Awago Beach has been the summer destination for the Wallace family for years, and it has always been the perfect place for them to unwind. That is until this year, when Rose’s mother seems tense and fights with her father any chance she gets. To get away from her parents, Rose makes frequent trips to the corner store with her friend Windy. As she gets more and more obsessed with the corner store clerk, Duncan, she ends up pushing Windy and her family away. Though Rose doesn’t want anything more than to impress Duncan, she can’t help but be curious about her mother’s angry behaviour, and why she suddenly seems to hate Awago Beach. 

This book had the potential to be a very beautiful story about what it’s like to be a teenager, but it kind of fell flat for me. The dialogue between Windy and Rose, who are both teenagers, just felt very forced to me. It didn’t feel like what teenagers actually talk about, and the coming-of-age aspect of their relationship was quite unrealistic. There was also a common theme of characters keeping big secrets from their family members, which I had expected would lead to some sort of climax where things were revealed, but many of those secrets were never talked about. This made the end of the book feel very abrupt, as so many plot lines were still unresolved. 

This graphic novel had beautiful art incorporating mostly cool colours, which I thought was a great choice, as it fit with the themes in the book. Also, there were some issues that were brought up that I think are worth reading about, and if they had been resolved it would have made for a really good book. 

I don’t think I would recommend this book, but for anyone looking to read a graphic novel with a great plot and beautiful art, I would recommend American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Wang and As the Crow Flies by Melanie Gillman.