4.5 stars

Paper Planes is a story about understanding others, but more importantly, about understanding yourself. Through a series of personal growth exercises and flashbacks, the characters' motivations are revealed, to the reader and to themselves, painting a realistic scene of difficult but important relationships in the teenagers' lives. It is a brilliant reminder that in all situations, everyone is doing their best, even if others don't see it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mad Cave Studios for the ARC.

ARC review for Paper Planes by Jennie Woods
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
LGBTQ+ rep!
This was such a cute read! I love graphic novels and this one is close to the top! It is beautifully illustrated and written! This story is about 2 friends Leighton & Dylan who get shipped off too a troubled youth summer camp and need a good report back.
The camp forces them to look inward and find themselves. They have to look at their lifelong friendship. This is an amazing coming of age story and an great book about finding your identity and who you want to be! I’m definitely going to be looking into more things from this author!

✈️🚀 ✈️🚀

#booksofig #bookishpost #bookstagram #bookishfriends #bookcommunity #readersofinstagram #bookfriends #bookishfriends #booklovers #bookishcommunity #bookishfollow #bookloversunite #bookrecommendations #bookreviews #arcreview

This is a story about Dylan and Leighton, who have a long friendship. They get into some trouble that puts them in a summer camp where they have to work through their shared and personal issues to make sure they don't end up in an alternate high school, or in bigger trouble.

The characters were really likeable and the plot moved quickly. There was a lot of jumping back and forth between time periods as a way to progress the story. I did like that because it allowed the friendship between Dylan and Leighton to be revealed slowly and with purpose.

In the end, both characters learn more about themselves, but I do wish that their friendship ended up in a different place. However, it left the door open for each of them to explore new aspects of their own lives.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. This is a hard and complex subject matter, and I wish it was done more in depth because the story fell a bit flat. Nothing really got resolved and I didn’t even feel like the characters really grew during the book, nor was there even a real attempt to? It felt like a slice of life but if that slice of life was wildly depressing. I don’t need a happy ending, this is a real ending and that’s perfectly fine, but I wish it just had more depth and emotion to it to get me invested.

I also would have loved to read more about Leighton’s asexuality, because I feel like the extent of her attraction and how she feels wasn’t given the time and attention it deserved. It was also a bit confusing sometimes to figure out if she or Dylan were talking - the colors were so similar and it wasn’t easily distinguishable. The art was wonderful though, it was beautiful on every page.

This graphic novel was absolutely lovely. It had a beautifully bittersweet ending, which I love because sometimes people do grow apart and decide that society/familial expectations and obligations are too big and crushing to break out from under and its sad, but its real. The characters were great, even when you didn't like the choices they made, the family dynamics, the representation of queer identities and the complicated relationship with race we briefly get to see are portrayed so well. And the art style was just so so beautiful.

I do love a bittersweet friendship story - I think this will be great for my middle school patrons on the cusp of high school. I think it's important to stress that relationships (of whatever kind) don't have to be forever, and there's often no such thing as a demarcation between good person and villain when a relationship ends. The art was cute & the tones/color palette was a little more "grown up" than a lot of the middle grade graphic novels that readers might be graduating from.

This graphic novel has a lot going on! There are issues of class/ family income-disparity between two friends (the protagonists) who are at a camp for troubled teens and must perform well to keep further bad things from happening to them. Like going to alternative high school (which in real life can be a great things for young people who are not fitting in.) There's tones of diversity of many kinds in this story, and a somewhat surprising ending. A good/inventive effort by the author and illustrator.

4/5 Stars

Thank you to Mad Cave Studio for providing me with an ARC in exchange for a review.

I saw this cute graphic novel under the LGBTQIAP+ Reads section on Netgalley and I always want to read whatever cute queer graphic novels I can find so I requested it. This story follows two teens at a troubled teen camp for the summer after they did something but that isn’t revealed until later in the book. It flashes back throughout their friendship to earlier scenes between them to show how their friendship progressed to the point of the troubled teen camp. I loved all of the representation in the book, there was asexual and nonbinary rep. I would have liked a little more exploration into the asexual rep as I couldn’t tell if it was that she was more demisexual or aromantic going off of what was shown. I did feel that the ending left a little to be desired but overall it was very good. The art style was amazing and I can’t wait to see what else the illustrator has done or will do.

I highly recommend this for people looking for a coming of age story with LGBTQ+ rep.

Thank you to the publisher for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

I liked this comic, it was intriguing from the blurb and I decided to pick it up soon after requesting it and receiving it. I thought the story itself was easy to get into. The characters are down to earth and the two main people are friends with one another. You learn a bit about their back story (birthday party with the skating) and from then follow them along in the story.

The characters themselves were sweet and easy to agree with. I enjoyed reading about them and their dialogue because it read well and was intrigueing.

The artwork itself was comfortable on the mind and eyes and read smoothly along the way. There wasn't a time where the artwork stood in the way of the actual story or made the comic less easy to read.

Overal a very good and fun comic!

First, I would like to thank NetGalley for sending me an ARC for an honest review. I really enjoyed this book! I loved so many characters and found myself tearing up at certain moments just because of how real and raw the emotions that they were feeling were. It was great and I would recommend it to anyone.

I was really impressed by the graphics in Paper Planes, but unfortunately the story didn't live up to its visual appeal. At times, it was intriguing, but ultimately it felt unfulfilling. It seemed to rely on certain tropes and didn't delve deeply into any of the diverse characters, subjects, or themes it introduced. It also seemed to portray adults as villains without any real justification, which was unsettling and not very realistic. While the story did touch on personal growth, it wasn't enough to make it genuine or engaging. Overall, I would rate the comic a 3. The graphics deserve a 4, but the story only gets a 2, so it balances out to a 3

Summary:

Dylan Render and Leighton Worthington used to be best friends. Like many high-schoolers, their friendship has faded, thanks to drama and other concerns. If not for their time at summer camp (for troubled youths), they may never have had the opportunity to repair the damage done.

Their time at camp will change that, as both of them need to get a good review from the camp, or they're going to be in a new world of trouble. This forced proximity may even bring some closure as past events come to the surface.

Review:

Oh wow, Paper Planes is such a bittersweet and endearing read. Anybody who has ever lost a friend or struggled with troubled friendship waters will empathize with the story that unfolds here. It'll hit you right in the feels – and then some.

It took a little while to understand the full depth of everything going on here. Dylan and Leighton have fairly complex backstories, even without the whole friendship complication. Obviously, this is where a lot of the sadder and bittersweet elements come into play.

The namesake of this story, the paper planes they send, is a really nice touch. Not only does it add a lot to the emotional telling of the story, but it is also visually appealing. Dozerdraws did a fantastic job with these scenes. Honestly, I almost want to see if I can track down a print of one of those panels; they're so perfect...

Highlights:
LGBT
Romance
Genderfluid
Ace Character
Bittersweet Vibes
Cute Art
Forced proximity

This is a story that I think could have worked really well if it was presented in a different way. The idea was really nice and the ending was especially great (not to give away any spoilers but I really enjoy when books decide to go this route for an ending). I think was didn’t work was the constant back and forth and I didn’t really feel much growth from any of the characters. It sort of felt like, “Okay….then what?”

Dylan and Leighton have been friends forever. Dylan lives as themselves- a struggle for Leighton as she tries to please her parents.
This story starts at their summer camp - both angry and hurt. The story also rehashes their friendship. Underlining the lack of balance between Dylan and Leighton.
Very honest look at how we can become consumed by our friends, taken advantage and all the anger.

Thank you Netgalley for sending me this advanced copy. The premise sounded really cool, and I really enjoyed it, especially because it was actually a surprise. I thought this was a traditional love story and it turns out not be neither traditional nor a love story. Instead it is an angsty buy heartfelt coming-of-age graphic novel about two teens who are both trying to save their friendship and figure out who they are at the same time. There's assexual, non-binary and queer rep, and I think there is a lot of nuance. The conflict is real, and it was hard to see them battle themselves and endure micro-agressions from others. And, yes, the artwork is also wonderful, with the style and colours changing from flashback to present. I just wish it had more pages so we could spend more time with Dylan and Leighton.

I truly feel like this is one of the first books I've read that has sensible and realistic Asexuality representation. The book has lots of very interesting twists and turns in the plot and I really love that all characters were able to have a happy ending without any of it being unrealistic. I would definitely recommend this book to young adults and their caregivers to give a diverse example of queer love and friendship.

Thank you Netgalley for sending me this advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion✨.

After an accident Dylan and Leighton are sent to a camp for troubled boys, but will they be able to maintain their friendship and protect their future?

It's a very light graphic novel, I really liked the drawing style and how easy it is to follow the story.
We get to see what brought them to this camp and get to know our protagonists a little better.

I must say that the one I liked the most was Dylan and it is that Leighton always wants to be the center of attention and many times he invalidated Dylan's feelings and I didn't like that.🙃

It is a graphic novel that shows us what happens in the heads of some teenagers, their sexual orientation and what they want to do in the future.

I highly recommend it if you are looking for a fairly light and entertaining read

Honest review from my ten year old:

This was great! The illustrations, art style and colors were magnicifient. And I loved Leighton and Dylan! Great read.

Miigweetch NetGalley and Mad Cave Studios for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This YA graphic novel is told from the perspectives of high schoolers Leighton and Dylan. They are at a summer program for “troubled teens.” I didn’t realize there were alternating perspectives until about a third of the way through the book, which caused some initial confusion with the plot and timeline. Although I found it just an average read, I greatly enjoyed the art style and the diverse representation in the characters, especially Cricket.

It was fantastic to see nonbinary and asexual representation in the book. The ace story line I thought was well-explored and I appreciate seeing this type of story available to young adult readers who might be exploring similar themes in their own lives. I recommend this book for readers who enjoy comics that are not about superheroes, as well as anyone interested in asexual, trans, or non-binary stories. I rate it three out of five stars.

This was somehow both fun AND excruciating to read. It was fun to see the dynamics between Dylan and Leighton and it was excruciating to see them struggling so much with their friendship.
I will not elaborate more but ahhh, this book in my opinion is the definition of friendship conflicts and confusion and I loved it a lot even though it made my heart hurt 4984975 times!!
And I loved the art style and the colors so much, everything was so beautiful :')
And oh Leighton is aspec and Dylan are enby!! Loved both of these reps so much <3333
Highly recommended to people who like to read about friendship dynamics and graphic novels!