“Leap days” by Ian Bennett and “Anya’s Ghost” by Vera Brosgol - In which I get an invisible friend to help me cheat on the review

“Leap days” by Ian Bennett and “Anya’s Ghost” by Vera Brosgol

Since these two graphic novels are somewhat similar and neither is particularly long, I figured reviewing them together would make sense. Both take place in high school and they are both coming of age stories. They also both involve a high schooler befriending a supernatural force who allows them to cheat in school.

LEAP DAYS

We’ll start with Leap Days since it’s the relatively less emotionally charged of the two.

            I was surprised by this book. When it opens, it’s pretty grim. Being more realistic, it depicts the crushing boredom of school and the frustration of a sense that you are wasting your time and not really learning anything. The protagonist’s name is Jake and he drifts through the day, unknown by everyone and uninterested in everything. The only thing that snaps him out of the malaise aside from eventually getting to go home and go to sleep is the occasional source of embarrassment or pain.

            One of the most memorable parts of the book was where Jake looks around his classroom and sees everyone as skeletons. I was not expecting this and I think it may have given me a false impression of the story going forward. Or at least, skewed my expectations. The art in this book is very scratchy and rough, so it lends itself well to those initial bouts of existentialism. So much feels abstract, we never really see Jake’s parents.

            But this book isn’t really that complex or experimental. There are a few more moments, where we get a sense of that same darkness from the beginning of the book. But they are few and far between and the mood is mostly amicable. It’s slice of life, just with a giant frog (named Wilbur) who is invisible to everyone but Jake, along for the ride.

            They cheat at Basketball, Jake works up the courage to ask a girl out, he runs for Class President, he pulls pranks dressed as a giant pencil, you get the idea. There is, of course, a falling out moment, and I will say I was unsure just how the story would end. But the story never mimicked that initial darkness very much. It doesn’t have one, well-defined message, just a general push for taking advantage of life and learning to deal with growing up.

            There is some stuff both that Jake thinks, and that Wilbur says which borders on the kind of semi-pretentious outer-view of school. But I don’t think the book demonizes teachers necessarily, it just points out some unfair or absurd things that you have to deal with while in High School. At one point, it surprised me by actually humanizing the stick in the mud principal in a really cool way.

            Overall, I think it’s a little too scattershot to be a masterpiece, but I don’t think it had to be. It works well as a series of little adventures roughly tied together with an odd premise. If I read it when I was younger I might have connected a lot better with it, but overall, I think it makes for an alright story if you like the wistful, high school stuff that I do.

            I would rate it Good bordering on Great.

ANYA'S GHOST

            In “Anya’s Ghost”, Anya, a high schooler embarrassed by how Russian her family is, falls into a hole and finding and then befriending a ghost named Riley, who died about ninety years ago. Riley becomes her constant companion, helping her cheat on a test and get invited to a party with the boy she has a crush on. After a while though, Anya senses that Riley is hiding something and tries to find out the truth about Riley’s murder.

I had the opposite reaction to this story that I did with “Leap Years”. I expected the story to have some element of darkness (it features an adolescent ghost for one thing, which is pretty dark, to begin with). Riley’s behavior made me theorize that she was suffering from issues because of the repressive views of her time. But maybe two-thirds in, the story took a big turn.  

            I won’t spoil it, let’s just say that I expected the message to be one thing and it ended up being something else. That subversion was nice. However, I do think that while the tone of “Leap Days” was pretty consistent, the tone of “Anya’s Ghost” didn’t shift very evenly from one thing to the next. The dark stuff toward the end hit so hard that it makes it difficult to feel like the scenes at the end link up well with the issues earlier in the plot.

            Anya gives a speech relating her problems to Riley but for some reason, it just didn’t quite work for me. It just felt like the author had tried to mix story elements that didn’t really work.

            Despite that, I think I like “Anya’s Ghost” more than “Leap Years”. The transition between quirky drama and supernatural mystery is kind of clunky, but I like it better because the characters feel more relatable and their friendship is more enjoyable. The message kind of amounts to “be yourself”, which of course, I normally hate. But the story is also acknowledging how difficult it is to be a teenager, along with how self-centered you can be at that age.

            Let me give you an example.

            At one point, Riley mentions that children during her time got beat with sticks for disobedience after Anya’s little brother annoys her. Anya smiles and considers the idea badass.

            It’s these moments of jerkiness that make it that much nicer when Anya becomes more confident and empathetic. There’s an especially tender scene later when Anya reconciles with her little brother. The book is less tonally consistent, but it feels more consistent in its message.

            This is not a gripe, but the art-style is such that I had trouble realizing that certain characters were supposed to be girls (also because their names were kind of Gender neutral in my mind). Not a problem, but it was funny to me that it happened twice.

            So, I would rate “Anya’s Ghost” as being Great. Again, it wasn’t as deep as I wanted it to be, but it made up for it by having layers that I didn’t anticipate.

            Well, that’s all for now. I’ll be doing a review of the macabre, surreal Graphic Novel “The Motherless Oven” in the coming weeks, so be on the lookout for that if you liked these books (again, high school. I’m sensing a pattern).

            I hope you enjoyed this, have a nice day!