I've sold tons of all of these titles and read excerpts to better push them, but this past week was when I finally sat down and read all of them back to back. I'm probably couldn't add much that you may have read in previous reviews since they've been out for so long, so I'll just give a quick impression on each. If you haven't read any of them then just consider this a friendly kick in the butt to check them out.
GN
An incredibly heartwarming story about self expression and identity featuring a genderqueer protagonist. Wang's storytelling is masterful in its pacing and in her ability to capture each character's emotions perfectly in their facial expressions. This is just one of those stories that makes you feel good about people and gives you a little hope, so I consider it sort of necessary reading now.
I fell in love with Wang's work back in 2010 with her first graphic novel Koko Be Good, so I recommend checking that out as well.
Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me GN
I keep thinking the title is 'Laura Dern Keeps Breaking Up With Me', and that would just be terrible because Dern is a treasure and that would just be depressing. Laura Dean is a toxic little asshole, so different tone all around.
I generally don't care for dramas that center on bad relationships, but Tamaki and Valero-O'Connell are top notch storytellers that engage you on multiple levels throughout the novel. There's a great range of supporting characters who I wish had more time to shine (another reason to dislike Laura Dean in my book), but they made the book richer regardless.
I've been dragging my feet on picking up Valero-O'Connell's Don't Go Without Me from ShortBox (who are well worth supporting if you get the chance), so this is kind of the kick in the butt that I needed to get that going.
The Fire Never Goes Out HC
I had read a decent chunk of this material online but wanted to have a physical copy because, well I'm me and I'll probably be buried with all my physical media. Anyway, I really appreciate Stevenson's online pieces for their humor, honesty, and for charting their path over the years as they reached higher levels of success.
If you're a fan of Nimona, Lumberjanes, and/or the newer She-Ra series then I kinda imagine you've already checked this out. If in case you haven't though I highly recommend picking up a copy, or at least heading over to Stevenson's site and reading through chunks of their material. And then go pick up the book anyway.
LOL, I love that I also kept reading this as "Laura Dern".
Organizing books by color is fun! I enjoyed this post and will have to check these out.