#YouCantJustKissAnyoneYouWant #NetGalley
This story gives insight into the conditions of living under a communist regime when innocent actions can have far reaching consequences.

This was a good read. It was set in the former soviet era, before the Iron Curtain came down and explores the consequences of a young boy, kissing a young girl, without her permission. People were controlled at the time. Stalin was adored and any free thought, free actions or free movement was prohibited. This graphic novel showed us how a simple meaningless childhood gesture, in such a controlled and inhibiting society was blown entirely out of proportion, just as so much free speech and free actions were blown out of proportion and threatened during that era and under such regimes.

'You Can't Just Kiss Anyone You Want' by Marzena Sowa and Sandrine Revel is a graphic novel that takes place in another time and place where innocent things can make governments feel endangered.

A little boy and girl are at a movie. He moves to kiss her, and it becomes a big issue. Along the way, his father's poetry is questioned because it's subversive. The boy realizes that his father is in danger. The father realizes the son is in danger of losing his innocence. It's a story that takes place in an unknown Eastern Bloc country about 50 years ago and it's about what people will do to be free, even if it's just inside.

The story is good, as is the art. I think I wanted a bit more, and I felt a little let down by where the story ends, but I liked the message and it is heartfelt.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

First, it looks like a children's book, but it is DEFINITELY not a children's book. Yes, it is told from the POV of a child (several children in fact), but it is set in the Stalin-era Soviet Union and it touches on some tough subjects, including rape and the criminalizing of homosexuality.
Beautiful art adds a bleak yet somehow still hopeful atmosphere to the book. Very touching.

This book is about how the communist regime monitors and controls the lives of its citizens. It was not exactly my cup of tea, but I know it will appeal to other readers.

Judging from the art style and the illustrator's past work with children's books, you'd think this is a children's book set in Soviet Russia, but You can't just kiss anyone you want clearly isn't for kids, yet at the same time far too childish for grown-ups. What I got (the societal implication of censorship in Soviet Russia) differed from what I expected (a lesson about consent?), yet there wasn't any plot or deeper meaning to be communicated. Maybe I shouldn't judge the book so harshly, but it is marketed towards adults and it simply didn't give me anything?

This book tells the story of several people who live in USSR during Stalin’s rule.

Art wise, it’s interesting. I like it, it has solid colors and shading that isn’t too heavy.

Character wise, they’re great. I love how the kids are portrayed and how naive they are. They also tell their teachers things that seem useless, but will actually ruin their parents’ lives – something that proves my previous point.

Story wise, it’s heart breaking. It’s fascinating how something so simple has a ripple effect so large. This book’s very rich when it comes to History and it breaks my heart to know that it isn’t just fiction, this regime existed.

This book’s quite violent. We don’t see people punching each other. Everything’s implicit and the harm done is mostly psychological. This only adds to the amount of “scary” this book has.

Honestly, it’s almost a bite sized 1984 with a hopeful ending.

Rating: 5 stars

You can't just kiss anyone you want is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel set in the Soviet Union. The illustrative style is deceptively simple with many textless frames conveying mood as the plot explores the fears of every day citizens of persecution.

check out the full reviews on www.akahermionegranger.com

Enjoyed reading this book; very post-Soviet chic.

3 stars.

I started this book expecting a graphic novel for children, but then I realized that it has a much deeper, more grim and serious undertone to it.

This book explores freedom and censorship. The art with its dark and beige palette goes perfectly well with what the book has to say.

There are plenty of stories about life in Socialist countries and I applaud them all, especially those like this one. We need to see the dangers of totalitarian government, where your every actions is watched and questioned. Where people simply disappear and everyone just accepts it as normal. Even more than the starkness of the life we need the reminder of small rebellions. They can control what you say and do but never what you think. That's the focus of this book. Not revolution but making it through your every day life. It's a contemplative plot supported by clean lines and soft colors, remincent of the innocence of children's fiction in the 50s.

Really something. A seemingly innocent children book actually exposes the deeper messages the author tries to show. Eye-opening, and a bit dark.

"We can think whatever we want, but we can't say it."

"You can't just kiss anyone you want" is a graphic novel (I think - showing my age here). Regardless of format or genre, I admire the reserved, muted colours of the artwork by Sandrine Revel and the layers of emotion and story within a relatively short, not very wordy publication. There is power in its restraint.

"You can't just kiss anyone you want" pivots on one small incident that becomes a big deal within the context of a school in a socialist republic. It is a thoughtful little story about the lack of freedom in a totalitarian regime such as the post-WWII Stalin period of Eastern Europe. The place and time are never made explicit in the text, but I'd guess Poland (since that it where the author grew up) and sometime pre-1953 (given that Stalin is still alive in the book).

"You can't just kiss anyone you want" is also about how art and writing in particular can be nourishing and subversive in opposition to political propaganda. In about only 96 pages in total, Sowa and Revel manage to deliver a graphic novel which includes a comic, a bit of a play and a poem within it – and all of which are on point. Plus childhood friendships and growing up, a sense of a school community and a larger community, familial relationships, a romantic same-sex relationship, a dissident poet, the masks people wear, and the tensions of the republic. That’s covering a lot of territory for a relatively compact publication!

For anyone who thinks this might be suitable for young children, or who is upset by reading about rape or assault, please note that there is an off-page sexual assault witnessed by a boy in this book. It is not depicted in the artwork, but the character overhears the assault.

I appreciate "You can't just kiss anyone you want" enough that I looked up Marzena Sowa on the Europe Comics website and have put more of her work on my to read list, including "Marzi," a series inspired by her years growing up in Poland. I also chose other titles from Europe Comics to check out, such as "Flora and The Shooting Stars," and a couple of titles by Vanni Vinci.

It’s exciting for me to discover a new publisher who you want to follow, so I’m glad that I came across "You can't just kiss anyone you want" on NetGalley.

I read "You can't just kiss anyone you want" courtesy of NetGalley.

#Youcantkissanyoneyouwant #NetGalley #EuropeComics

<p>So I sat there a while, trying to think of what I was trying to say, because <A href="https://www.librarything.com/work/21071939/book/152188296">You Can't Just Kiss Anyone You Want</a> is a bit like a domino run or a chain reaction and then I realized what I wanted to say was <A href="https://www.librarything.com/work/21071939/book/152188296">You Can't Just Kiss Anyone You Want</a> is a kind of like <a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/2122992">If You Give A Mouse A Cookie</a>, but in Communist Poland, wherein if you try to give your classmate a kiss, a whole horrible list of events transpires, but in the end, your classmate writes you a cute note that you send her back because even totalitarian governments can't stop you from feeling. Awww.... </p>

<p>But don't get too <i>awwww...</i>. Someone gets sexually assaulted. People disappear. No one trusts anyone else. Welcome to your Socialist paradise, comrades.</p>

<p>And, as I almost always feel with graphic novels, it went by so fast that it felt like skimming a deep pond that had so much more to offer beneath the surface.</p>

<p><A href="https://www.librarything.com/work/21071939/book/152188296">You Can't Just Kiss Anyone You Want</a> by Marzena Sowa went on sale April 19, 2017.</p>

<p><small>I received a copy free from <a href="https://www.netgalley.com/">Netgalley</a> in exchange for an honest review.</small></p>

Author Marzena Sowa gained fame from her autobiographical graphic novels about growing up in communist Poland. Part bittersweet, part biting social commentary of life in that period, her books are full of pathos but also the joys of youth, even in the hardest of environments. With You Can't Just Kiss, she turns her hand to fiction, giving yet another view of life in Poland and every day life of the common folk. Part coming of age and part social commentary, this is a beautifully told and illustrated work that starts with a kiss and ends with the hunt for traitors and non conformists - and the tough decisions made to survive.

Story: In a school theater during a Stalin propaganda movie showing, a boy leans over and gives a girl a kiss. She is horrified and screams, the class is disrupted, and suddenly a lot of scrutiny comes on the boy for being disruptive during a commemorative film glorifying Stalin (one they have seen many times, they have noted). Suddenly, the boy's father is under investigation for writing 'subversive' poetry, friends turn on friends and give them up to the secret police, and even teachers face harsh punitive sentences. During it all, the young boy tries to hold his family together, not get upset by friends ratting out his father, and make sense of why he wanted to kiss the girl in the first place.

If the above sounds serious, rather, it is and it isn't. The narrative is told from the viewpoint of the young boy - and his perspective on life. Kids definitely don't have the answers and clearly he is learning that non conformity is extremely dangerous. Sowa is very careful to not give us the final fates of characters who 'disappear' as so many did during the era - the kids and townsfolk would not have known any more than anyone else at the time. And yet there are the scenes of simple joy as the kids live their lives and grow up despite the hardships and the dangers in Poland under Communist rule.

The artwork is solid and tells the story perfectly. Most of the color schemes are drabs - olives, beiges, grey, steel - they give the feel of the time in a way beyond just the illustration work and the story. Because the art is by Marzena's lifelong partner, there is a synergy and accord that elevate this work beyond a simple story about communist Poland. It's both serious and lighthearted, joyful and mournful. As with life, there are so many nuances in this place and time that the rest of the world has never really had a chance to see. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

This is a fantastic graphic novel. I'll definitely be recommending this one to patrons!

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

This one sounded really good, plus I am always interested in stories taking place during the Soviet rule. But sadly this one was, just like the previous comic I read today, not good. I was annoyed with all the characters, there were just too many of them that we follow (not just our young boy, but also Agatha (the crush), a girl who takes lessons and does much more there, then there are the friends of the boy). I would have liked it more had it focused on only the boy who wants a kiss, and the girl he wants to kiss.

Plus there is one rape scene, we don't see anything happening, but we do know it happens, and I was quite startled with it, especially as we never find out what happens to her afterwards. Is she still alive?

It was interesting at points to see how the country was ruled, the rules, how indoctrinated people were, how the kids were treated and manipulated to tell on their friends.

After all the things in the book, it felt weird to go back and give a conclusion to the first part of the story (the kissing). It was also cute and brought a bit hope to the sadness of the everything happening in the country... but still it was also a bit weird.

The art was a bit hit and miss for me. At times it was quite a nice style, but at other times I didn't like it at all.

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/

You Can't Just Kiss Anyone You Want is a really interesting comic for it happens during the Soviet rule. A young boy tries to kiss his friend, a girl, in the middle of a movie about celebrating Stalin and it ends up in a big mess. The boys father lives and breathes resistance and many have secrets they aren't willing to expose, people disappear and you can't be safe unless you are silent and invisible. The story is like a snowball effect, although it doesn't end up in a disaster, but more like in a life lesson for kids about freedom and truth. I liked the story, although the kids seem slightly too intelligent and understanding and the ending seems so easy. I perhaps wanted something heavier and meaningful, since all it was in the comic already.

The art is great, slightly naive and the mundane and dark colors work well with the art. The art looks a bit like that of Hergé, but it's a good choice. There's not so much text and instead the story is moved with pictures a lot and Sowa can make it work. I love the panels and how they seem to be alive somehow and the shading works well too. The coloring reminds me of Raymond Briggs, so there's slightly this 1980s/1990s feeling to it. I like historical and pseudo-historical comics a lot, but perhaps this didn't feel very Soviet-like, but it was still a great reading experience.

Two young children (a boy and a girl) in a communist country are at school watching a film about Stalin. The little boy tries to kiss the girl next to him and she screams. The film is stopped and the teachers begin to interrogate the children. To them this isn't a childish prank, it is a form of resistance and it needs further investigation

And so an investigation starts which leads to the young boy's father who is a poet, but the ripple effect touches the lives of others who are coping with this communist regieme. The story explores how different people cope with life under a communist regime and how some dont survive.

It is an interesting multi layered story and I am not sure i understood everything but I enjoyed it. The art was clear and the story is told at a steady pace.

Copy provided by publisher via Negalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

This book is fine when it takes a bittersweet look at the repercussions of a young kid trying to kiss a school-mate, but a polemical ending tries its damnedest to negate the benefits of what's gone before. Before then, the tightness of the story, the surprises it can offer, and the conveyance of the character of Soviet life, are all to its credit.