Book 636: Bloom – Kevin Panetta & Savanna Ganucheau

[Check out my updated 2024 response.]

SO MUCH CUTENESS!!!!!!!!

Seriously though! With the second volume of Ukazu’s Check, Please! being pushed back to April 2020, I needed more adorable gay comics/graphic novels in my life so I went searching at the local library and found this one. I’d seen it at a few bookstores in LGBT young adult sections, but hadn’t given it a second thought.

Bloom is the story of Ari Kyrkos and Hector Galea. It’s a coming of age, coming out, coming together, teen rom-com type book and it was wonderful. You’ve got the meet-cute, the miscommunication, the driving passions of each of them, the drama-point, and then the adorable make-up/happily-ever-after.

The age difference between Ari and Hector isn’t that great, but the maturity level is cavernous at times. I struggled a bit with Ari as a character. He’s so young and has the woe-is-me-I’m-misunderstood thing down to an art. I get that the story is supposed to show him changing, growing from a boy to a man, but it happens in fits and starts and didn’t quite work as smoothly as I wanted. There also wasn’t enough time post-growing-up for the story to really develop, which was sad.

I loved that this was set in a bakery. Panetta and Ganucheau really did their research and it was totally believable and the sourdough starter story-line was perfect in every way and it just reiterated how adorably perfect Hector is. Hector, as a character was more enjoyable in that he’s facing his own life problems—death of a relative, a recent ex, figuring out where he needs to be to do what he wants in life—while simultaneously falling for the grumpy-read-immature Ari.

The one thing that I felt Panetta and Ganucheau really hit on the head was the semi-abusive/power-play relationship between Ari and Cameron, Ari’s “friend” and bandmate. There’s a domineering thing with Cameron, who I think knows Ari’s sexuality before Ari does. Cameron takes advantage of Ari, putting him down and treating him like crap because Ari has a (unwritten my interpretation) crush on him.

This really comes to light when Ari starts to hang out with Hector and begins to stand up for himself, we see Cameron becoming more demeaning to Ari, until it reaches a breaking point and Ari chooses Hector over Cameron (again unwritten) because Hector is actually a viable friend and future boyfriend/lover. This just really hit home because in that when you’re crushing on someone (no matter your/their sexuality) you’ll let them get away with SO much more than someone who is actually just a friend or has no potential.

Recommendation: READ IT. It’s a quick read and it’s beautifully drawn. There were some continuity things where it almost felt like a page or a few comic frames were missing at points, but even with those it’s a beautiful story that will make you smile and appreciate new-found-love, family, and youth. It’s not as awe-inducing as Ukazu’s work, but this one has a quieter more intense beauty that comes through as Ari matures through the story.