A girl finds herself overwhelmed at the expectations of middle school and growing up in general. She finds solace in the Beatles who open an amazing dream world of color, peace and happiness for her.

In time she finds outlets that let her strengths shine and her fear of failure grows less.

The art style is whimsical and dainty in the "real world" pieces, but in her Beatles induced dreamworld everything is big, bold, loud and exciting.

3.5 and rounding up.

I've read quite a few graphic novel memoirs this year and find that it's a very compelling way to read about someone.

Reading about young Magali who is in 7th grade in the 90's, I could see myself in her. How fixated/obsessed I could get about one thing in particular and that one thing could easily become something that could not only be an escape but relied on to get you through difficult times in your adolescence.

The biggest drawback for me, was the cursive font that was used for the majority of the storytelling. I found it difficult to read and often had to zoom in on the digital copy I was reading in order to really see the text clearly. Also, if the cursive was all handwritten I'm equally as impressed that she has such nice penmanship even when writing in such small spaces!

***SPOILERS:
I do wish we had gone further into her mental health struggles. It was good to see she was in therapy, but she states about halfway during her year of homeschooling and therapy she stopped having things to say to her therapist. At that point in the story she has withdrawn deeply into herself and was spending all of her time alone or in her own world. Then one day she just decided to stop doing that and went back to school and all was well again. It just felt like an unrealistic resolution to someone struggling with anxiety and possibly some other underlying mental health issues. Just would have liked to dive deeper into the mental health side of things.

It was great to see that her parents supported her and helped her find a better learning environment so that she wouldn't be struggling with her anxiety about school performance.

***Thank you to Europe Comics and Magali Le Huche for providing me with a copy of the eBook for free via NetGalley for an unbiased review.

This was incredible! The illustration style was beautiful and captivating — reminiscent of “Amelia’s Notebook” by Marissa Moss and Roald Dahl.

I was able to relate to so many of Magali’s anxieties and her experiences as she grappled with growing up and losing her innocence. It helps that I also had a huge One Direction fascination that comforted me in a lot of the same ways she found with the Beatles.

The cursive writing was difficult to read at times, however it fit well within the illustrated style.

I enjoyed the story and found it relatable. However, the format of the story was overwhelming. Sometimes it felt very cramped and the "handwritten" font was too hard to read at times.

This was a really powerful depiction of the impact of anxiety on the author as a preteen/teen. The Beatles helped heal her and provided her space to reflect and the bravery to come to terms with some of the mental health struggles that she had. When the Beatles cam onto the pages, the illustrations exploded in rainbows of bold colors and really speaks to the power of music. Kudos to the author on sharing this vulnerability in such a relatable way.

Thanks to Europe Comics and NetGalley for this eARC!

I got the gist of this story. But the main thing was this girl who had an older sister who she loved and looked up to.

The secound bit I took from it was she was an underachiever and her teachers weren’t very helpful or encouraging.

Another thing, she was expected to help a lot at home as her parents were career people. I’m thinking that might interfere in her studying.

The graphics showed her many time with a school bag, normal size, then grow through the day with the heavy burden she was carrying.

She also was a huge fan of the Beatles.

Her mind wasn’t clear and graphics hinted at mental well-being but didn’t explore that, although the graphics showed it I think.

What I didn’t like was the entire layout of the novel and it’s font.

The fount used is in joined up neat writing but it catches with the jumbled up erratic layout.

I feel it should have been better displayed in boxes across the page. The writing was literally everywhere I was so confused by it.

If it were laid out better with more readable font I would have given it better ratings for sure.

Review to come July 24th on blog/goodreads.

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

So, this book sounded interesting. I have read some other memoirs in graphic novel form, so I was eager to read this one. But in the end... it just wasn't my cup of tea and despite this being just 120 pages... it took me quite some time to get through it. This was for various reasons:

-The cramped style. At times there was just SO MUCH happening and things going left to right and back and forth that I had to reread to make sure that what I read was correct.
-The font. I get it authors/illustrators, curly fonts are shiny. Hand-written fonts are pretty. But please, just don't. I had such a hard time reading the font, I even had to up the size from 100% to 150% to read it.. but due to how blurry the font at 100% was, you can imagine that at 150% it only worsened. Sure, I could read it slightly better, but at the same time not. Haha. The dialogues especially, I found myself sometimes just skipping it to save my eyes.
-The girl. I get that she has mental issues and they were well-written from what I could see, but at times I was just so frustrated with her. Her obsession with the Beatles just got WAY WAY to much. To the point that she was thinking of sabotaging things, ripped posters of walls, and went into mean conversations with others because heaven forbid they like something else. I even felt sorry for the mom who tried her best and got chewed out because she had a different music taste and so when she was 18 in the time the Beatleas were big she never cared about them. Her daughter was FURIOUS and I found that ridiculous.
-Also how did that toilet not flood? What kind of magical toilet is that? And how did mom not notice the lack of underwear?

There were things I liked, I loved that the girl was, eventually at least, taken serious for her school anxiety. Things were really not going well and I am happy that her parents accepted it and even helped her out. And later when some time has passed and a new year arrives they looked for something fun that fits her but still is school.
I am also glad to see therapy sessions, happy that she was able to talk to someone about her problems and I loved that the therapist wasn't pushing too much. Sometimes that happens, I know all about that. So I love that she let Magali draw, let her do her think and just ask some questions here and there.
The artstyle was quite nice though, yes, I know this is supposed to be positive, at times I just wish it had stayed with the minimalist colours that it had throughout the book. Because sometimes we would go into Beatles mode and BOOM COLOURS. I loved the bursts of colour, but it was also jarring.

All in all, while there were good things, the not so good things really took over. With a font that was hard to read that I just wanted to stop reading. A girl who just was so obsessed to the point of NOPE...

Quite a unique graphical memoir, this. But it could have been so much better.

Magali is an eleven year old with super-achiever psychologist parents and an elder sister who is brilliant at school. Magali hence finds herself burdened under the spoken and unspoken expectations of everyone around her. Her terrible anxiety creates a phobia of school that soon generates psychosomatic effects. While she is being home-schooled during this phase, she discovers The Beatles. The rest of the story is about the impact their music made on her life and the way she battled her mental struggled to resume active schooling.

On the face of it, the concept is fabulous. Teenage struggles with expectations, bodily anxieties and social dilemmas are pretty common. But to see music from many decades before coming to the rescue is novel. However, where the book falls short is in the detailing. The story seems to jump over the hows and whys of Magali’s problem and just reveals the whats.

The graphical part is good, not great. The earlier pages in the book are primarily white, gray and pink, depicting Magali’s bleak view of life. But with the Beatles introduced, coloured swirls start making an appearance. However, the pages are quite cluttered. There are parallel narratives unfolding on many of the pages, where the illustrations follow one story track and the background script narrates another. It makes for a cramped experience. The font is the biggest disappointment. When everything written in small case cursive, I had to really strain my eyes to understand the lines.

Overall, this might be a one-time read, but nothing exceptional.

Thank you, NetGalley and Europe Comics, for the ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Magali Le Huche is a total Beatles fangirl, and I couldn’t relate at all. I had a hard time caring about that part of the story (sorry, just personal preference), but I appreciated that they made her world more colorful. I can totally understand being 11 and 12 years old and being obsessed with a celebrity or a band.

Magali doesn’t do well in school, and feels like she can’t live up to her own expectations. She alluded to her mental illness, and even started seeing a therapist, but I would’ve liked for her to elaborate more how she got over her phobia. I feel like there wasn’t a clear message in her story.

The style of the graphic novel was interesting — all over the place and sometimes cramped. Some panels were too much for me to focus on and my brain just skipped over parts.