Pardalita - Joana Estrela - ★.½

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AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR: Joana Estrela

TRANSLATOR: Lyn Miller-Lachmann
GENRE: Graphic Novel.
RATING: 1.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: I don’t know who fell short of requirements: the book or me. But this definitely didn’t go the way it was supposed to. A slice-of-life story as per the blurb, but I guess the slice was too flavourless for my liking.


Story Synopsis:
Sixteen-year-old Raquel lives in a small town in Portugal, Her parents are divorced and she spends time with them alternatively. Raquel has also just been suspended from school for back-answering a school monitor. Her mother is more popular than her on Facebook, and has newly turned vegetarian.
In short, Raquel’s life is a mess. Even her best friends, Luisa and Fred, can offer only so much comfort. All this changes when Raquel sees Pardalita, whom she gets to know while working together on a play. Raquel’s feelings for Pardalita now provide her with something to look forward to.
The story is written in Raquel’s first person perspective, and addressed to Pardalita.


On one hand:
🔥 The content is presented in a blend of prose poems, illustrations, and graphic novel format. The constant shift between the three presentations is interesting. (I am not sure if this will work with everyone though. People do expect the text to be incorporated within the panels when they pick up a graphic novel.)

🔥 Key moments from Raquel’s earlier years are presented in the ‘prose poems’. (I read them only as prose, but obviously.) These vignettes were interesting, and easily the best sections of this book.

🔥 Raquel’s friend Luisa is the strongest character of the story, with her firm opinions and humorous nature. Without her, the story would have had zero life.


On the other hand:
💢 Though the blurb seems to suggest a sapphic romance, most of the story is neither sapphic nor romance. There is nothing to indicate Raquel’s confusion over or struggle with her sexuality.

💢 The bond between the two girls is unconvincing and the final scene comes out of nowhere.

💢 There are plenty of important topics raises through Raquel’s conversations with those around her – the refugee crisis, parental separation, the addition to social media, going vegetarian,… but all of these stay on focus only for 1-2 pages and then get thrown by the wayside. Nothing is explored in deep.

💢 The B&W illustrations weren’t to my liking. I wouldn’t have minded monochromatic artwork like that on the cover, but the artistic style was too simplistic to create any impact.

💢 The writing becomes somewhat philosophical in a few sections. The illustrations too follow the same pattern at times, with pages upon pages of nothing but abstract artwork.


I got nothing memorable from the story. There’s neither great plot development nor intricate character development. I am not sure if this flat feeling is due to something going haywire during translation. However, I honestly can’t recommend this English version as it was too ad hoc for me.

Then again, this does have an average GR rating of 4+ right now, so maybe it is just me. Do feel free to give it a go as it is a quick read. The book might work better for the YA age group, with the ‘misunderstood teen having a secret crush on a friend’ theme.

My thanks to Levine Querido and NetGalley for the DRC of “Pardalita”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Sorry this didn’t work out better.

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