Thank you, NetGalley and the publishers for an eARC of this book.

Mismatched is a super cute retelling of Emma. The artwork is adorable and full-color. The book is filled with positive messages about being true to yourself and not being afraid to explore your gender or sexuality, but most importantly to our MC Evan, how to be a better friend and nice to people. I could have used a "who's who" section because there are a lot of characters. Recommended to 8th and up.

A cute queer romance - I loved Evan's story, especially when he had those moments of self-reflection, and owned up to his mistakes. Evan is a ballet-dancing, social media guru who loves playing matchmaker. He is joyful and fun, and we get to see a popular queer kid enjoy high school (can we get more stories like that, please!) When a new girl, Natalia, comes to school, Evan makes it his mission to introduce her to new friends, get her settled in, and help her find romance. Through the many twists and turns, Evan finds himself making mistakes and discovering what it means to be a good friend.

This was a great graphic novel that should have been longer. There were several moments that felt rushed, to the point where the story struggled to keep up. An easy fix with additional moments to understand what is happening (with more explanations and exposition) would easily make this a 5-star read. Unfortunately it falls short - and I say that with the utmost regret, because there is so much potential for it to be amazing.

It's always hard to review an adaptation or retelling of Emma because Emma's character is meant to be insufferable and annoying, so of course Evan is too in this genderbent reimagining. I love the queer retelling of it and the art is lovely. This would be a great graphic novel to recommend for middle schoolers (and you can even use it to compare it to the original). I would say that the pacing is a little fast and I wish there was more room for character development.

this was very cute and I liked the little twist of the romance there was. I expected it to happen, but I was still very happy when it did. The art in this is also sooo cute and I appreciated the easy flow of the story. My main complaint is that the climax of the story sort of felt very abrupt. I felt like the MC's feelings were suddenly switched very randomly and with little buildup to the big reveal. I feel like with how well the rest of the story moved, this section was just a little jarring. But overall, I really enjoyed this. The MC is funny and dramatic and flawed, but learning how to be better and it was nice to see that. Super cute and easy romcom!

For the record, I haven’t read Emma. So I didn’t know where the plot was going to go. And this was my experience reading Mismatched:

The pacing felt weird. I found it confusing, since a lot of names were tossed around since the beginning. The main things were about Evan who like to matchmaking his friends or figuring out who’s interested in who, and maintaining a safe queer community. I actually love the illustrations style, the way the colors are bright but soft and just eye pleasing to see. Also everyone got their happy ending so there’s that.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc of this book. This book was extremely cute, but I do not think it was for me. The art was amazing and it was a beautifully designed graphic novel, but I felt there were many issues with the writing. For one, I feel that the story could’ve been longer! I felt like we navigated a lot of plot in a short amount of time. I liked how Evan was redeemed in the end, but his behavior throughout the novel was not the best. In general, I just felt like everything was rushed. It was definitely a cute story, but it needed more. It almost felt unfinished in a way.

6.5/10

Gorgeous art and the colours are vivid and pleasing to look at. Lettering could be better. In the ARC copy the text is a bit too high up.

Some parts are a bit nuanced and hard to digest, tbh. Like there's a lot of things that I have to reread to fully understand and I think it should not be like that. It was a nice story, anyways. A bit predictable but it is what it is.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher who gave me an early copy of this book.

I downloaded this book to read myself, and my middle school daughter has stolen it from me. She told me that she loves it. The design and graphic novel format is so cute and really well done. I’m an upper middle school teacher, and I cannot wait to do a comparison between parts of this novel and five traditional story of Emma. My recommendation for grade level for this book would be grades 8-12.

I adored this! It was so freaking cute. I loved how Evan was an influencer, and he had such great character development throughout the story. All the characters seemed well developed and the story was chef's kiss. The artwork was gorgeous as well. Loved every second! Evan and Davi for the win!

I really enjoyed the illustration style and thought that the LGBTQ+ re-imagining was done well and freshened up the well-known story of Emma.

However, I did think that there was a lot of plot that needed to be covered in the span of this relatively short graphic novel, so at times things felt very rushed. For example, we never really meet the person Natalia ends up with and we just have to trust Evan in the beginning that she’s not a right fit for her. There were SO many characters that we couldn’t spend much time with most of them, and understandably so, but perhaps the retelling didn’t have to include every single plot point or character as the original material.

Overall, this was a fun, light read that I think will appeal to a young adult audience and I will most likely check out more work from this author.

Mismatched is a solid retelling of Jane Austen's Emma. The art is charming and the storytelling is suitably frenzied and full of twists, turns, and romantic entanglements.

Evan is far more insufferable than Emma was, and I don't know that I get why everyone circles him like moths to the flame, but by the end he's tolerable. The supporting cast is interesting and I enjoyed the read.

The art is lovely and cute. I appreciate the diversity represented with the characters. Reading queer content brings me immense joy.

I'm a fan of Jane Austen, so I was looking foward to this modern retelling. Honestly, Emma is not my favorite by Austen. A main character who believes they know better than others, despite being young and inexperienced, and making them still likable and redeemable is a tightrope act. With Mismatched I think Evan, our main character, went a little far into unlikable territory. Some of his actions were just mean spirited. I know this is following in theme with the original content. But it did not feel like he was sweet or caring enough with his closest friends. The progression of him being held accountable for his actions did not seem totally believable. He is likable and more considerate towards the end, and I did like reading it! But I was not convinced with the development. We needed more time, I think, to witness a change. I did like the ending moral to the story. And it is a happy ending! So the story ended on a sweet note.

If you are a fan of Clueless, another modern Emma retelling, you would probably enjoy reading this!

Thank you author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book!!

I loved the vibes and the artwork is gorgeous!

I also think this also captures the vibes of Emma very well. At one point I forgot and I was like ugh bro stop acting like that the world doesn’t revolve around you and I was like…. Wait lol

This was a cute graphic novel. This book was geared towards teen agers and took place at a school. It was a a twist on Emma, and I also got Clueless vibes from it. The queer twist was interesting. The book was well written and nicely illustrated, but it just wasn't for me. I do recommend it for high schoolers though.

I had a fun time reading this! It’s a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma with a gay, teen social media makeup artist and the shenanigans of high school crushes and dating. While I think it would be more enjoyable to read if you have a grasp on the original text (I didn’t) it’s still fun to read without really knowing what Austen wrote. The art style is fun and fits the story well (and I think it’ll look even better in physical print!). Because this is based off of Austen, there are a lot of plots and subplots kind of going on at once (and some of the author’s own as a lot of the characters in this book are queer and queerness is a significant aspect of a lot of the character, relationship, and plot arcs), and so it’s a little hard to feel like any one thing was fully explored. I did really enjoy getting to see Evan’s character development, and I felt pretty invested in his relationships and the other characters and their relationships. I just wish we got a little bit more, which can be hard to do in a 264-page graphic novel. But, overall, I did enjoy reading this and I think it’s worth picking up if you like queer graphic novels, a little bit of several romances, or Austen/classics retellings!

If you're going to do Austen with a twist, you have to make sure you're also twisting away enough from the adaptation that came before. A good Austen/Shakespeare/ETC with a twist makes you forget that it's a take on that base story, and make it your own. Clueless knocks that out of the park with Emma. This rings too close to Clueless to stand out to me in any way. And I find it, unfortunately, missing the charm that Clueless comes with. A queer aemma adaptation is a good premise, and there are solid bones here. But I don't find the same level of familiarity with Emma and Knightley, or Cher and Josh. I'm told what these characters feel towards each other, rather than shown. It's hard to feel invested in it, despite being excited by the premise. But it just doesn't deliver how I hoped.

I might be a smidge biased since I’m quite fond of Emma retellings…but <i>Mismatched</i> was adorable.

Anne Carlin honestly did such a fantastic job with this LGBTQIA+ retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma. The graphic novel held just the right amount of true-to-the-original plot points and uniqueness in these versions of the characters to make it a truly pure and enjoyable reading experience. I had so much fun getting to know these new sides to beloved characters and I’m honestly just so thrilled that others will have that opportunity as well.

The story is quick, the artwork is gorgeous, and the characters just as lovable. If you’re a fan of Austen retellings, I would highly recommend adding this one to your list!

MISMATCHED is a queer YA graphic novel adaptation of emma, where evan, a social media influencer and high school junior, learns that he can't control everything and everyone around him. while i love emma retellings, i think it's so easy for them to go wrong because there are so many factors at stake, but this wasn't the case for MISMATCHED. this was super fun, really cute, and an easy read, and i felt like evan learned his lesson about meddling and still got his happily ever after.

read if you like:
- emma retellings
- graphic novels
- friends to lovers

thanks to netgalley and little, brown ink for the advanced copy! MISMATCHED comes out september 3rd!

I love the unabashed queerness of this book so much! The colors used were gorgeous as well. Emma is perhaps my least favorite Austin book so the story didn’t charm me much, but I’m sure any Emma fan would enjoy it.

Very Jane Austen's Emma meets Heartstopper, in a way that actually elevates the premise of both of those works. A high school setting with a queer cast of characters and artwork similar to Heartstopper, and with the same story beats as Emma, this graphic novel occupies a very specific niche of queer YA stories that talks about queer gatekeeping and toxic positivity. I absolutely adored how Evan and Davi's families are intertwined and their wonderful dynamics with their niece. The GSA as the social circle worked so well to illustrate the ways even a queer found family can be guilty of isolating and passively gaslighting within the community. I'm always impressed with a good contemporary Austen retelling, especially if it's queer, like the movie Fire Island, and this perfectly encapsulates the essence of Emma that is at once sweet and necessary.