So I actually read this the day it came out. Physically got in my car, drove to Barnes & Noble, and paid for a hard copy with my own money. I don’t do that often anymore, not when my library so thoughtfully contains most comics and books that I would like to read, even if it means I have to wait in line for them. But I just can’t wait for this series, and I must own it. I LOVE this series. LOVE IT LOVE IT.
Just writing this review is making me want to sit down and re-read the whole thing over again. I am literally salivating thinking about it right now. I love this series so much my brain thinks it’s food.
Volume 6, as it turns out, is when our narrator Hazel finally takes an active role in her own story. She’s no longer a cute chubby bundle our favorite characters lug around and rescue all the time, she’s her own person, with her own mind and ability to make decisions. She’s also hilarious, but I guess that’s subjective, so I won’t dwell on it too much.
It’s been several years since we last saw everyone. Hazel and her grandmother have been imprisoned in a detention center on Landfall, and Hazel has just started kindergarten. I loved everything to do with her storyline. She meets a new prisoner who is transgender, and the experience prompts her to “come out” to her teacher as being “half-wings, half-horns”. Action ensues.
I loved watching Hazel grapple with ideas for the first time. She’s so smart and inquisitive, but also kind, and full of mischief. The people she meets respond to her. And all this while she’s growing up right at the center of the conflict between her two heritages. I love her so much.
And meanwhile, her parents have been non-stop searching for her, and have finally made progress. They also continue to be the most adorable people I’ve ever heard of.
So adorable.
Oh, God, my heart hurts.
The only drawback of this series, and I do mean the only one, is that it continues to be released at a snail’s pace, because “art” or something. Heavy sigh. There are going to be twenty plus volumes in Saga by the end, but we are all going to have gray hairs by the time we get them all.
UGHHHHHHH.
Fuck it. Re-reading the whole thing tonight.