Introduction

High-school senior and notorious wallflower Hawkins finally works up the courage to remove her mascot mask and ask out her longtime crush: Regina Moreno, head cheerleader, academic overachiever, and all-around popular girl. There’s only one teensy little problem: Regina is already dating Chloe Kitagawa, athletic all-star…and middling English student. Regina sees a perfectly self-serving opportunity here, and asks the smitten Hawkins to tutor Chloe free of charge, knowing Hawkins will do anything to get closer to her. And while Regina’s plan works at first, she doesn’t realize that Hawkins and Chloe knew each other as kids, when Hawkins went by Belle and wore princess dresses to school every single day. Before long, romance does start to blossom…but not between who you might expect.

First Second Books

As you might have guessed from the categories, this is another digital ARC courtesy of NetGalley. Belle of the Ball is a graphic novel written and illustrated by Mari Costa due to be released on March 21, 2023.

The Good Stuff

I’m so glad I came across this book. It’s really wonderful for a number of reasons, and I’m excited to tell you about them! I’m very much looking forward to sharing this with my patrons when it’s released. Let’s dive in below.

The Story

As mentioned in the summary above, this story focuses on three main characters: Hawkins, Regina, and Chloe. You might think that this is a typical love triangle, but Costa takes the trope and plays with it a bit to a delightful effect. It’s important to state up front that perhaps one of the biggest reasons that this book is so cool is because all of our main characters are gay and present in different ways. That said, the book doesn’t make a big deal about it! It simply tells the story of how friendship and romance blossom between the trio. I’m so excited by this kind of normalization of queer relationships!! This is going to be a great addition in terms of representation in our collection.

The story also features some enormously funny tropes. They’re familiar but played effectively – I found myself verbally reacting numerous times when reading and rereading it. It reminds me of some of my favorite childhood/tweenhood movies in comforting ways. At the same time, there are moments as a queer former teenager that I cringed in recognition and remembering. These things are going to make this book enormously appealing to both youth and adults alike. Learning how to communicate in the middle of big feelings is a skill we’re all constantly learning and refining, and Hawkins, Regina, and Chloe handle it with an undeniable charm.

The Art

Speaking of representation, the art in this book is GORGEOUS. I’m a huge fan of the shades of pink. It lends a fairy tale-like quality to the story that makes it all the more endearing (and is a lot of fun once you get into the main bits of the story. No spoilers!). Costa represents many different body types, ethnicities, and presentations in the story and I really appreciated it! Nothing is treated as bad or wrong – simply different. That’s a really nice thing to not have to worry about when reading a romcom.

Yes, I’m side-eyeing a lot of those same childhood movies I mentioned earlier.

I also need to shoutout Costa’s expressions here – telling a story with three different perspectives is difficult on the best of days, but each character’s facial and bodily expressions are masterful and give us the entire picture of their thoughts and emotions in the moment. The linework in particular is a treat as well. I’ll definitely be recommending this book to those of my patrons who are interested into getting into comics work themselves!

In Summary

This book was such a treat. The description on NetGalley pulled me in and I’m so glad I made the time to read it. I’m looking forward to buying it for my library but also buying a copy for myself! This book is highly recommended.

Belle of the Ball is set to be published next year, on March 21, 2023. This link will take you to the publisher’s page with more information on where you can pre-order it. Gichi miigwetch for reading!