#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.

[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

[arson-09]

Man, Rhysand was never the dreamer in that god awful series. It was always Tamlin

Tamlin is the one who has always done everything he can do to stop injustice. Protecting mortals, always accepting fae from other court in his land, trying his damnedest to find a way to break the curse instead of stealing a mortal. He has always dreamed of a safer and more just world and has always tried to make that come true. Even after loosing so much he always did whats right and true in the end.

but hes doomed by the narrative. His good deeds and genuine soul over shadowed by the biases of the narrator. Hes the age old tragedy of wanting to be the best he can and do the best he can.

[mariatesstruther]

okay but sarah celebrating tommy every year for mother’s day

[pettyprocrastination]

whoever this beloved anon was I am so touched by your kindness! You definitely didn’t have to do this but I am so happy you enjoy this idea and I will happily expand upon it for you!

this is just a collection of word vomit bullet points for the time being but I will happily answer any and all questions about this pair!!

warnings: violence, angst, child death (Sarah Miller), foul language, the same warnings that apply to tlou, reader is Sarah's mom and described as having similar features to her. 

So the general Idea is that you and Joel are happily married before the outbreak. 

You had been Sarah's mother, his high school sweetheart he got pregnant when neither of you were old enough to have any reaction to the pregnancy test other than a fucking panic attack in one another’s arms. but you made it work 

you both worked but made time for one another and your sweet girl, going to museums every other weekend and joel insisting on swooping you off for a date every now and then 

nothing special. He knows you’re more of a diner gal than anything too fancy that makes you both feel out of place. 

On his birthday in 2003, you had planned to tell him that you were pregnant again. But the memories of your own fears of motherhood from all those years ago begin to swirl through your head again and you get cold feel. deciding to tell him the morning after

it is his birthday afterall, you want to focus on him. 

but when you’re woken up in the middle of the night because tommy needs to get bailed out, Joel kisses you sweetly one last time before promising he’ll be back and you can’t shake the feeling that something bad is happening. 

its you that shakes sarah awake that night. shouting at her to put on her shoes when she’s still rubbing the sleep from her eyes because you’ve been listening to the radio for the past two hours, calling joel again and again and again praying for him to fucking pick up but to no avail. 

Sarah, bless your little girl’s bleeding heart is the one who insists you check on the adler’s against your better suspicions and when you find the eldest looming over her daughter, blood and sinew dripping from her mouth, you grab your daughter hand and burst into a full sprint until something slams into your back and sends you tumbling onto their front lawn

its how joel finds you, struggling to keep the once sweet old woman, whose now nothing more than dead eyes and gnashing teeth straining to snap at your pulse point as you push against her while sarah shrieks before your husband runs forward and cracks her skull with a wrench. 

there’s hardly a moment of pause, just enough for him to pull you up and into his arms before he’s ushering you both into the car with an urgency. 

when the truck crashes, you get separated from them. Perhaps at Tommy’s side when the flames rise and create a wall, separating you from your husband, or maybe pulled into the mob of chaos when trying to escape from those already infected-

all joel knows is that you promise you’ll find him: just get sarah to safety and you’ll meet him at the river

Poor thing is already so frightened, held in her father’s arms with tears streaming down her face insisting they can’t leave you they just can’t but her father kisses her forehead and reassures her its going to be okay 

“we just need to be brave, okay babygirl? Your mama’s real tough, she’s gonna be alright.” 

he isn’t sure if he’s saying it to his daughter or himself. 

but when he comes to the river you aren’t there. Only a soldier who points a gun at the scared little girl in his arms and then he loses everything

its when the light is gone from his daughter’s eyes that he realizes. His voice cracked and raw from sobbing that he looks around to see his brother with drawn in shoulders and tears in his eyes but his wife is nowhere to be found. 

Tommy says you got lost in the chaos. Everything was so loud, so sudden that he turned around and suddenly you weren’t there. 

Joel wants to go back but its Tommy that stops him, that dulls the red in his vision to a sad faded pink because his brother points at the orange horizon not too far from them, so much of the city is already in flames. 

“We’re gonna find her, but not there.” 

So Joel searches. for the first year spent in the world post-outbreak its all he did. 

He became a smuggler because of it. 

Information came at a price and he needed to be able to fucking pay it, whether it be in blood or ration cards. He was willing to do anything to find you or any thin thread that lead your way. 

But it’s Tommy that asks him to give up. Not in those words of course. 

The youngest Miller knows better than to say something so cruel that would make his brother, the only person he has in this world turn on him. 

But his voice is worried when he asks him one night in Boston when he hasn’t even had the chance to wash the blood from his knuckles 

“You think she would have wanted this for you?” 

the fight that followed his words was brutal. Vicious insults and scarred fists slamming against each brother until they're both too tired and bloody to continue. Each leaning against a wall for support and Tommy’s wavering voice breaking the silence. 

“I don’t know where she is, Joel. But I do know you're gonna get yourself killed if you keep lookin’ for her.” 

All he can do is nod. 

It’s a few days later when he meets Tess. Who has heard plenty of stories about the elder miller’s brutality and wants him to put that muscle to good use for some extra profit. 

It begins his new life. One that empty and cold but one he can live. 

Until of course, Ellie comes along. The sweet and incredibly opinionated girl that makes him become something akin to the man he thought died twenty years ago. 

its when he’s traveling with Ellie, that it happens. When a warm familiarity has settled between the two because so much blood and pain has been shared he can’t help but see her as something close, something bright even though all he can force himself to utter in her reference is “cargo” 

when theyre traveling through the woods as Ellie chatters away, probing his memory about a movie that may or may not have existed thirty years ago because her descriptions of the plot are incredibly odd he hears a voice shout for them to stop and finds himself staring at a man- no, a boy- pointing a gun at them. 

Ellie stills, but Joel can see enough to know that from the lanky figure and dimpled face that he’s young. Maybe twenty, twenty-two at the oldest, but his eyes dart from Joel to Ellie with a pinprick of fear that allows Joel the time to charge forward and slam him to the ground before wrestling the gun from his hands. 

He has enough to time to tuck it under the stranger’s chin before he hears the sound of the safety being turned off and finds himself looking up and seeing a gun just inches from his face. 

Joel’s head whips around when Ellie’s voice calls out his name in fear, he turns to see another stranger holding her a gun point, shoulders drawn back and a shadow cast over their face by the had obstructing their identity. 

“You hurt one of mine, I hurt one of yours. That a fair deal?” 

Its takes him a moment to recognize you. It’s been so long since he’s heard your voice, the sweet tease when you would poke at him each time he woke up late despite the fact that you reminded him to set his alarm the night before, the times you’d chide him with a harsh “Joel Miller!” whispered in public anytime he was able to grab you a bit too passionately to be appropriate in public but the laughter in your voice let him know you were never truly mad at him. You didn’t know how to be. 

But that sweetness is buried under a cold rasp that cuts through the air as you point a rifle at the scared little girl in front of you.

“You think I won’t?” You’re older now, skin covered in scars from a life he didn’t know you got the chance to live and your eyes are cold as they regard your husband. “Put the gun down and get the fuck off of him, I won’t repeat myself.” 

Joel mumbles your name in awe. The woman he loved, the woman he mourned the one he fought so hard to find stands before him like some sort of hallucination and suddenly the world feels like its spinning until you bark orders at him again. 

“You’ve got five seconds Joel, make a fucking choice before I make it for you.” 

He looks down and realizes the boy under him, the one with the bleeding nose and snarling face has your eyes and his dimples. 

“One.” 

The one above him has Sarah’s hair. Soft brown curls that shine under the sun. 

“Two”

Wait. No, they both do.

“Three.” 

Twins. Jesus fucking Christ you had twins. 

“Four.” 

Joel holds the rifle up above his head and the one boy standing snatches it from his grasp, tossing it to the ground and kicking it far from his reach. He slowly stands, allowing your son- dear god your son- to scramble to his feet. 

Your voice softens just for a moment. “You okay, Duke?” 

Blood stains the bottom half of his face from where Joel slammed his fist into the boy’s nose just moments before, but he nods nonetheless. 

Now, they both stand on one side of you and he can see the resemblance clear as day the same way he would whenever Sarah was by your side.

When you order him to hand over his bag, he does so without question before telling Ellie to do the same. 

She watches him with wide eyes, her hands still up in the air but gaping at her companion as if he had grown a second head. 

“Joel!” “Just do it, alright?”

He doesn’t miss the way you watch their interaction with narrowed eyes until she tosses her bag to you and you slowly lower your gun. 

“Now, you want to tell me what the fuck you think you’re doin’ at my home?” 

[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…