Review by Booklist Review
Ms. Odette Biset-Yu does in fact have a jellyfish in her eye, confirms the optometrist. The encroaching jellyfish surfaces when reading labels and looking down from insecure fire escapes. As Odette navigates her twenties in Montréal, the jellyfish enlarges. Soon there are two, and Odette is again at the optometrist. Will the doctor expel the trespassing jellyfish at last? Accurately depicting blindness in comics is a rare feat, and Boum excels here, bringing forth a crucial, redefining work that communicates vision loss and blindness gain to those living in a world of snapping white canes, bump-dot labels, and sudden doctor appointments at the opthalmology clinic. Using a black-and-white color palette, Boum innovatively shows the progression of Odette's condition: as the jellyfish explode beyond the panels to the page, we are forced to read around them before experiencing no light perception at all, for only black ink remains. In addition to her outstanding use of the format, she presents the irony of patient tool kits and resources for the blind being in print and a kindhearted romantic partner who carelessly forgets about audio description during anime night. Odette emerges vividly and realistically from the page with anger, confusion, grief, and then finally being heard as she lives beside the jellyfish. Boum goes beyond simply telling stories about stereotype-defeating disabled characters to communicating what it is like to experience the world with blindness. An amazing and essential addition to high-school, academic, and public library collections.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
"Miss, you have a jellyfish in your eye," an optometrist tells 20-something Odette in the opening pages of this quietly courageous slice-of-life graphic novella from Boumeries cartoonist Boum. The jellyfish, a distracting floater in her left eye, appears hovering around Odette's head as she goes about her daily routine in an artsy French Canadian neighborhood: working at a bookstore, hanging out with friends, tending to her pet rabbit, and pursuing a romance with her manga-loving crush, Naina. She tries to ignore the darkness encroaching on her sunny existence--an approach that Naina, who struggles to cut ties with her abusive father, has trouble understanding--but another jellyfish appears in her field of vision, and then another. "I feel like my eyeballs are grinding in their sockets," she remarks to herself as they multiply, as do other problems for her and Naina. Boum's sinuous artwork makes Odette's world pulse with life. The settings feel lived-in, and her charmingly designed characters are constantly moving, changing, and emoting. The result is a graceful and empathetic story about learning to see what's important. (May)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Fiercely independent Odette must confront a debilitating condition with a magical realist twist in this charming graphic bildungsroman set in Montreal. Odette Biset-Yu is making things work. After dropping out of university, much to her parent's dismay, she gets a job in a bookstore and an apartment in what her mother declares a "sketchy" neighborhood of Montreal where she lives with her rabbit, Napoleon. Though her days are long and often exhausting, Odette is bolstered by her strong friend group and the satisfaction she finds in the space she has created "to live [her] life, independently," apart from her well-meaning but overbearing family. All that's missing is romance; that is, until the day the lushly beautiful Naina walks into the bookstore. As the friendship between the two blossoms into a love affair, they support each other through each of their journeys toward true adult independence, but there's a problem. Odette has a jellyfish in her eye, and it's multiplying. Faced with a suddenly uncertain future, Odette must decide whether true independence means standing on one's own or being strong enough to accept the help that is offered. Winsome cartoon realism details a racially diverse cast of characters who navigate the uncertainties of young adulthood with heartfelt affection the reader cannot help but return. Meanwhile, author and illustrator Boum's startling use of perspective and her placement of the jellyfish that float through every page, both obscuring and refocusing the attention of reader and main character alike, create a near perfect symbiosis between narrative and art. A deeply moving meditation on disability, diversity, and joy. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
