Why I would NOT recommend Bloom By Kevin Panetta and Savanna Ganucheau

 *CONTAINS SPOILERS*

    Firstly, this story is about the relationship between two completely different guys. One of them is Ari, who wants to move into the city in a problematic band with his friends, away from his parents' bakery. Then there is Hector, who is a lovable, respectful, and mature guy, with a love for baking. The two are seemingly complete opposites, but they still find a liking for each other, as Hector gets hired at the bakery that Ari is forced to work at.

    One thing that I would like to mention is that the visual experience of the novel was pleasing to the eye. Even with the color scheme solely consisting of gradients of white, black, and blue, the amount of incredible detail that goes into every single box is amazing. Both of the authors have experience in comic art, and this is very evident.

    Something that I like to see in a graphic novel is the development of both the characters and the story. While reading Bloom, I never found that spark of interest, that realization of everything coming together. I understand that the author wanted to show a resilient relationship that ends up ok in the end, but it definitely could've been portrayed better. There isn’t a lot of character development either. Ari is shown as a super sensitive, shy guy who seemingly gets upset at nearly everything. I definitely wouldn’t have minded this for the most part, but there is never a time when the author depicts why he seems to be so irritable all of the time. I really don’t see any positives in Ari to even be in a relationship. Hector, on the other hand is a fun, lovable character who loves baking (the thing that Ari is trying to get away from for most of the story). I understand that everyone has their flaws, but I think the pros should outweigh the cons, especially in a story that attempts to show a heartfelt relationship between characters. When the main protagonists of the story finally make amends, as a reader, I feel I should feel happy, which is quite the opposite of how I felt when this story ended.

    Yet another thing I disliked about Bloom was the lack of a full story, at many times in the book I was just left with a “so what?” They don’t evolve much as time goes on at all. In the climax of the story, the two share their first kisses with each other, but accidently leave the stove on and end up burning the entire bakery down. Hector ends up taking the blame for it, with Ari agreeing, and they stop talking for a while. After about a month, the two meet again, with Ari’s shallow apologies seemingly working, even after Hector lost his job at the bakery because of Ari. He wasn’t ever held accountable for many of the toxic things he did. 

    To conclude, Bloom certainly had the potential to be a good book, but the story, and characters were severely underdeveloped. Even though I usually enjoy a book surrounding queer romance, this one just wasn’t good in general, with random jumps in the timeline of the book. Everything seems forced and brushes off majorly important events in a true relationship.

~Lucas Tosi~