Teen/YA Graphic Novel Review: On a Sunbeam

I really enjoyed Tillie Walden's first YA graphic memoir, Spinning, a coming-of-age and coming-out story about figure skating, so I was eager to read her second book. This one is a graphic novel, On A Sunbeam, and entirely different from her first book. This creative story is set in space, in a world of all females, though it is still a coming-of-age story.

A young woman named Mia joins the crew of a fish-shaped starship. The rest of the crew includes Alma, Jules, Elliot, and Char (short for Charlotte), and their job is to travel through space to old, crumbling sites and restore them. The others welcome Mia into their ranks, and she gets a bunk in a room with a great view of space outside the window. The team begins to teach Mia how to do their restoration work. In an alternate storyline, we see Mia as a younger student, just starting out at a new boarding school. She meets a girl named Grace, and the two of them bond in trying to deflect a group of mean girls. Grace and Mia become good friends and eventually girlfriends, until Grace suddenly leaves under mysterious circumstances without saying good-bye, leaving Mia devastated.

Sample page from On a Sunbeam

The narrative moves back and forth between the two timelines, gradually filling in Mia's backstory as the team in the present works on their project and then moves on. Walden has created a wholly original world here, unlike anything I've ever seen. The spacecraft look like elaborate fish, the buildings and worlds the girls work to restore look both old-fashioned and futuristic, and the entire world is populated only by females. None of the underpinnings of this unique society are ever explained - they just are what they are. The hefty book (a great choice for Big Book Summer!) is illustrated in shades of mostly blue-gray, purple, and pinkish-orange, with occasional splashes of yellow, and the very detailed pictures on every page invite studying and lingering. The story can be a bit complicated at times, but it has plenty of depth and emotion for a graphic novel. While this sort of wholly-created-in-space science fiction is not always my kind of thing, the intriguing story and interesting characters pulled me in and kept me reading. I can't wait to see what Tillie Walden comes up with next!

533 pages, First Second

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

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