She may be more like 18-19 but this was never really made clear, and I still feel a little weird about how much of her body was shown in the graphic novel. This is categorized under Adult in NetGalley, but based on the description I assumed the main character was younger, The age rating on the publisher's website says 15+, which is a little confusing to me because of the artwork.

Forever follows a teenage experience on a family vacation as the protagonist navigates relationships.

I found this a really heartbreaking and beautiful story, and it felt like a strong examination of figuring out what love means.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Doing the family vacation thing finds this girl in familiar and unfamiliar situations. The olds and her little brother are dull and agravating. Her first kiss, bungled attempts at sex, learning the meaning of "intimacy" are electric. This perfectly crafted story reminds the reader of the bittersweet days of our youth.

Oh, this was sad and heartwarming at the same time. I loved it so much. And it reminded me of being a teenager, in a way. First love, being misunderstood, thinking that you know everything.

I can't say that I had the same experience with my parents, though, but it reminded me of younger age all the same.

And I just loved the art. There was something peaceful in it and in the colors. I wish this was longer, I really enjoyed it.

A very bittersweet bildungsroman graphic novel that left me wanting more of the sweet relationships detailed within. Great job.

DNF'd this one as I was really struggling to read the chosen font and otherwise struggling to follow the story arc.

CW: body dysmorphia.

I didn't normally read a lot of comics, but I loved this one. The drawing style and dialogues are prefect for me.

It's a heartwarming story. So beautiful. A fun quick read.

Highly recommend!

This was such a heartwarming story. I loved the art and it complimented the story narration beautifully. It steps into the territory of love and questions it - what is love? Is it jealousy? Does it have to be physical? The MC asks these. I loved following along with the journey on their vacation. A new romance, new experience, new unlikely friendships - a beautiful memory. If they wrote a full fledged novel on this, I'd 10/10 would love to read it!!

I wanna really thank Netgalley for giving me an ARC of this book, and as usual in exchange for my very honest review.


This is a graphic novel about one summer on the beach, we follow this girl called Viola who spends almost all of the summer with her friends and trying to answer some questions of her personal life, like: what is love?


The design of this graphic novel is Oh La La, very exquisite and beautiful, I fell in love because of the details everywhere, I looked at her and she looked beautiful and the same for Ireneo, and talking about him, I like the creativity of the author for giving him such a beautiful name with the meaning of peace.

This almost made me cry a little bit, I didn't want it to be that short but so meaningful, I loved how this story goes, and everything on it, I wish this would have been longer to enjoy it a little bit, but anyways I loved everything here, and i will give it some 5 stars, I hope I could see something like this again.

Remember this is just my own opinion, anyone can think differently about it.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE GRAPHIC NOVEL:

Forever is a standalone coming of age graphic novel by Assia Petricelli and Sergio Riccardi (its original title is Per Sempre and has been translated to English from Italian). The graphic novel follows Viola, a girl who is vacationing with her family during the summer in a resort close to the sea.

Viola faces struggles with body image and gender identity, as well as love. Throughout the novel it is evident that she is searching for the meaning of love; self love, romantic love, family love, platonic love. She meets new people, develops her relationship with her friends, and grows as a person through trial and error.

During this summer, she faces heartbreak and is confronted with situations that will ultimately reshape her as a person, granting her experiences she will never forget.


OPINION:

4/5 Stars

I had some reservations regarding the art style of the graphic novel, however, the more I read I got really attached to it. The colours and the line were very fitting and captivating. The structure of the panels made the story easy to read; the different panels, such as the journal entries gave insight on Viola’s personal thoughts she didn’t want to share with others.

The themes of the story were really engaging. It dealt with a toxic relationship, consent, controlling parents, death of a loved one, gender identity and body issues. I found myself relating to some of the topics, and I believe that Petrivelli and Riccardi did an amazing job portraying them.

Firstly, I was glad to see the realistic depictions of the girls bodies. Viola’s relationship with her friend was also very touching, and how they handled the negative comments was really empowering. It was interesting to see the characters in realistic situations, but instead of making them change themselves for others, they actually embrace who they are. The creators presented Viola’s image and gender struggles in subtle ways and although I found her journey very interesting, I think it could’ve been developed further.

Secondly, I would like to address the relationships Viola developed with the locals during her vacation (contains spoilers). The relationship she developed with the two women, Lili and Paola, was very touching. It was nice to see how she chose to get to know them even when the rest of her friends were making fun of them — possibly because she saw a little bit of herself in them. The romantic relationship with the local boy, Ireneo, was very cute; I was excited to watch them getting closer with each other as they found common interests. It was heart-warming to see her slowly trust him after being scared to show her real self to others. I was sad that their relationship ended so abruptly, however, I can see how that relates to the ending of the graphic novel.

“Maybe this is what ‘love is forever’ means: it’s not timeless, but it leaves a mark so deep that it accompanies us all our life.”

Thirdly, I found all the subplots engaging, and it would’ve been interesting if they were developed even further. Valeria’s toxic relationship showed that staying with someone because you feel obligated to do so is hurting yourself more than others. Viola’s relationship with her mother was depicted in a realistic way — a difficult mother daughter relationship, where the mother wants the best for her kids but she is not sure how to achieve that.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I was touched by the story, as it depicted realistic scenarios and addressed many issues or hardships people face on an everyday basis. The bittersweet ending contributed to this idea of life not being idealistic, and that sometimes ugly or sad experiences help us grow as a person.

PERSONAL RATING:
★★★★☆ Overall
★★★★☆ Characters
★☆☆☆☆ Tears Level
★★★★★ Art Style
★★★★☆ How Likely to Recommend

5/5 for realistic depictions of women's bodies.

I had reservations when I began reading this that the love depicted in this graphic novel was going to be toxic, and not well rounded.

This is not the case. The bad relationships are depicted as such, and the relationships that are healthy stress what help makes them work and what makes them shine.

This was a beautiful story about love and loss.

It is also gay on the side and it SLAPS!

This quote summarizes the whole book:
"... this is what "love is forever" means: its not timeless but it leaves a mark so deep that it accompanies us all our life"

4 stars

A coming of age, summer vacation story about sexuality, young love, friendship, & identity.

[What I liked:]

•I like the movement in the art style. There are some creative panels/pages with borders, showing background music, & ones that look like journal entries or letters. The colors are vibrant, like I’d imagine southern Italy to be like.

•The story touches on consent, unhealthy & healthy relationships, parent-teen relationships, etc. without being didactic. It was interesting to see Viola, the MC, engaging with the thoughts & views of others & over time processing & synthesizing (or rejecting) them to build her own views of love.

•The story is very touching, especially Viola’s friendship with Lili & Paola, & her relationship with Ireneo. I think the ending is very fitting, a good note to end on that gives closure & shows how much Viola has grown.


[What I didn’t like as much:]

•At the very end, Viola says in a letter that the summer changed her whole family, but it’s not clear how it affected anyone but her. I needed some more clarity on that. I’m also not clear on why she decided not to keep in touch with Ireneo.

CW: jealous/controlling relationship, physically abusive relationship, controlling/abusive parents, terminal illness, doctor assisted death

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]