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A review by trywii
Always Never by Jordi Lafebre
3.0
An absolutely gorgeous graphic novel, I had this on my TBR for years just for the cover art alone. However, the writing is plain at best and I found myself frustrated that most of the story was the two protagonists just pen-palling each other while nothing else major was happening.
I was expecting more dramatic reasons why they had been separated and forced themselves to not be together when they were younger, but as the story is told in reversed, we find out that the only reason they had split was because…they had a one-night stand on a boat and the male love interest was kicked off said boat by the captain for riding without a ticket.
Yup. That was the major conflict that separated the two of them for *decades* and was the main reason why the female love interest was upset with him. I was expecting something more profound and dramatic, like they were long-time friends and there was a fallout or something, but no they slept together once and then didn’t see each other again for a while. Sure. There’s also a massive issue of the female protagonist pining for this one-shot guy while she’s married and has a child, even going so far as to send him a nude (???). The male lead also leads on a lot of other women, and while being uncommitted isn’t a bad thing, it’s clear he’s pussy-footing a lot of women’s issues so he can pine for the female lead. Both protagonists are frustratingly inconsiderate to their respective partners in favor of their weird not-really-almost-kinda relationship.
I was also assuming that the male lead’s dissertation on time and reversing it would come into play somehow, but it doesn’t. It’s vaguely metaphorical but it really doesn’t matter to the story itself and there’s no supernatural element, either. Which is a bummer, I thought it was going to lead up to that.
I can’t recommend this book for the story, but I CAN recommend it if you’re an artist interested in learning how character expression and body language is done beautifully.
Some of the stylized people are…not good, to say the least. There’s some unflattering stylization going on that borders on somewhat offensive, but that is my gripe with the art itself.
An okay-ish book altogether, I feel like those who love romances might find it more entertaining than I did.
I was expecting more dramatic reasons why they had been separated and forced themselves to not be together when they were younger, but as the story is told in reversed, we find out that the only reason they had split was because…they had a one-night stand on a boat and the male love interest was kicked off said boat by the captain for riding without a ticket.
Yup. That was the major conflict that separated the two of them for *decades* and was the main reason why the female love interest was upset with him. I was expecting something more profound and dramatic, like they were long-time friends and there was a fallout or something, but no they slept together once and then didn’t see each other again for a while. Sure. There’s also a massive issue of the female protagonist pining for this one-shot guy while she’s married and has a child, even going so far as to send him a nude (???). The male lead also leads on a lot of other women, and while being uncommitted isn’t a bad thing, it’s clear he’s pussy-footing a lot of women’s issues so he can pine for the female lead. Both protagonists are frustratingly inconsiderate to their respective partners in favor of their weird not-really-almost-kinda relationship.
I was also assuming that the male lead’s dissertation on time and reversing it would come into play somehow, but it doesn’t. It’s vaguely metaphorical but it really doesn’t matter to the story itself and there’s no supernatural element, either. Which is a bummer, I thought it was going to lead up to that.
I can’t recommend this book for the story, but I CAN recommend it if you’re an artist interested in learning how character expression and body language is done beautifully.
Some of the stylized people are…not good, to say the least. There’s some unflattering stylization going on that borders on somewhat offensive, but that is my gripe with the art itself.
An okay-ish book altogether, I feel like those who love romances might find it more entertaining than I did.