Taproot: A Story about a Gardener and a Ghost - Keezy Young

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Author: Keezy Young

Genre: Graphic Novel
Rating: 3 stars.

A cute and unusual graphic novel but would have worked better with a better developed plot.

Hamal, a gardener, sees and speaks to many ghosts while he is working. One of these ghosts is Blue, who is also nursing a secret crush on Hamal. Meanwhile, something strange seems to be happening in the in-between world because of which Blue realises that Hamal might be in danger. Will Blue be able to save Hamal forms the rest of the story.

Pros:
👍 Queer love story that is handled decently.

👍Art style is stunning. The gardens and ghosts especially are stunning.

👍 Loved the afterword by the author.


Cons:
👎 Insta romance that is sweet but rushed.

👎 I didn’t like the structuring. The plot development is quite haphazard. The story began in one place and ended in a different place altogether. The scenes switch very abruptly. There is no background to the characters. There is a lot of random to-and-fro in the timeline.


If you want to try a queer graphic novel with great illustrations, you can still give this a try. It would have been a must-read had the characters and their back stories been fleshed out more and the kinks in the scene changes been ironed out. You might like it as long as you don’t overthink it. A “go with the flow” approach will work best.

My thanks to Oni Press and NetGalley for the DRC of “Taproot”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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