Please Be My Star by Victoria Grace Elliot captures the uncertainty of first love and the awkwardness of being a teenager in a beautifully illustrated graphic novel.
Erika’s status as a new student at school is awkward enough without her awareness that she is a ‘creep.’ Erika is aware that her tendency to draw cute boys she doesn’t know and to fantasize about boys that she does makes her more than a little weird. Something that is constantly being told to her by her imaginary inner self who looks like a vampiric alter ego. This alter ego is Erika’s most opinionated critic, verbalizing all of the negative things that Erika thinks. Through it, it’s easy to gauge Erika’s worst case scenarios and how difficult she finds it to be charitable towards herself.
When Erika is caught role playing alone in her school’s prop room by her crush, Christian, and his friend, Julie, Erika is sure that everything is over before it’s even begun. Surprisingly, this awkward moment becomes a point of connection between her and Julie and before she knows it, Julie has brought her into their friend group. As Erika and the group practice lines for a school play that Erika wrote, Erika finds herself growing closer to Christian and Julie, and is constantly surprised by the fact that they accept her for who she is. As the day of the play grows near, Erika has to confront the fact that maybe, the person who most shames her is herself.
The artwork in the graphic novel is reminiscent of the artwork in webcomics with bright, popping colors and use of white spaces. The line work and character designs feel like an homage to japanese manga. Elliot moves the novel along with perfect pacing and with a careful balance between serious moments and moments of comedic relief. Although the topic of this graphic novel can be a little dark with issues of depression and low self esteem, overall, the novel guides Erika towards a place of hope and shows the reader that sometimes the worst situations are the ones we create in our heads.
I loved the insights Elliot provides into Christian’s life. While Christian may seem to Erika as her “perfect” star, he also has his own problems. Although presenting a personality of bright confidence that doesn’t at first seem to match with Erika’s gloominess, Christian is slowly revealed to have a bit of a ‘weird’ factor himself. Through this discovery a lesson that can be taken away is that everyone is weird in their own way and that although certain things may seem creepy to some people, other people might find them otherwise. In the end, the only way to know if you’ll be accepted is if you put yourself out there.
- Liliana