I have read a number of graphic adaptations of novels, but this is the first novel adaptation of a graphic that I have read. Giant Days has been a fave for a while, so I decided to pick this up. I love the graphic, but this expands and explores the story of Susan, Esther, and Daisy so much more completely than a graphic really could. The three girls (for that is what they are—teenagers exploring adult life for the first time) contend with big stuff here: shaking the ghosts of the past, self-doubt, and the ins and outs of adult friendship. In doubting themselves and their friends, they plunge and are almost lost in anger, vengeance, worship, adoration, and cults. It is irresistibly readable and satisfying. ( )

I thought it was weird that the Fence comic book series from Boom! had a novel version this year, but it turns out Boom! had done the media-tie-in thing already with Giant Days in 2018. Non Pratt was hired to read the comic series and plop out a YA novel inspired by it.

Set in the early weeks of freshman year, we find that Esther, Susan and Daisy are already friends, but not best friends. They are still insecure in their friendship trio since it based mostly on sharing the same hallway of a dorm, and, in case it doesn't work out, they spend this novel individually pursuing better friends, lining up back-up friends, or debating whether friends are even necessary. Inevitably, the more they let themselves drift apart, the worse things get. One gets into quite a bit of trouble -- getting lured into a cult-- and that situation is frankly treated too lightly and resolved too easily.

The story is super-predictable and drawn out, but the characters voices sound right enough. With the comic series coming to an end, this will at least give you one more taste of the Giant Days when you find yourself jonesing hard. ( )

I hadn't read the graphic novels when I started this so it ended up being a real struggle to get into. But then my library added Vol. 1 which I read and adored and after that, I enjoyed this a lot more because I finally understood the jokes! I really want to pick up the rest of the series now... ( )

This just never quite worked for me. I think, in part, that's due to the jumping around between characters and storylines. While this works in comics form, jumping from character to character and plot to plot within a chapter of a book leaves everything feeling a little disjointed and never really allows for the time necessary to get emotionally involved with any of it. Plus, if I hadn't already read the comics and known who these girls were from that context, I'd have been left with only the most superficial sketch of each of their characters.

Of the series of novels based on Boom! Box comics that Abrams has been publishing, the only ones that have really worked well for me are the Lumberjanes books by Mariko Tamaki. I think, in part, this is because Tamaki has worked in comics and so is better able to translate that sensibility to prose more smoothly than the other writers. ( )