DIARY

You know, I just realized I never reviewed Crush here. I'm pretty shocked.

Svetlana Chmakova's Berrybrook Middle School series is one of my favorite things ever. Each one of these graphic novels is a precious work. I honestly cannot praise them enough. Just go read them.

Diary, unfortunately, is more of a companion book than another addition to the graphic novel series. It has a calendar, a giant chunk of pages to use as a sketchbook, and another giant chunk of lined pages to write in.

However, it also contains two very important stories and another that's more for fun.

The fun story is a space tale written and illustrated by Jensen. You can imagine how that goes. It falls in between the two actual comic format new stories.

SPOILER WARNING

The first new story focuses on Jaime and Peppi, the characters from Awkward. This time, the point of view is Jaime's, as the pair works on a time capsule and he worries about Peppi's crush on someone named Jesse. The kids in his Science Club turn his minor bafflement over this into full-blown worry that she's going to ditch him and he's going to lose his only friend or that he's going to become some horrible third wheel.

SERIOUSLY.


SPOILERS.





So it comes out that Jesse is actually just a celebrity crush. I loved the discussion with the theatre group, because Jesse has come out as nonbinary and one of the characters says they use those pronouns, too.

And then here comes this adorable girl named Mei who hands Jaime what appears to be a love note and then Peppi comes over. This has SO GOT TO BE CONTINUED.

The third new story is a comic about Maribella, another character we last saw in Awkward before she moved away. She's having a hard time adjusting to her new, too tiny small town, where the kids are just flat out rude twats. Almost all of them are terrible bullies. She gets invited to a slumber party, which she's excited about, until the blonde bitch hosting it informs her that she's a charity invite, along with another girl, who looks angry and ends up leaving early. The bitchy clique watches scary movies and tell stories, which end up bothering Maribella so much that she vomits.

Naturally, this leads to a new nickname and further bullying once they're all back in class. Maribella stands up to them, saying this isn't right and that everyone has embarrassing moments. She calls out everyone on their bullying, but it falls on deaf ears until the coolest Chmakova character I've seen aside from Felipe steps in. He calmly sits in his seat and points out embarrassing things three other classmates have done, which shames them into shutting up. Maribella steps in and stops him from embarrassing anyone else. It is kind of frustrating, because the bullies weren't made into better people. They were basically shut up because someone else bullied them into doing so. So none of these new people is really a good character...yet. But this new boy (I think it's a boy anyway) and his spiky-haired friend named Hedgehog (Hedge) seem like they have real potential. I'd love to see another story set in this new town. But the most frustrating thing is that the new guy doesn't even get a name! He reminds me of Felipe a bit. Headphones around the neck. Cool hair with a floop in the face, although his actually covers half his face and Felipe's is less so. I want to know who this is! I even asked Svetlana on Facebook. Heh.

If you're a Berrybrook fan like me, Diary is a must have.