DNF. I really liked the premise but the artwork did not work for me at all. It wouldn't be fair to the comic if I finished reading and gave it a low rating.

At first I was a bit confused about the when and where of the story but I really liked the topics this comic discusses! The drawing style isn’t my favorite but that’s totally personal preference. At the end it was a really well rounded story but I wish it would have been a bit longer/the characters would have been more fleshed out.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me a copy in return for an honest review.

I feel like 3 stars is a great rating for this. I read it and enjoyed it and think it touched on some great points but it's nothing that will stay with me for a long time.

I enjoyed how there were pages that were designed like they were from our main characters journal. It was unusual compared to things I have previously read in comics. The font wasn't my favourite choice here to read via an e-copy but I understand the choice was made for it to look like handwriting.

The art style was super fun and I really enjoyed that. It felt like a great choice for the type of story that was being told and the setting of the summer and the beach in Italy.

However, the story tackled a lot of different points and I feel like it could have tackled less but gone more in depth? There was a lot of different things being told in 160 pages and I just felt like none of it grabbed me and made me feel anything because we were so busy moving from one point to the next.

All in all, it was fine and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a beachy/summer read with a bit more to it.

Content warnings for terminal illness, assisted suicide, lack of consent, domestic abuse.

Um romance lindo de verão, sobre pessoas tão doces. Queria que tivesse mais conteúdo sobre os amigos que são tão interessantes quanto os protagonistas, mas isso não atrapalhou essa história cativante.

O livro explora o amor romântico e o amor platônico a partir da história de Viola. As relações construídas ali não são tóxica e inevitavelmente somos lembrados a lembrar como era dolorido sentir algo por alguém quando tão jovens, ao mesmo tempo que era incrivelmente fabuloso,

As ilustrações são lindas e permite que a 'magia' do amor de verão palpável.

Welcome Back!

This month has been a big reading month for me, and it is definitely not over (I still have like eight days)! Thus far I have read ten books (and I am working on books 11 and 12 currently). I have been trying to mix it up more this month and pick up a bunch of graphic novels, audio books, ebooks, and physical reads. So after finishing a novel (and the end of a trilogy that I love so much) I decided to jump into a graphic novel. Something to help change things up before jumping into a new novel but also something I could finish in a day. So I looked through my shelves (I have some manga and graphic novels I could pick up), Hoopla, and then Netgalley. Once I logged into Netgalley I found Forever! I was super intrigued by this one, so I decided why not read this one next!

SPOILERS AHEAD

Viola is going on a summer trip with her family, and she is not what would be called excited. However, that changes as Viola starts to enjoy her time on the trip and one day meets a boy who is working on a boat. She starts talking with him and the next thing you know they are spending time together everyday at the same time. Viola has never been in love but she is pretty sure she has feelings for this guy. As vacation progresses, Viola spends more and more time with him and she definitely knows she loves him and he loves her. However, eventually vacation is going to end and Viola will go home. But what does going home mean for Viola now?

I really enjoyed my time with this graphic novel. I did not really have any expectations about the story when I went in (I had not really read a summary or anything before reading) but it was such a good story and the ending broke my heart. Additionally, I enjoyed the art style of this graphic novel, the sharp lines and the colors helped to really bring Viola’s story to life. Overall, I enjoyed my time with Viola and her summer vacation adventure!

Goodreads Rating: 5 Stars

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for a honest review.

What a great story I've just read. I loved it from the beginning to the very last word.

For me, a 5Stars graphics novel is the one with great artwork, great story and great characters. And this one has everything to make it perfect.

In this book we can see many issues that are very common in relationships, specially when you are growing up and knowing everything about you and the people around you.

We can also explore how hard is the first love, and how hard is to say goodbye when you are not ready.

The characters, as I said, are amazing. Viola, Irenego, Lili, Paola, Viola's friends and family... everyone makes perfect the story.

I loved it, even if the end it's not the one that we want. But Viola is young and there are many new adventures waiting for her.

I appreciate having had an opportunity to read and review this book. The appeal of this particular book was not evident to me, and if I cannot file a generally positive review I prefer simply to advise the publisher to that effect and file no review at all.

LOVED the illustration and coloring in this graphic novel. The story was also beautiful and I wish I would have had Viola's story when I was a teenager growing up and figuring out the complexities of my gender, body, and identity as well as my first experience with romantic relationships, attraction, sexuality, etc.

“Maybe this is what “love is forever” means: it’s not timeless, but it leaves a mark so deep that it accompanies us all our life.”

In "Forever" we follow Viola in her summer vacation and her experiences of "love".
Her friends Renata and Valeria are also holidaying in the same beachside place that she is at.
How could she understand what love is? Viola is struggling with this thougt and days are passing by, leaving Viola with a sense of frustration.
Viola is an introvert and a little "tomboy" - but I liked her that way - and she has to learn how to "be in love" with someone. What I like about her is: she don't put others over herself. When something was happening Viola understood the situation and stopped it.

The relationship between Viola and Ireneo is one of my favourite things... they're like a puzzle and I loved the "slow burn" love. I think my young self loved to have this kind of relationship. They're really cute.

Paola and Lili are THE couple! They're like a ray of sunshine, a fresh water, a crazy moment! With them you can understand yourself, learn about self-love, feminism and courage.

Some delicate topics are: emotional abuse, misogyny, loss.

The graphic novel is set in my beautiful Italy, and has so many italian trope that I smiled at every page I was scrolling.

The book covers a lot of really deep concepts: safe sex, rape culture, abuse, body postivity etc. I really liked the relationships and the characters but honestly the romance was the least interesting part of the book to me. I’d definitely recommend the book to older teens.

Forever is a graphic novel about Viola, a teen, who wants to find out what true love really means. The novel follows Viola whilst on vacation with her family and some of her friends, during which time she meets Lili, Paola, and Ireneo who all play a huge part in her life.

I enjoyed the novel however, here were a few moments throughout the that didn’t sit quite right with me but on the whole, it was a lovely read, and the illustrations are absolutely beautiful.

TW // homophobia, racism, domestic abuse, assisted dying

CW: Mentions of sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse. An LGBT+ character dies. The book contains art that depicts these to some extent as well.

A fun summer story with beautiful art! Lots of great colors and ocean landscapes. The main character was quite likable, and I enjoyed following her story. There were fun adventures, fun side characters, and I liked that some of the problems of tourist resorts were also included. I love the supportive friendships, and how they looked out for one another. However, the only decent romantic relationship was the older lesbian couple, which I loved, but *spoiler* one of them dies by the end.

There were some issues with the rest of the romantic relationships. One of them was clearly abusive from the start, but none of the characters really seemed to take that seriously until it got physically abusive, and there was no mention that the earlier behaviors were also a problem. Also, the friends knew what was happening, and not one of them told an adult that their friend was getting hurt by her boyfriend. If abuse is going to be included in YA books, it should be clearly stated somewhere that the behavior was a problem and that ignoring your friend getting hurt is also a problem. Resources in the back of the book are even better.

Additionally, in the main character’s romance with Ireneo, Ireneo never gets consent before touching Viola. Even after clearly making her uncomfortable, he touches her boobs without consent another day. Sure, he stops when she pulls away, which is great! But...not the great relationship example the author/illustrator intended, even when comparing it with the guy she crushed on before who nearly raped her.

I enjoyed many elements of this story, but all of these abuse issues that were never fully addressed makes it too hard to recommend it to anyone, especially to someone in the age range it was meant for.

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing access to this book in exchange for an honest review.*

This was such a great positive body and feminist graphic novel! It unexpectedly made me reminisce about when I was a teen figuring out my identity, sexuality, feminism, relationships, and society's preprogrammed misogyny.

It is truly a fantastic quick summer read for young girls (and boys too) to discover some questions they could ask themselves or start a conversation with her friends. It teaches several important universal lessons that are priceless to girls.

TOP 1: YOU are the most important person in the world, NEVER do anything you are uncomfortable doing and NO is always a NO. Protect yourself through educating yourself about the goings of society. NOBODY can take your knowledge away from you, it is power you carry around everywhere in your head.

Coming of age stories are the bread and butter of graphic novels - I have read a lot of them. A lot. And so we come to Forever, which is another coming of age story.

It ticks all the boxes. And it wants to tick all of them, ALL possible coming of age boxes. A LOT is crammed into this book, so much that it feels unnatural and overstuffed. There's a lot of things happening as B-stories, sometimes underserving them. There is a girl whose boyfriend emotionally and psychologically abuses her - we check in with them regularly during the book, but then the outcome is handled off-page. That feels too serious a subject to handle it that way.

The main story of a girl on vacation with her parents, finding her first love, finding her place in her group of friends, is fine. It is agressively okay. It is nothing special. Most of it has been done before, and more convincingly.

The art has a nice breeziness to it, which I enjoyed.

It’s been some time since I read a graphic novel that was bittersweet, talked about young love, and growing up. “Forever” by Assia Petricelli is all of these and more. Viola is on her first summer vacation away from home with her family. Her friends Renata and Valeria are also holidaying in the same beachside place that she is at. The story then follows the girls’ experiences through the summer which alternatively teaches them to be strong yet vulnerable.

Viola is the typical teenager constantly questioning the things around her and herself. She is part of the group yet different from them. I loved how the book treats so many aspects with great sensitivity and acceptance – identity, gender, freedom, individuality, the meaning of love, family.

These themes are vividly supported with the absorbing artwork with its bold lines and deep, rich colour palette.

And the beach vibe! Oh, I longed for the beach and the sea. The lazy afternoons when the world escapes into a siesta, and everything is quiet, and all you see is the shimmering heat.

This was a wholesome read for me. A coming-of-age tale wrapped in the warmth of summer love.

Thank you to NetGalley and Europe Comics for the ARC.

This book was such a warm one, though it had some very sensitive topics it felt like a breath of fresh air and I liked the book a lot. The art was stunning and so detailed even to the tiny things in the background. The discussion of sex, lesbian representation, illness, abuse, friendship, consent, love, wrongness, body shaming, self love and family trust is so well described in this book.

I like that the ending was left ambiguous and wasn't made a 'everyone gets everything' one. Yup, sometimes you don't know if you will ever meet some people again, but they definitely etch a part of themselves into your souls. The author has all the parts just in grasp and I would have enjoyed reading more of this.

The discussion of love was the highlight. It's so heartwarming and an open and honest outlook on what are the good and not good things happening around. I loved reading this and I would recommend it to everyone who needs a special story. Thank yoy for the copy @netgalley and Europe comics.

It just felt too short but I absolutely adore it.

This was such a sweet and heartbreaking at times graphic novel. I definitely felt the summer vibes reading this and I feel summer is the perfect time to read this if you are planning on reading it. The artwork in this graphic novel is stunning and I really enjoyed getting to know the characters.

I hope this is going to be a series because i definitely would love to know more about certain characters.

This was a cute, fun summer read with some great art style. I felt that it had bad pacing and it felt too long.
But it was so relatable and the themes and it deals with some complex subjects.

Thank you for Europe Comics and NetGalley for the e-arc!
Wow I did not expect this. This graphic novel has so many important messages and discussing important topics about gender, abusive relationship, grief, self love. I had nostalgia reading it, and so many memories came to surface...because so many of things in this book happened to me and people around me, good and bad, its heartbreaking to see that back then, nobody realized that people should not behave like this. It was the “normal” back then.
And it makes me happy, that these bad behaviors are not accepted anymore, the world is changing to the good direction, and people realize that they should not just accept when their boyfriend hitting them, they should not accept the gender roles when they feel that they are different but forced to behave in a certain way, they should not keep quiet when older dudes check out under aged girls, or that they force themself on young girls when they say no, or when your girl friend says “its okay, its normal, this means he loves me” to abusive behavior. But that its still happens today, it makes me angry and heartbroken, but at least we learn and grow, and lot of girls doesn’t keep quiet anymore, and speak up.
I wish the book was a little bit longer, because I feel like not all of these topics were deeply discussed, they only scratched the surface. But I appreciate the effort and the thoughts they put into this comic.

3.5 stars*

This was such a quick read and I really enjoyed it. ‘Forever’ is a cute contemporary graphic novel that’s perfect for summer; following the journey of multiple different couples, but focusing on Viola, the main character who feels inexperienced in the world of romance, as she meets a boy. It explores the topics of identity, sexuality, young love & friendship and what it all means. I think these are things that every teenager or new adult can relate to and find a piece of themselves within the characters. But it also had a layer of emotion throughout which I felt strongly connected to, especially with the bittersweet ending.

The art style is one of my favourites I’ve seen, and I particularly liked how the characters had ‘regular bodies’ rather than being stick thin. It allowed me to envisage the story more as I could see them as being real people.

I fell in love with the lesbians and really appreciated how they were portrayed as the ‘happiest’ couple. I also really didn’t like Gabriele but I imagine this was the intended reaction for the reader to have. However I do think the topic of toxic/abusive relationships could have been given a bit more focus.

The only critiques I have are that there were a few missed opportunities to develop some of the side characters more (eg, the mum & brother) as I’m left with questions about their personalities/why they act the way they do. Aswell as the story being a bit too fast-paced at times which led to a few plot holes. Like she would go from being in the club on one page to then arguing with her parents and this confused me slightly as we weren’t told that it was now a new day. I do think that this story had the potential to be told as part of a graphic novel series as supposed to just being a standalone, which would have allowed for the themes/characters to be explored more in-depth.

But overall I enjoyed it and will be looking out for more by Assia Petricelli in the future!