1. Darian Standal

2. This graphic novel is interestingly arranged in one main story. What is different in this graphic novel is that the story isn’t told in a third person narrative point of view. It is told in point of views from the female characters, Tamara Drewe, Beth Hardiman and Casey Shaw.  Tamara, a once unnoticed young woman, returned to her old home in the British countryside and stirred up a bunch of trouble with her new sexy appearance. After getting her nose job men started noticing her more especially the men in Stonefield, the neighboring writers retreat. Andy Cobb, the groundskeeper at the retreat, had feelings for Tamara before she turned into a beautiful woman, but she wasn’t interested in him, she had her eye on two other men. These men were Nicholas Hardiman, a prosperous writer and Ben Sergeant, an ex-famous drummer. The second female character was Beth Hardiman the wife of Nicholas. She ran Stonefield and treated the other writers at the retreat like her own children.  Nicholas cheating on Beth wasn’t new news for her. She caught Nicholas several times having affairs, but this affair with Tamara put her on edge; she finally decided to get a divorce. The last female that narrated the story was Casey Shaw.  Casey was the best friend of Jody Long.  Jody was in love with Tamara’s boyfriend Ben. She always dreamt about having romantic times with Ben but this would never happen because Jody and Casey were only teenagers. They both snuck around Tamara’s house to get a peak of Ben. One day they went there, Jody started going through Tamara’s emails. She saw one where Ben was looking for someone to watch his dog and she responded giving him her number and name.  Even though romance seems to be very relevant in this story it is definitely not the theme. Scandals and adultery are the themes. The part that surprised me the most was the ending of the book. Even though the mood of this book wasn’t lite, I wasn’t expecting this to happen. The book was compromised of strips along with paragraphs of text.

3. Surprisingly I enjoyed this book a lot. When I first learned about the project I was quite leery on graphic novels. When I thought of comic books I wasn’t excited but this novel was set up very well. The speech bubbles in the comic were not too long so it didn’t look crammed like most comic books in my opinion. When there were other things to be said besides dialogue she put them in paragraphs. This comic was more in a novel format only telling one story. The media used to create the drawings were pen and ink lightly brushed with water colors. The drawings were very light and elegant. The pictures are more realistic some more than others. They are also minimalist with simply drawings. They still have some detail but aren’t distorted. They are mostly loose but not too loose, just enough to make it look naturalistic. The pictures have a lightness to them making the mood semi- happy even though going on isn’t the happiest. In the drawings there are many contour lines shaping out edges of the people. The lines give the images mass. There are highlights and shadows in the images making them look realistic. There are some textures in the images mostly hair and clothing being the most obvious. Most of the colors in the images are analogous with an exception of some random bright colors. Usually they are the focal point in the image if it is bright. They are also mostly shades of cool colors. There isn’t much variety in the images they are mostly the same style.

4. I believe the author wrote this book in a semi humorous way to look at problems with relationships. She targets the problem of trust and adultery. I believe she wanted to persuade the readers to understand how heartbreaking cheating and lies are.  The main function of this book is to tell a story. It’s more like a life story with highs and lows of each character. I believe she also wanted to show the truth in real lives and that no matter if you are famous you aren’t exactly happy. I also believe that she was shining light on women who shouldn’t take crap from their husbands. Also she was giving the message that grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

5. I believe this book has many strengths. Comparing to other books I have read I would have to say the biggest strength is the flow of the story. The pictures help give us the perfect visual and her short witty discussions between the characters help us get a real feeling of the personalities of them. Also because there are several narrators I would assume the story might get a bit confusing but, but she did a great job by giving us the insight on all aspects of the story. The form of how it is written is very well synchronized by the content. Without having paragraphs of text I think it would be very sloppy and confusing with the different sides of the story and amount of characters.  I enjoyed how it was more set up like a normal book but with pictures. I would defiantly say that the book is more of a chick novel, a love story, and I loved this. My gut reaction was that this book would be horrible. I was very nervous because I don’t really enjoy reading, especially graphic novels. The page layouts consisted of panels of pictures with some speech bubbles and an occasional paragraph going more in depth. The narrative flow was a little choppy going back and forth from the points of views of the different characters, but the author did the best she could having that many points of views. The author draws facial expressions exceptionally well and really shows the feelings of the characters through this.

6. I think the biggest weakness in this book would be at sometimes it’s hard to follow.  I think it’s a bit confusing because there’s a lot of stuff going on and a lot of characters. Even though I thought the author using multiple perspectives made the store more dynamic it also confused it some. A solution to this would be to simplify the story. Maybe take out a part that isn’t needed. Also if she used the transition between characters a little bit smoother. This book has changed my view on graphic novels. They aren’t just for men and also not necessarily like comic books. She might have a small bias on men being cheaters and attractive women using sex to get what they want

7. Because this book is a bit racy I would recommend the book to high school and up.  This book is definitely geared more towards women, but some men may find it amusing as well. This book would be passed on to people who enjoy romances, even though this isn’t exactly like one. I would not pass this book along to anyone younger than me and not necessarily anyone older than me too. I wouldn’t really recommend it to anyone in my family but definitely my friends. No parts of the book made me uncomfortable but actually upset. There’s some cheating on spouses in the book and it frustrates me a lot. I do not think it is acceptable what so ever and the other spouse should definitely not deal with it. I was also shocked by the ending. I didn’t really have to reevaluate anything in my life but it made me think of how cheating is not ok.

8. I enjoyed Posy’s illustrations and a different book she illustrates is “Matilda Who Told Such Dreadful Lies”. Another book that seems fun is “Bakery Cat”. This seems more fictional than “Tamara Drewe”, so better for younger people.

9. I would give this book a 4/5.