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9/16/21: Reread again for a YA class, in Fall 2021, in a kind of unit on romance, and this fits, but this time I noticed all the (light) horror in it. I mean, it is still sweet love, but it also has this Reaper/Necromancer/Ghost dimension in it that helps us as a class transition to YA horror (such as We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson and the lightly, California-style gothic YA novel I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson. I also thought about George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo as I thought of the ghosts who need to move on from the liminal transition state/bardo/purgatory. Or even those ghosts in Lord of the Rings who fight to be able to be released).

7/6/21: Re-read for a comics class, summer 2021.

7/5/18: Re-read for comics class, summer 2018. We were reading shoujo manga romances so thought we compare/contrast this romance with them. In short, this is a romance, just starting out, I think, between a gay ghost named Blue and a gardener named Hamal. Feels very west coast (Young is from Seattle), we decided: nature/flowers, sort of a hippie vibe. Very sweet. On one level it is also about a depicting and embracing lots of differences. Lots of different body shapes and sizes and colors and ethnicities and sexualities. Brightly colored illustrations, too.

Here's some examples of her work:



3/21/18: Original review, a little edited:

Taproot is a sweet queer supernatural romance about a gardener, Hamal, who can see ghosts, and the ghost, Blue, who falls in love with him. Not everyone can see ghosts, now; I know this because I never seem to see them and meet lots of people (even members of my own family) who see them. But Hamal does (there you go!), and he sees others, mostly young ones, some of them recently having become spirits.

We may have lots of assumptions about ghosts, whether we believe in them or not; maybe we think they need some kind of resolution before they can move properly on. This seems to be true for some of the ghosts in this story, but we get a little deeper on the topic, and see various reasons spirits hang around. A (soul) Reaper shows up, reveals to Hamal that Hamal is actually a necromancer (those of the living who can actually interact with the dead). Well, what future can there be for a living boy and a dead boy, even if they are in love? They all know the reaper needs to move souls from one dimension to the next, so ultimately Hamal and Blue are a temporary relationship.

But there are other ghosts around, too, including two adorable little girls, who really need to get to a better place. Nature (gardener, remember?) figures in the story, of course with the help of Hamal. Including Zom-bees! Very sweet, sort of adorable story. Way too short, just a story, really, maybe pointing to a series? Lovely romantic drawing, with a sweet resolution. Maybe a little abrupt, which led me to think it was the first in a series, but now it does not look like it, and the finish is sweet as it is. Maybe primarily for middle grades and teens, though it is a "new adult" story, too.