It becomes clear to everyone that Ari’s priorities are shifting; his behavior becomes mysterious and erratic, and he is not sure anymore of what he wants or needs. The artist’s use of color is especially striking: His battle scenes are ample, bloodily scarlet affairs, and Polyphemus’s cave is a stifling orange; he depicts the underworld as a colorless, mirthless void, domestic spaces in warm tans, the all-encircling sea in a light Mediterranean blue and some of the far-away islands in almost tangibly growing greens. A tender blend of sugary, buttery, and other complex flavors that's baked with a tremendous dash of heart. Likewise, panel after panel of Othello’s turn to violence and his enraged face obscured by shadow provide a poignant dramatic effect but seem to exacerbate prejudices inherent to both the play and medium. In film and television, kisses between men seldom linger; the camera seems to shift and move uncomfortably.

They all involve 2 guys with a too fluffy, too fast relationships because the books are short for something meaningful!Now that high school is over, Ari is dying to move to the big city with his ultra-hip band, if he can just convince his dad to let him quit their struggling family bakery. It's mostly set in a family bakery and the people who wrote it made the food the characters made while writing it.

the rooftop flat-on-your-back star-gazing experience (it may have been cloud shapes or ripples in water for you) in which one learns from the other's prior thoughts or experience.The words (by Panetta) are earnest, touching, and unpretentious, while the art (by Ganucheau) is comfortingly reminiscent of iconic comic-book art (think Archie). Bloom is a beautiful story about a grumpy teenager, Ari, who wants to move away with his band and escape the family bakery.

A similar scene in Bloom features Ari’s father making a point to say that he sees a big change in his son, a shift back to the happiness of his younger self, ever since Hector arrived at the bakery. Overall, this is a fantastic read that cultivates a wide array of representation in a beautiful way. Small town, summer, slow burn romance, family drama, a mistake that leads to more family drama and a breakup, then they make up. Author Kevin Panetta and illustrator Savanna Ganucheau tell a captivating story of young blooming love over a summer baking sourdough rolls.

I love that it takes place in a bakery, and the chemistry between Ari and Hector jumped off the page, I was smiling like an IDIOT while I was reading this 🥹 and I actually almost cried at the end like excuse me?

Discovering our passions and dreams amidst reality is also a messy and long journey, despite what society may tell us. Bloom raises the question whether gay stories — be they graphic novels or otherwise — should honor the struggles LGBTQ youth experience by starkly exposing them or by portraying life as completely normal so as to eradicate the hackneyed assumptions and biases that surround them. Bloom reads like an indie teen film (think Lady Bird or Me, Earl and the Dying Girl) with bonus baking tips.For Ari and Hector, the focus is on their lives and struggles and letting their love bloom in a sweet and simple way. I was constantly asking the book questions like "why is Ari still working at the bakery if he hired a replacement?