A MODERN RETELLING OF NORTHANGER ABBEY IN GRAPHIC NOVEL FORMAT?! INCREDIBLE.

I really loved this story and its exploration of not only loneliness, but also the ease in which we can trick ourselves into thinking the worst due to our loneliness. I also loved the exploration of being gay in a place that absolutely does not accept it and how you navigate that.

Honestly, so, so good.

📖: Northranger
⭐️: 5/5
🌶️: .5/5 (Safe for teens and young adults!)
⚠️: Cussing, Bigotry, Racism, Sexism, Death, Alcoholism, Cancer, Anti-LGBTQIA+ Language

*This book was received as an arc. This review is voluntary.*

Please read all TW ahead of time. Some aspects of this graphic novel may be hard for certain audiences. It will definitely make you cry.

If you love graphic novels, thrillmances, and queer representation, this book is for you! This novel is a good representation of coming of age/YA for teens. While the summary claims it to be a retelling of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, it’s honestly a modern gothic story. There’s thrills, twist, and turns that keep you wanting more. The bubbling romance between Cade and Henry are everything! I love that the illustrations are in brown. It’s easy on the eyes and really sets the Texas ranch scene. The narration itself can be on the nose at times, but I think that comes with the graphic novel tropes. The author’s did a great job building the suspense behind the Tyler family while keeping true to the characters they created. Even some of our secondary characters get redemption at the end! This is the perfect Summerween read to get you into the spooky spirit.

SUMMARY

Sixteen-year-old Cade Muñoz loves horror movies. As a queer kid in Texas, they’re a source of comfort and safety. When he has to work on a ranch over the summer with his stepfather, he expects to be miserable. However, he quickly develops a crush on the ranch owner’s son, Henry.

As they grow closer, Cade begins to suspect that Henry’s family is hiding something—something that may put his own family in danger.

REVIEW

I devoured this graphic novel in one day. The characters were deeply empathetic, and I loved Cade as a protagonist. Terciero’s writing did such a good job of capturing the crushing loneliness and anxieties of being a closeted queer teenager in the South, while Indigo’s expressive art did such an excellent job of bringing the characters to life.

FINAL THOUGHTS

While I’m giving this book four stars, I will say that I probably would have liked it more if I had read it back in middle or high school, or if I was a YA romance reader. I haven’t read Heartstopper, and as revolutionary as Love, Simon was, I’m never going to watch it. It’s just not my thing. As a horror reader, this really missed the spot for what I want from a title labeled as horror.

I won't say that it isn’t horror, but it’s far more gothic romance in the classical sense (obviously, as it a retelling of Austen’s Northanger Abbey) than the kind of horror in the movies Cade references throughout. If you’re looking for a YA horror graphic novel, this probably won’t hit the spot for you.

However, this was a *very* well-written contemporary YA graphic novel with cute art and a southern gothic spin. I would recommend it to folks who like contemporary YA queer romance (especially Heartstopper or Love, Simon) and Jane Austen.

Thank you so much, NetGalley, HarperCollins Children's Books, HarperAlley, for the chance to read this book in exchange of an honest review.

Cade is sixteen-year-old and he has always loved escaping in horror movies. As a closeted queer Latino growing up in Texas nothing is scarier than the real life, so horror movies are perfectly okay. When he is sent to spent the summer working as a ranch hand to help earn extra money for his family, he hates everything right away, like waking up early in the morning, the mountains of horse poop. The only good thing is the company of two other teens who live there, one of the them the handsome Henry. As soon they start to get closer, though, things get complicated. Henry is reluctant to share how his mother died and Cade starts to suspect he's hiding something, a dangerous secret.

Northranger is a graphic novel set on a Texas ranch and inspired by Northanger Abbey by Jane Austin with two brilliant and intriguing main character, the curious and smart Cade and the mysterious ranch owner's son. The setting is intriguing and I loved the drawings so much! This story is the perfect balance between spooky and swoony and I truly felt absolutely invested in everything. A cute and spooky teen romance, with secrets and dangers, written beautifully and with amazing illustrations.
A modern spooky love story!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e arc of this book.

Cute queer and spooky retelling of Northanger Abbey (which I haven't actually read).

I loved the remote setting and the dissection of homophobia and racism in a rural environment because that is so real. This was also a super cute book with the right amount of romance and spooky!

CW: homophobia, racism, grief, death of a parent

4.5/5

"northranger" is a graphic novel about a sixteen year old boy & horror movie lover who goes to work on a ranch for the summer, and falls for the handsome teen boy who lives there and may be tangled up in some local deaths...

i really enjoyed this book :) it is a breeze to read and i would say perfect for middle schoolers. i thought the romance was cute and the interpretation of "northanger abbey" was cool as well, although i have not read it myself. it wasn't the most developed or realistic, but i liked the art style, the (simple) story, and the characters. it is a quick read but a lovely way to have spent my time. i think it could definitely help queer kids/teens feel represented & less alone.

with graphic novels like this, i almost always want them to be longer just so i can enjoy them more. luckily, i didn't feel like this was ridiculously short to the point where it ruined the development of characters/relationships. i def recommend if it sounds like your kind of thing! :)

(thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me with this free eARC in exchange for an honest review).

I loved this cute LGBTQ friendly rom com about teen boy's super spent on a ranch with his stepdad. I loved the discussion of stepparents stepping up, of the harshness the LGBTQ community faces in the ag community, and gossip. An engaging and fast read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this title.

I really liked this graphic novel inspired by Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (I will admit that was the main draw). It had a lot more depth than I expected, and I loved the way there was a parallel drawn between horror and the queer experience. The artwork was beautifully done, as well.

Such a great LGBTQ+ graphic novel that really covers both the happy and hard moments of being gay, especially in a rural town. I really enjoyed the horror elements and thought it was a fun addition to the story, but I wanted more!

Northranger is a graphic novel about a gay teen in Texas who is obsessed with horror movies and gets a job working on a farm for the summer. Mix in a hunky cowboy, some drama, and some family intrigue and you've got a recipe for a good graphic novel.

The writing is spot-on. The author drew inspiration from his own life and from Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. The story unfolds nicely and the characters develop naturally. The art is great- very open but still solid in its storytelling.

All-in-all this is a good coming of age/coming out graphic novel. And now I feel I should read Northanger Abbey.

Reviewed for Netgalley:

Honest review from my 10 year old daughter.

I really, really enjoyed this one. Mysterious and heartfelt. Also the illustrations were pleasing to the eye.

I LOVED this book! It was such a fun take on Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, perfectly incorporating Catherine Morland's love of gothic novels into Cade's love of horror movies. I thought it was so cute to see him and Henry bond over their love of all things horror, and to see their relationship develop. And then the added mystery??? It had me on the edge of my seat!

10/10 highly recommend for suspense and adorable queer joy.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book!

Northranger follows Cade, a closeted gay boy in rural Texas, who spends a summer working as a ranch hand where he meets the handsome and deeply mysterious Henry. As the secrets start to grow, Cade finds himself entangled in both his personal romcom and horror story. So excellently written and illustrated - a must read for those needing some spookiness before their happy ending.

Handselling shorter reviews:
YA Brokeback Mountain with horror
Western gothic horror with a happy ending

Beautiful and heart wrenching story. I would definitely recommend this. There are some hard moments that can be triggering, but that is the realty for some people.

This story was good. It felt relevant to current social issues. Felt like it ended a little fast. Loved the art!

I recently read the author’s Little Women graphic novel retelling/modernization and liked it. (In fact, I did not realize that the same author did both of these prior to finding a copy of the Little Women graphic novel at a thrift store because I had heard about them separately from each other and did not put it together as I have not yet read the original Northanger Abbey…cringes in English teacher.) This one left me with a similar feeling. I really love the representation of all kinds that make it into these retellings. This one is focused on a queer Latino boy in a blended family with a black stepdad and stepsister who has a grandmother with dementia. (Little Women also has a lot of varied representation amongst the characters.) I think the romance and the spooky vibes are fun here, but I was left wanting more from it overall. (Also, I know Little Women and assume Northanger Abbey have military/war subplots, but it feels heavy-handed in these modernizations. If we are changing lots of things, do we need to cling to that so much?) This was cute but it did not grip me like I had hoped. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

I tore through this book in one sitting---I've excited about it ever since I heard the concept. NORTHRANGER is a lovely mashup of Jane Austen, classic YA first love tropes, and the very real fears faced by queer teens in the US today. The author's note at the end is dated from 2020, and Henry's attempts to compensate for his internalize homophobia are probably going to ring true for a lot of readers, as will Cade's desire to disappear into fictionalized horror narratives that parallel his real life.

The murder mystery elements are less likely to be part of the average reader's experience, but I ate them up. And there's a two-page spread at the story's climax that had me gasping aloud in horror and secondhand humiliation. Cade, you sweet little fool, you innocent summer child, what are you DOING!? Top notch drama.

There were times where if felt like the story was trying to cling too tightly to the source material, perhaps, or maybe add an extra element that didn't naturally fit. Overall, it tackles some pretty deep and occasionally dark themes in a mostly upbeat way. Thank you to NetGalley for fulfilling my dreams of getting to read one of my most anticipated graphic novels of the year, it was delicious. I will be doing a TikTok recommendation sometime soon. :)

A heartfelt, #ownvoices Northanger Abbey retelling about growing up gay in Texas and the dangers of trying to be out in such a Red state. I loved Cade and Henry and the horror movie vibes sprinkled throughout this story. The artwork was excellent and this is definitely a graphic novel not to miss! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

This graphic novel is inspired by Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen and the author's upbringing in Texas. This novel does deal with a lot of heavy topics (there are TWs and note from the author at the beginning of the book), but it handles them very well. This is a great, queer, coming of age story, with a little bit of spooky mystery in the mix.

I really liked the story and art style. Being from the south, I have met some of the same type of adult male characters, and they are pretty spot on (unfortunately [also, not every male in the south but, you get my point). Those characters just made the story seem more real and made you rally for our main characters that much more.

I would highly recommend picking this up if you like sweet, queer, coming of age, spooky, mystery stories, and horses.

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Northranger offered some valuable queer and Latino representation, as well as depictions of a blended family and a grandparent with dementia. Since it’s a graphic novel, it’s a much simpler, faster read than the novela it’s based on, but it’s meaty enough to engage and entertain. Next to so many out-and-proud YA romances, it felt a little dated, but I do see the value in showing closeted characters with unsupportive parents to let teens experiencing those circumstances know they aren’t alone.