a pair of graphic novel reviews: Agent Gates and Blue is the Warmest Color

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Agent Gates by Kyle Hilton and Camaren Subhiyah

 The basics: What if fan favorite valet Bates were a secret agent with a bionic leg protecting the royal crown? Agent Gates takes that idea and runs with it.

 My thoughts: Agent Gates is escapist fan fiction at its best. The characters will be familiar to any fan of Downton Abbey, and the writers keep them just close enough to their fictional counterparts to be fabulously believable. It's a fun fun, preposterously awesome adventure that is the perfect thing to tide me over until January when season four makes its way stateside.

 Rating: 4 out of 5
Length: 128 pages
Publication date: January 1, 2013
Source: library

 Convinced? Treat yourself! Buy Agent Gates from Amazon (Kindle edition.)

 Blue is the Warmest Color by Julie Maron

The basics: Fresh on the heels of the film adaptation of this French-language graphic novel winning the Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, an English translation is finally available.

 My thoughts: I still have a soft spot for coming of age stories set when I was also coming of age, and the main characters in Blue is the Warmest Color, a hauntingly beautiful story of young love, the characters are in high school in the mid-to-late 1990's. It's also fascinating to see the fictional or real stories of what high school in the 1990's looked like around the world (Blue is the Warmest Color is set in Lilles, France.) The story is heartbreaking and at times heart-wrenching, Maron captures the emotional authenticity of those turbulent teenage years beautifully.

 Favorite passage: via Instagram "Only love will save the world. Why would I be ashamed to love?"

 Rating: 4 out of 5
Length: 160 pages
Publication date: August 19, 2013
Source: library

 Convinced? Treat yourself! Buy Blue is the Warmest Color from Amazon (Kindle edition.)

As an affiliate, I receive a small commission when you make a purchase through any of the above links. Thank you for helping to support my book habits that bring more content to this blog!

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