Taproot is a graphic novel that focuses on the relationship between Hamal and Blue. Blue is a ghost that is an inbetweener, meaning he hasn’t moved on yet. Hamal is alive but he can see ghosts and over time they have stricken up a friendship.

The biggest complaint that I have with this story is that I wanted more. I feel like it barely scratches the surface and there is just so much more left to discover. More on Hamal’s and Blue’s backgrounds. More on the world where there are ghosts, necromancers and reapers. More on that ending where they are given a task. Just more. I understand this was only a 128 pages, but come on.

My desire for more will tell you that I clearly did love reading this book. There was something so very appealing about these characters. I took an instant liking to Blue whose style I love to see. He is endearing, sweet but hides behind a bit of humor. While Hamal seems a bit more serious but kind. I understand why they both were so drawn to each other. Where their romance evolved. Everything about it was just cute and respectful. Both characters are also drawn so very differently. There is a clear difference in body build and hair and so on.

And the world of it just appeals to me. The idea of it. But like I said, I wish there was more on it. More explanations perhaps. It feels very much so like a start to something. I would totally follow a series on these two as they dive more into the world of ghosts and reapers and necromancers. Where there is more deepening on everything.

The illustrations are a great asset to this story telling. The combination of the style and the blue-green-yellow colors add to the overall cuteness factor, and yet add a small bit of creepiness to it. Especially when the reaper came in and turned the images very dark. I loved that contrast.

Overall I think this is a great read that I hope will end up becoming more than just this part.

Taproot by Keezy Young is an adorable love story about a ghost, Blue, and a Gardner, Hamal. Hamal is a seems to be just a peaceful gardener, but, his friends are ghosts, including his best friend Blue.

Everything appears right in Hamal and Blue's lives until we are introduced to a creepy spirit forest that is making the ghosts disappear for lengths of time. When Blue takes an unwanted visit to the forest, he is told by a Grim Reaper to find a solution to the dying forest. Together Blue and Hamal try and discover a way to fix the forest and along the way discover more about themselves.

This graphic novel includes diverse characters set in a beautifully illustrated world that describes a tale of self-discovery, angst, and love. (It even made me tear up) It was enjoyable to read because of the realistic dialogue and wonderful characterisation.

I recommend anyone looking for a sweet graphic novel to go and pick it up.

TAPROOT is really sweet and also manages just the right level of spooky. Totally appropriate for middle-grade and up, with a bittersweet gay love story that shows the positive ways in which love can change us.

The story was so pretty and very poetic. I've loved the characters and the illustrations. I wish it didn't go so fast though.

I’m generally not a big fan of graphic novels. They fall into the same complaint zone as short stories… I usually end up feeling like I didn’t get enough story to really like it.

TAPROOT was fantastic, though. I knew I would enjoy it because I love plants and ghosts, something this ridiculously cute graphic novel is full of. Hamal and Blue are best friends who have slowly fallen in love with each other despite the fact that Hamal is alive and Blue is, well, not alive. When Blue starts fading into a dead forest and meets a demonic like creature, he realizes Hamal is in trouble… the living shouldn’t be seeing the dead, not without a permit.

The story wraps up rather neatly and beautifully, and I sincerely hope there’s going to be more to this story!

If you’re interested in Queer comics, this one is for you! You can also support Keezy on her patreon!

Taproot is a colourful graphic novel following the lives of Hamal the kind florist who can see ghosts and Blue the lovable dead protagonist who is struggling to move on. When something strange keeps happening to the ghosts in Hamal's life Blue is put on a path to get to the bottom of it.

Taproot is a lovely story with a great reason for being written. When the book ends a note is written about the author that explains she writes stories she wished she saw available when she was younger with "stories starring queer characters, brightness, a little creepiness and a lot of heart". This is brought perfectly and is a great read for anyone.

Super cute romance? ✓
Lovely artwork? ✓ (I really, really enjoyed this author's art style.)
Spoopy grim reaper? ✓

The only thing lacking in this graphic novel is the plot. The story could use a little more fleshing out. (Hehehe, anyone see what I did there? Anyone? No? -sigh-) It jumps around a bit and touches on subjects only to move on to something else without going back to give more detail.

[WARNING SPOILER]
Some questions that weren't answered/ examples of things that need fleshing out...

1. More info on Blue's death, please. From what I read it seems he got hit by a truck... It would be nice to know more about him before he died.
2. So Hamal is a necromancer. He somehow created this hungry, dark forest that the ghosts are scared of... just to grow some flowers in the living world? I don't even know what's going on with this. How does putting a plant in Blue and growing a tree in the living world fix things?
[END SPOILER]

Still, it's a cute and interesting concept for a story.

Blue is a ghost who just can't seem to move on to... whatever waits for you after. Luckily enough for him, his best friend, Hamal, can see and speak with ghosts. He's also got a gift with plants: they flourish in his care. Blue gets to hang out with Hamal day in, day out, at the florist where Hamal works, which is great, but not without its own heartache. Blue is in love with Hamal. When a disturbing presence comes to town, looking for someone whose talents may or may not match Hamal's, Blue knows he'll do anything to save him, at any cost. Taproot is a young love story with humor and angst, and soft, attractive art that teens and young adults will love. The affection shared by Hamal and Blue is achingly sweet; they're a couple worthy of their own extended fanfic universe.

A sweet, charming queer story with beautiful art (especially the colors! soft without seeming washed-out or insipid). Will appeal to anyone who wants a sweet gay romance with just a touch of supernatural creepiness.

Short and sweet and super-cute! I was worried the ending was going to be sad but it's happily ever after all the way around. The art is really lovely, too -- I love the colors.

Tapoot was honestly one of the cutest short stories/graphic novels I have ever read. The art is absolutely beautiful and is obviously the main focus of the story. I loved how bright all the colors were and how quaint the illustrations were with there still being this overarching creepy darkness in the story. It was a perfectly well done mixture. There were a couple times I was a little confused by the narrative which is why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5, but overall it was a great short. I appreciated the diversity of the characters so much and love seeing better representation of different races, genders, and sexual orientations in graphic novels.

This was a cute little paranormal LGBT graphic novel with POC characters about (as the tagline says) a gardener and a ghost. It wasn't that long, and a lot of pages didn't have that much going on, so there wasn't much chance for a lot of story depth or character development, but I still thought the romance was sweet, and I still said *awwww* a couple times. And it's an entirely clean romance, perfectly appropriate for younger readers even though the characters seemed to be in their late teens/early twenties. There was also a lot of pretty plant life in the artwork. And I appreciated that, physically speaking, the characters were just like normal, real kinda people, not too stereotypically "perfect" looking, if that makes any sense. If you want something quick and light with a cute romance, I think you'll enjoy this.

I’m a sucker for a lot of things. For art, for plants and flowers, for softness, both in form and contents, and, apparently, for queer ghosts and gardners.

What struck me first about the books was just the look of it. The soft lines, the warm mellow colours used to fill the pages, creating a world that is bright but in no way garish. A visual representation a warm fuzzy feeling, which is just what Taperoot left me with.

Young tells us the story of Hamal, a young gardner soft and kind enough to make Samwise Gamgee proud and then some, his life at the flower shop he works at, it's patrons, and it's ghosts. Or, more like, Hamal's ghosts. It must have been somewhat weird as a kid, finding out that your supposed imaginary friends were in fact the ghosts of dead people, but what can you do? You push through it, you befriend them, you help them out as well as you can, and along the way, someone falls in love.


At times the the pacing felt a wee bit rushed, but that's really just me nitpicking. I adored the art, both the form and colours of it as already mentioned, but also especially the artist's attention to detail - the fleshed out backgrounds really helped give the story life.

I'm here to talk to you guys about a really adorable yet fluffy graphic novel. I feel like this  book needs more attention. Taproot is about a gardener and a ghost. Spoiler Alert: The gardener is actually a necromancer which is why he is able to see ghosts. The ghost on the other hand was just a normal person that got in a sticky situation. He slowly over time fell in love with the gardener. The problem is the fact that he is a ghost and the gardener is human. This graphic novel had some of the cutest art I have seen in a while. The colors are muted yet compliment each other so well.

My main complaint about this graphic novel which is why it got bumped down a star is the obvious plot hole towards the middle/end of the novel. It moved far too quickly. The next time we know it's over so we are literally sitting there like what just happened. The little extra few pages at the end helped me forgive the author for the weird plot hole. The LGBT rep in this graphic novel seems harmless which is why I enjoyed it so much. They truly do love each other. It was so nice to see them so happy at the end. 

Overall, if you want a cute graphic novel then I definitely recommend this. I wouldn't say it's the greatest graphic novel in the world, but it's rather sweet. The art is gorgeous to look at. The characters are cute. 

Rating: 4/5 Stars | Read: September 25th

This beautiful, sweet story is about a young gardener who can see ghosts. The pastel colors and the many flowers really add to the tone of this graphic novel. There is so much heart at the center of this story. I loved seeing queer characters of color in a graphic novel. I want more stories like this! I would love to see where their adventures go next.

I give this graphic novel a 5/5. I highly recommend it, especially to readers looking for queer fantasy stories.

This was such a beautiful and sweet graphic novel. I loved the characters and the illustrations. It was a lot of fun and very tender. I hope to see more from this author/illustrator.

This was such an adorable graphic novel!

I would love to read more about Hamal (the gardener) and Blue (the ghost) and how their relationship develops. It’s really short and at times difficult to follow the world-building and plot implications. Basically, Hamal has always been able to see ghosts and can help them move on. But out of nowhere, the ghosts are being transported to some creepy forest and Blue and Hamal have to figure out what’s going on and how to fix it. This a beautiful story about friendship and sacrifice and love.

Also the art is absolutely beautiful, warm greens, browns, and blues.

Definitely would recommend for anyone looking for a diverse, short, fantasy/paranormal, mlm graphic novel!

This was a cute and gay little ghost story. The idea of a ghost being in love with a living person is both sweet and also sad, but luckily Hamal and Blue's romance is more on the happier side and all the other ghost interaction is very cute as well, because they're all kind of gathering around Hamal in the flower shop where he works at since he's the only one who can see them (which leads to everyone else thinking he's a bit of a weirdo). The story could have been a bit more... more, because I read Taproot in like half an hour and it felt like things happened really fast. One moment there's a whole thing going on with creepy forests and disappearing ghosts and a reaper and then turn the page and it's basically all good, problem solved. I still liked it though. I kinda understand keeping the story scope a little smaller though, because I've made comics myself and that stuff is hard work and you can cover a lot less stuff in a 120 page comic than you could in 120 pages of writing. I absolutely loved the art! I'm really picky when it comes to that stuff in comics and have a bad habit of skipping even interesting stories simply because I don't like the art, so it was nice to find a comic that I actually like to look at. I liked the use of colors, there were obviously many different shades of green since Hamal works in a flower shop and everything and even the ghosts were green/blue. All the forest scenes also looked really cool and one of my favorite things in the whole comic was the design the reaper character. Instead of just the usual black robe and a scythe the reaper was actually missing the bottom half of their body completely and had four arms and also wings... That's some cool character design there okay. I feel like I'm not making much sense here but basically everyone should totally read this because cute story and amazing art! I might get a physical copy one day simply because it's so much more fun to appreciate comics in printed form.