My Rating: 5/5 Stars

My Thoughts:

Everyone knows that I absolute love contemporary books having anything to do with characters who love nerdy and fangirl things. Enter Faith Erin Hick’s Comics Will Break Your Heart, one of my most anticipated contemporary releases of 2019. Miriam’s grandfather was the co-creator of the hit comic series, TomorrowMen. But after selling his rights to the comic for practically nothing, Mir’s family is left with practically nothing, stressing Mir even more as she thinks about paying for university. Things in Mir’s life get even more complicated when a cute boy shows up in her town for the summer. It might not sound so complicated, except that Weldon Warrick happens to be the grandson of the other TomorrowMen co-creator. The book is told from the third person perspectives of Mir and Weldon.

Comics Will Break Your Heart has almost all of the things I crave in YA contemporary: romance, self-discovery, family, and in this book’s case, fandom. On that first element, I really enjoyed Mir and Weldon’s relationship. There are some slight Romeo and Juliet vibes, as Mir and Weldon’s family history gets in the way of them being friends, let alone having feelings for one another. Mir and Weldon’s families are complicated as it is, with Mir’s family having financial struggles and Weldon’s family torn apart over the massive success of the TomorrowMen franchise. While their family struggles added to the characters’ individual story arc, I was really invested in how the TomorrowMen past affected Weldon and Mir. In light of the family tension, I really liked the progress of their relationship. There are plenty of swoon-worthy and nerdy moments between the pair.

As the title suggests, the book and much of Mir and Weldon’s lives revolve around comics. I really enjoyed having so many characters who are invested in comics, from Mir’s mom to her best friend, Evan. Even in light of how the film franchise has affected his family, it was also cool to see Weldon’s genuine love for the comic and all things nerdy/sci-fi-y as well. I thought it was interesting that Mir was super invested in comics, but her love for reading also make her such a relatable character. Mir wants a life outside of her small, rural Canadian town, even if it means leaving to go to university to study literature or just anything. Comics Will Break Your Heart sent me grabbing for my page tabs because of so many relatable moments, but I particularly loved this reader moment from Mir:

“ ‘I remember in grade nine, you read all of Brave New World in an afternoon. I thought the teacher’s eyes were going to fall out of his head when you told him.’

‘It’s only, like two hundred pages,” Mir said.” (62).

Besides the reader moments, I was just generally super in love with Faith Erin Hicks’ writing style. Comics Will Break Your Heart is her first prose novel. I didn’t mind having both Weldon and Mir’s perspectives because I was genuinely invested in both of their storylines. If books do have multi-perspectives, I  tend to gravitate towards the third person perspective as well. Although there are usually major differences, I think this POV better helps readers distinguish between characters.

Overall, Comics Will Break Your Heart is the perfect read for those who love YA contemporary with a nerdy twist. This book just felt so unique, having a cast full of characters who are passionate about comics in one way or another. I’m sort’ve on a Faith Erin Hicks high right now, just having also recently read Pumpkinheads, so I’m excited to pick up more of her books in the future!

Have you read Comics Will Break Your Heart or any books by Faith Erin Hicks? Share in the comments!