“There’s nothing evil about death…but it’s a balance. You can’t force life without taking it from somewhere.”

Ahhh!!! I loved this little graphic novel. TAPROOT is a gay love story about a lingering ghost who takes care of younger spirits and a gardener/accidental necromancer who sings to his plants, with a bonus appearance from a snarky reaper who likes romance novels. It’s a brief, heartfelt story about life, death, and hope, with absolutely stunning artwork that made me want to dive right into the pages. Thanks to Oni Press for the eARC! The updated edition is out 6/28.

Content warnings: death, grief

Taproot is a beautifully drawn graphic novel that tells a couple of snippets of the life of a florist, Hamal, and his undead friend turned something more, Blue. The novel follows the moment in which the two make a step forward in their relationship and a big revelation for Hamal.

I really liked the concept and the basic vibe was solid. However, the plot is incredibly rushed and so starkly disconnected between the two parts. Hamal and Blue are not particularly interesting characters, although their story was very pleasant to read.
In my opinion this novel can be a very solid start to something interesting, but it falls flat as a single instalment. It suffers from the split into two parts, and I personally would have liked it more if the first section (the two moving from friends to more) was the entire focus of the first volume, if there is any sequel to come.
There is a cast of secondary characters that are all very interesting, although not really expanded upon or even given much "scree time". Then again, this was a very short little story, so I did not expect a big fully-fleshed out cast.
The drawing style, on the other hand, I absolutely loved. I think it fits very well with the atmosphere of the story and it delivers emotions and actions wonderfully.

I do still recommend this graphic novel to people who enjoy a cottage core vibe with a soft and quick story that includes spooky and dark sub themes.

Adorable; both the story and the illustrations. The backmatter will certainly interest young illustrators and readers alike.

“Taproot” by Keezy Young is a graphic novel that follows Hamal, a gardener and Blue, the ghost who is in love with him. This graphic novel originally released in 2017 and is being rereleased in June 2022.

This was so heartwarming and beautiful. The color palette that Young uses for their artwork absolutely pops and makes for beautiful panels. There are subtle conversations about grief and moving on, sacrifice, and what it means to be alive. I found myself smiling numerous times reading this despite the fact that it’s a very short book. The characters were compelling and adorable.

We have LGBT and race representation in this which I love seeing in graphic novels that are as accessible as this one. You don’t have to be a fan of reading graphic novels to get something from this story and that is just a testament to how the themes in here are things every one experiences through their lives.

If you enjoyed The Tea Dragon Society, this has the same heartwarming feel.

A quick and thoroughly enjoyable story about a gardener and a ghost falling in love ❤

It's heartwarming, humorous, and a page-turner. I think if you're feeling a bit blue (forgive the pun lol), this graphic novel will definitely pull you out of that funk. The characters are the highlight of this comic, but the artwork and color direction are stunning. Despite the story centering around death, it is also very much about life because as the author points out in the afterword, they "couldn't write a story about death without life, too." Young created a wonderful queer romance story about ghosts, plants, and the circle of life (and death).

I love this graphic novel! The art was so beautiful and unique. I could stare at the pages for such a long time, examining all the little details.

My favorite character is probably Blue. He was so quirky and you can tell he felt his feelings so deeply. He was so selfless, even in death.

The reaper was hilarious. I thought she was going to be some big scary character, but nope! Amazing!

This was such a sweet graphic novel, with the most gorgeous illustrations - I mean, seriously gorgeous, the artist is so talented. I enjoyed the story, but it was confusing in some places, leaving me feeling like I had missed a few pages when I hadn't, and with some of the conflict not feeling like it was resolved even when it was? However, I still liked the concept and the illustrations were really the best part of it for me!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this graphic novel.

If I could give this graphic novel 10 out of 5 stars I would. The art style is wonderful and fits the story really well, the magical realism was well done and I feel this book could be for a wide range of ages.

The story was cute, intriguing and well paced. I often have issues with comics/GN’s where the filler pages with no text are bland or serve no purpose, but I can confidently say the filler pages added context or helped to develop the world.

I would recommend this book to pretty much anyone and I have immediately pre-ordered a physical copy for my shelves.

I ADORED THIS GEAPHIC NOVEL!!!!!!! It’s just the right amount of cute queers mixed with adventure and i loved every second of it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Taproot is an adorable queer graphic novel centered around Hamal, a beloved gardener who just so happens to be able to talk to ghosts. Hamal is such a sweet main character and I wanted to just hug him the entire time. This story had everything that I love; queer romance, gorgeous illustrations, and an incredible story. I do wish the ending wasn't quite so rushed as I felt the resolution to the problem was due to the author wanting to end the story on a happy note. I am a sucker for a happy ending and while I do think the author made it work somewhat, I feel like maybe it could have been fleshed out more. There were still things that didn't quite make sense to me by the end of the story. Though, as I am typing that I have the reapers reminder that reapers don't have to follow the rules. Either way, I did really enjoy the characters and the story a lot and though the fix to the problem kinda confused me, I think, perhaps, I would have just liked to have this as a series so we could get to know all the characters, Hamal and his journey as a gardener and necromancer instead of a standalone. I still loved this story and would absolutely recommend it!

Taproot is a cute and queer story about a young man (Hamal) who is accidentally setting off the balance between life and death, and the ghost boy (Blue) who falls in love with him. Or at least it was what I thought it was supposed to be. At it's base, that is what the story is about but the story doesn't actually really happen. When Hamal and Blue get a visit from a reaper, Hamal is told that he is a necromancer, and because of his powers and his gardening, he's been accidentally using death to create life. The reaper then tells him he needs to restore balance.

There is NO STORY after this!!! He ends up using blue as a way to ease the imbalance by essentially finally putting him to rest, but the reaper decides to give Blue his life back because of romance??? or something??? It doesn't really have much substance. It's cute of course, but I wanted to read a cool story about a gardening necromancer and his ghost bf getting into hijinks and solving problems and mysteries.

I won't go too much into the rest to save from spoiling too much, but this really was a let down in the plot department.

The art is cute and vibrant and there is great detail to the foliage and fauna parts which I love. The rest could have been a bit more polished.

I really thought that this book was rather cute and similar vibes of Heartstopper. I would say that the story went way to fast as I love a medium paced gathering of character in graphic novels with a bit more depth. I didn't really feel connected to the characters. I liked the interpretation of the reaper in this, I thought it similar to Death Note, but a bit more friendly. I did like the ideas behind it, but I would have liked a tad more explaining in terms of the necromancy powers that they appear to have but doesn't quite get explained why. I would recommend this to readers of the cute one shot graphic novels, as well as Pumpkinhead. It did give me the same vibes, though I did not get emotionally attached like I expected. It was a very quick read as the pacing was very fast, didn't take me very long to read it at all. I would have liked more story in it, but I don't know if this is going to be a series or not.

This book was unbelievably beautiful. The art honestly blew me away with the details and the colorwork. I am a huge fan of comics that really utilize dark versus light and this booked an amazing job of that. Not only did the book look stunning, the storyline was very sweet. I'm a sucker for a good ghost story and this definitely lived up to expectations.
The romance was sweet and wholesome and beautiful. I also loved the ending and having a few a little short snippets after the main storyline was a great idea! Not only was this a pretty quick and fun to read, it felt very unique and interesting. The story and plot felt new and fresh.
Highly recommend this book for people looking for a cute LGBT comic!

I really, really wanted to love this but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. This was of course a speedy read, as most graphic novels are. Usually, something being a quick read is a positive for me, but not when it comes to graphic novels. There was no space for an actual story and the progression of the romance was literally 0 to 100.

Taproot was super cute but also felt super rushed. Any problems that occurred were dealt with in a ‘dues ex machina’ style and it really took away from the experience for me. Now, this has technically been around since 2017 so I won’t shy away from spoilers. Blue who is a ghost suddenly becomes alive again even though the story suggests that the sacrifice he is making should mean he ceases to exist. I actually think it would have been a better storyline to go with that option, but I suppose the author wanted this to have a happy ending. Fair enough. That ending did come around pretty soon though and honestly this felt all over the place.

The story had a lot of potential; a gardener falls in love with a ghost, sounds amazing and definitely intriguing. Unfortunately, there was little to no story or character development. It seemed like you should already have an idea of what is happening in this world when that couldn’t be the case as this is a standalone story.

The art style and character design are what bumped up my rating. I LOVE this style and especially the colour palette. I'm a huge fan of more muted colours in graphic novels, well I can go either way really, but the palette suited the story very well.

If you want a sweet, quick read you should definitely check out Taproot. It wasn’t for me personally, but who knows you may love it.

I am so excited for this book to be published again. I have had this one on my To-Be-Read list for quite a while and I cannot wait to finally purchase it in its physical form in June.

Taproot is a beautifully written and illustrated graphic novel that readers of any age could fall in love with. This graphic novel explores queer love and fantasy in a way that has clearly influenced many texts since its original publishing. I look forward for this publishing as it will allow more queer stories to be told in a positive light, something that is so important to readers nowadays. I love being able to see queer love represented in graphic novels; a genre typically dominated by cisgender and heterosexual narratives.

I will definitely be purchasing Taproot when it is published in June, and I will be recommending this title to anyone who is looking for a fun, queer, magical story.

Alllll the vibessssssssss! What a delicious queer romance I stumbled upon with Taproot- 10/10 would recommend.

A cozy, charming, and emotional adventure of life and death- and everything in between. There were some HARD hitting scenes- this is not a light and fluffy graphic novel (but it's still cozy!). The artwork was magnificent and atmospheric.

Ghosts, gardening, reapers and romance galore - grab your favorite drink and snack of choice and settle in with Hamal as he and Blue form a unique relationship that defies reality, explores fate and second chances.
What would you do to save the people you care about? Would you risk it all?
(I'm a sucker for a lot of things but fun tidbits at the end of a unique book THRILL ME. The afterword by Keezy on how Taproot was created was genuine and gratifying- SOOOO WAS THE ARTWORK PROCESS! I'm an artist myself and LIVE to dive into the minds of other creatives to see how they operate)

This was my first graphic novel- EVER, and Keezy Young ensured it won't be my last.

This graphic novel was visually STUNNING. The colors, the drawings, AMAZING.

Queer ghosty gardening love story? Yes please. I really loved Hamal, what a good person.

My one complaint would be I wanted it to be longer. I know graphic novels tend to be on the shorter side, but I would have loved to be in this story for more time.

4 ⭐

This was so beautiful I loved it. I loved the art style, the story, it was stunning and definitely reignited my enjoyment for graphic novels.

This was a really wholesome read. The art is absolutely beautiful, with rich, earthy colours, which worked perfectly with the gardening theme of the story.

I found it took me a moment to get into the story, as I felt it jumped straight in a little abruptly, so I couldn't quite work out what was happening. Once we got into the flashback to explain the ghosts though, I caught on quickly and was soon rooting for all the characters.

The love story was sweet and an absolute joy to watch unfold. I would have liked to see a little more from the other ghosts, as they seemed to disappear from the story quite early and did not have much to do.

A heartwarming, queer, paranormal romance.

Oni Press just does not miss. This book can be read in a single sitting, and in that time alone, you fall in love with these characters and their relationship. Even though the subject matter is about death, this story handles it with kindness and understanding, somehow making it beautiful while reminding us to treasure the time we are given with those around us.