Book Review--The Cute Girl Network

The Cute Girl Network
MK Reed, Greg Means and Joe Flood (Illustrations)

FirstSecond

November 2013

Jane's just moved to town to reboot her life a bit. Jack is a bit of a loser, who well...means well, that mans a Soup cart in the middle of the city. The two meet when Jane wipes out on her skateboard right in front of Jack's Soup cart! And well one thing leads to another and the two agree to a date. That is...until the "Cute Girl Network," an information group of local single woman, seek to put a stop to it. You see most of them have dated Jack before and well...he has a rather spotty romantic history. He's not mean or anything, he's just not Prince Charming. And Jane is about to learn every detail of Jack's past dates whether she wants to or not. Will Jack and Jane ever hook up? Or with the Cute Girl Network prevail?

I admit the first time I read this story it didn't quite catch my fancy.  I mean it was good and I enjoyed it, heck I even got it signed at SPX.  But it took another read through to catch some of what the authors were saying.  That we all have different ideas of what prince or princess charming should be.  The man that maybe a flop for some, is going to be just right for someone else and maybe, just maybe we shouldn't judge them because they didn't work out for us.  This is a graphic novel for teens (and adults) that doesn't play to stereotypes.  Jane rides and skateboard, works at a skateboard shop and is open about her life.  And Jack...well Jack plays the everyman, whose a bit clueless, but means well. And these two characters work great together! And that's what keeps the story moving, is that you see hope for them regardless of what everyone else thinks.  And Jane is a fantastic role model, because she doesn't listen to what the network says about Jack.  She trusts what she knows and feels and follows her heart to where it leads her.  And that's the best thing about this story.

Joe Flood's character designs for the book are pitch perfect.  He captures that goofy awkwardness and gentle self confidence of Jack easily.  You can look at him in the very first panel and know that while he's a bit clumsy, he really is a good guy.  And that Jane is one of those kick ass ladies that takes names, but knows what she wants and is sure of herself.  It's great to have that type of feeling and connection to the characters.  The illustrations remind me a lot of the artwork of Faith Erin Hicks or Stephen McCraine, who does the "Mal and Chad" series.  Nice solid designs, with some nice detail hidden in there, but nothing that overwhelms the reader or makes them lose track of the story.

The one minor issue with the book is that while this would be a great book for teens, it has to be one whose parents are comfortable with the mention of sex and depiction of nudity. It's not a lot, but it's enough to make me a bit wary about recommending it to some of my normal readers.  Other than that I enjoyed the book and I'd give the book 3.5 out of 5 stars.

ARC provided by Gina from FirstSecond