#Sarah Mai

[comicbookclub]

Sarah Mai Heads Back To Freshman Year For Her New Graphic Novel Memoir

Writer and artist Sarah Mai discusses her new graphic novel Freshman Year in this interview with Comic Book Club.

Sarah Mai has worked as the illustrator of multiple graphic novels, but for the first time she’s taking on both writing and illustrating for the recently released Freshman Year. Not only that, the book is a memoir of her own Freshman Year in college. “I have been joking that doing this was exorcising my 18 year old self out of me like a demon—it just needed to get out of me one way or another,”…

[comicbookclublive]

Sarah Mai Heads Back To Freshman Year For Her New Graphic Novel Memoir

Writer and artist Sarah Mai discusses her new graphic novel Freshman Year in this interview with Comic Book Club.

Sarah Mai has worked as the illustrator of multiple graphic novels, but for the first time she’s taking on both writing and illustrating for the recently released Freshman Year. Not only that, the book is a memoir of her own Freshman Year in college. “I have been joking that doing this was exorcising my 18 year old self out of me like a demon—it just needed to get out of me one way or another,”…

[graphicpolicy]

Freshman Year nails college life and its quirky experience. Great for kids and adults alike!

Freshman Year nails college life and its quirky experience. Great for kids and adults alike! #comics #comicbooks #ncbd #graphicnovel

Everyone gets a fresh start. Who do you want to be? Sarah is leaving suburban Wisconsin for college n Minnesota. She has high hopes for the future: impress her professors, meet interesting new people, stay close to her best friends and boyfriend back home, flourish as an artist, and shed her lingering high school anxieties. What seems manageable at first quickly unravels into a tailspin and she…

[smashpages]

Out this week: Freshman Year (Christy Ottaviano Books, $17.99): 

Creator Sarah Mai channles her own personal college journal and comics for this story about a new college arrival being overwhelmed with school and life during their freshman year.

See what else is arriving at your local comic shop this week!

[bookedallnight]

REVIEW: Freshman Year (A Graphic Novel)

A stylish graphic novel about the unique angst, humor, and self-doubt universal to the experience of going away to college—from a promising debut talent—for fans of Heartstopper. Everyone gets a fresh start. Who do you want to be?  Sarah is leaving suburban Wisconsin for her freshman year in Minnesota. She has high hopes for the future: impress her professors, meet interesting new people, stay…

[libertyreads]

Book Review #138 of 2023--

Freshman Year by Sarah Mai. Rating: 3.5 stars.

Read on December 6th.

Before I get into the bulk of my review, a quick thank you to both NetGalley and the publishers over at Christy Ottaviano Books, an imprint of Little Brown Books for Young Readers for allowing me access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review. In Freshman Year, we follow Sarah who just graduated high school and is enjoying her final summer at home before the start of college. But when she gets there she struggles to find a way to settle in and flourish. As the year goes on, we follow the highs and lows of her first year--meeting lots of friends along the way as Sarah tries to decide how to dress, how to eat, how to become her adult self. Freshman Year comes out on February 12th and is available for preorder now.

I want to start with the things that brought my rating down that aren't going to be impactful for most readers. What I need to remember with graphic novel ARCs is that the format doesn't always work. There were moments when the text on the page didn't line up with the speech bubbles or the images were muddied and hard to see. If you're reading a print copy, or even a completed eBook copy, this will not be a problem for you. I also struggled a bit with how emotionally charged this graphic novel is. I feel like I could really empathize with Sarah while reading because I also struggled in college to cope with all the changes happening around--and to--me. At first when starting college, again when coming home from college. It had me near tears a couple of times which I don't think was the actual intention. I think I just also had such a weird time my Freshman year of college. That also leans towards the positive side for me as well, I could truly relate to the main character and her friends. They all felt so real to me and that does say something about the writing. I think it was just a heavier graphic novel than I thought it would be. There are definitely some quirky moments to lift the story up a bit so it's not all emotional. I think my expectations were also just a little all over the place since I had read and loved Giant Days which was a comic series about a group of college friends in their first year and beyond.

But, overall, I think this was cute and sweet and emotional and funny all wrapped into one. It's not as quick of a read as I was anticipating but a couple of hours for a nearly 300 page graphic novel still isn't bad. Lots of fun and challenging moments to come with this one.

[gamechangershow]

Sam used FLIP A COIN! It's super effective! 🥺

Watch the full episode with @blogwell, @kianamaiart, and @nyaffe right now on Dropout!

[fukutomichi]

Sam Hazeldine as Adar S2.E8 ∙ Shadow and Flame

[starliteonearth]

I feel like the sentiment that shipping Lucy with Cooper/The Ghoul replaces Barb as his canonical love interest ignores the fact that Cooper and Barb already had their time in the sun. They had a great, long relationship. They had a daughter and a family together. It was a good marriage. And then it ENDED. Not because of the bombs dropping but because they got DIVORCED. Cooper divorced her after finding out the truth (which is something a lot of viewers seemed to have missed apparently). There maybe plenty of things unresolved between them but the relationship was over, a long, long time before Lucy comes along.

[sandytrish008]

The cast from Ed Edd n' Eddy as funny animals

[dandelionjack]

sarah jane spends the majority of her adult life believing her parents abandoned her as a baby leaving her alone in a pram to be adopted by her auntie but it turns out in the end that she was the one who caused the events that led all of that to happen and essentially dropped her baby self off on the doorstep of a new life. something to think about regarding ruby sunday and figures under a hooded black cape. im on to you rtd. the trickster legit sounds like a member of the pantheon. maybe he’s running the tv show

[rinkasisopods]

colours in figure skating ▶ red

[acourtofthought]

Oh nothing. Just Elain and Lucien being able to mirror all of Sarah's favorite tropes starting with Elain's current disinterest in Lucien (hate to friends to lovers) and the mating bond having immediately snapped for them both which is a lot like the marriage of convenience trope, where two characters are bonded forever before falling in love.

[graphicpolicy]

Freshman Year nails college life and its quirky experience. Great for kids and adults alike!

Freshman Year nails college life and its quirky experience. Great for kids and adults alike! #comics #comicbooks #ncbd #graphicnovel

Everyone gets a fresh start. Who do you want to be? Sarah is leaving suburban Wisconsin for college n Minnesota. She has high hopes for the future: impress her professors, meet interesting new people, stay close to her best friends and boyfriend back home, flourish as an artist, and shed her lingering high school anxieties. What seems manageable at first quickly unravels into a tailspin and she…