a e 4ever (edition 2011)

Rough around the edges--a very raw exploration of teen sexuality and first love. Art ranges from rough and cartoonish to elegant. Very graphic--not recommended for under-18s.

This is the first graphic novel well, except for mangas..:)… but I find myself thoroughly in love with this book…

First and foremost, I finally understand why it’s a+e 4EVER, it stands for the 2 protagonist, Asher and Eulalie.

The fonts are cool and it made it easy for readers to internalize what the characters felt, and amazingly, it even seemed easy to picture out how they say it, or how loud just by reading..:)…. Merey combined manga, sketches, graphic art, etc, and it is wonderful.

The characters are complicated in a good way, it talks about stereotyping. A+e 4EVER has a beautiful plot in which 2 people labeled outcast by the world find strength and friendship in each other. They're both outsiders, Jewish, artist, music lovers, but most of all, they're both in desperate need of a best friend. They need each other.

This book perfectly presents us to a chaos-that is high school, how someone may find this, a place of torture instead of learning, and this is the truth in some cases. There are a lot of bullies out there who does nothing but pushed each person they encounter done. Merey weaves an enchanting novel that brought us the roller-coaster of the emotions and daily battles a teen goes.

.. I admired the author for taking the risk of presenting this kind of issues (stereotyping, bullying, sex, self-identity)… it’s not many who dive into this one without making the readers disgusted, but this book is exceptional and I think recommended for teens or people over the age of 15, or maybe 18,..but this surely a teen book. Merey is another author to watch out for!

In short, a+e 4EVER is a heartbreakingly-beautiful novel that would surely tug anyone’s heart, about the realities in life, a person could experience just by being different. Very highly recommended! ( )

This book made my heart hurt.

Rough unsettling art-work and a story that
was simple and so sad and true.

I keep coming back and tinkering with this review, because I do not feel like I am doing the book justice.
It is a very hard work to describe, because it did not seem like much to me at first glance, and it was so different and better than perhaps what I thought it would be.

While it is about transgender kids (a bisexual boy who looks like a girl/a masculine girl (lesbian?) whose world is rocked by him....) what amazed me about this book was its ability to draw the reader into such a convoluted situation so easily without making an issue of it. This book will never tell you what to think, what is good or bad.
I loved that it doesn't make itself a soapbox for gays, straights, trans, or any issue in general, while still managing to touch on many subjects, some very painful and uncomfortable, with remarkable clarity and honesty through two very real and human characters.

Beyond any gender issue, it is about friendship and the power of art to change the way we look at everyday things (and the people in our life we take for granted.) Because I am involved in visual art myself, that aspect of the book was extremely satisfying.

It is about finally meeting the first person who is willing to accept you, all of you, the way you are forced to accept yourself. I can't say more than that, just that I hope you will go out and read it! ( )