Miriam and Weldon. Her grandfather is the co-creator of the TomorrowMen comics. The other co-creator, his grandfather. His grandfather pulls some shady crap and her grandfather's rights are bought for $900. His grandfather becomes rich which leads to generational wealth and all that jazz, which then leads to a 20 year court battle and two feuding families. Miriam and Weldon meet by chance and so their love story begins.

This was slice of life. It was a fun and easy read. Both Miriam and Weldon come with baggage and they both have to do the work to get through it. They are both young and so this is not a story that is going to have all the answers. I liked it. This is YA so they were botha annoying at times but it didn't last too long.

The original copy was received via Netgalley. The actual copy read for this review was my library.

Hicks uses the kind of background comic fans are familiar with to give her opposites-attract love story depth and drama. Miriam’s grandfather co-created the now world-famous comic about the TomorrowMen, but he sold his rights decades ago. She’s left in this small Canadian town with no idea how to get out, and no money to do so. The cute new boy in town, sent to stay with his aunt and uncle as punishment for bad behavior, is the grandson of the other creator, who’s since made a fortune.

They’re interested in each other, but then she finds out that he’s the heir of her arch-enemy. There’s a movie coming out with the characters, so there’s even more attention on the legacy Miriam could have had. The publicity is also why Weldon was sent out of town, to avoid embarrassing his wannabe movie mogul father.

The background is familiar, well-known to anyone with geek connections, but fresh and creative where Hicks has added her own twists. There are also some well-observed relationship challenges, as Miriam is facing what it would mean for her life-long friendships if she were to leave town for university, and Weldon struggles with his relationship with his divorced parents, particularly his aging science-fiction actress mother.

It’s easy to second-guess a choice made by less-experienced creators. Heck, the entire American comics business is based on a publisher acquiring Superman from two young men for a steal. Miriam’s anger at her grandfather’s choice, and her mother’s decision not to keep up the fight, is easier to deal with than her confusion and uncertainty over what she wants to do. For all the fan nods and in-jokes (none of which get in the way of the story), that’s the part I most sympathized with. You don’t have to be a teenager to feel lost and confused about the difference between what you’re supposed to want out of life and not knowing what you’d most like to do.

Comics Will Break Your Heart is a lovely read, a realistic-feeling treatment of how history shapes families and the difficulty of wanting more and different things and the struggle over creator rights. It’s a fabulous book for any comic or romance fan.

Thank you NetGalley for this review copy of Comics Will Break Your Heart by Faith Erin Hicks.
This was a sweet contemporary teen romance about the son of a comic book mogul meeting a Canadian girl whose family sold their stake in the business decades before leaving a lot of bad blood behind.
I enjoyed Miriam as a character. She was enough of a realistic teen without being too perfect, too nice or an exhausting brat. Weldon was also well fleshed out and not some gross rich boy horn dog.
I liked the addition of Miriam’s struggle with her best female friend Raleigh and how their relationship had changed after Raleigh started dating someone who wasn’t nice to Miriam. I thought that tension and the resolution felt accurate to actual teen interaction.
I think a lot of readers can relate to Miriam’s struggle to leave her small town and figure out how to pay for college. But also Weldon’s rebellion and sadness over his parent’s failed marriage and their lack of attention.
I recommend this to anyone looking for a teen romance with complicated relationships against the backdrop of comics, superheroes and small towns.

Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to read this ARC prior to the book's publication, but we did end up buying it for our library collection.

An interesting twist on the Romeo and Juliet story, in which a young woman whose family no longer has the rights to their grandfather's hit comic series falls in love with the son of the current rights holder. An enjoyable read.

Enjoyed story, though it was a little more 'Romeo and Juliet' than I had hoped it would be. All in all, it was a good read, and I cried a little which is always a good sign.

A great book for lovers of comics, and I thought it was very fun to read a book set in Canada. I'm not Canadian myself, but it seemed very Canadian and I had fun catching the slight cultural differences between them and the USA. Where things lacked for me, though, was my connection to the characters. I also didn't like how nerds were picked on or bashed so much. Many book lovers and fans of comics see themselves as nerds, so bashing your audience doesn't make a lot of sense to me. It also felt like the author was trying to tell us that we're not real comics fans unless we're diehard fans who have been immersed in the comic world since birth, which seems a lot like gatekeeping to me. A little more depth would have been nice, too. This felt very shallow. All in all, I'm not a fan.

A light and quick read that nevertheless tackles some potent emotions and deep-seated family issues, "Comics Will Break Your Heart" is the kind of in-culture commentary that many geeks of all genders need right now. It touches on fandom policing, gender policing, and family legacy in a way that is empathetic and sensitive—and therefore is in keeping with Faith Erin Hicks' other worthy works. I walked away feeling as though everything might just turn out okay if the right people fall in love with each other ... which ... yeah, I know that's unrealistic. (So was the Shakespeare and other nerd references this book makes.) But it's also hopeful and optimistic in a way that I crave.

This book is well outside of what I usually read (which is fantasy) but because I also have a fondness for comics, I had to check it out. It was actually pretty good, and overall I did enjoy it, even if it wasn't my favorite thing ever (it's just not fantasy, that's the only bad thing I can say)

Miriam's grandfather created the TomorrowMen, a famous comic fandom, but her family reaps none of the benefits of the comic's popularity or the upcoming film because her family was forced to sign away the rights of ownership many years ago. When Miriam meets Weldon, the son of the current owner of the comics, she wants to dislike him. Soon she and Weldon form a friendship, and eventually their relationship grows into something more. Can their relationship withstand a family rivalry lasting for decades, or will they be forced to go their separate ways?
I enjoyed this book overall, especially because it was about geeks who love comics. The characters were realistic and easy to sympathize with, and the relationships addressed were well drawn. I loved reading about Miriam's relationship with her parents and siblings. They seemed like such a fun, quirky family to be around. Miriam and Weldon's relationship was sweet, though they did have their disagreements. I would have liked to see more illustrations in the book. The comics on the cover were well done and they would have been a great addition to the story. I didn't care for the profanity. It seemed quite excessive for the subject matter and the overall lighthearted tone of the book. Other than that, I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys YA contemporary fiction and superhero comics.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. I also purchased a copy of the book from Amazon. A positive review was not required, and all opinions expressed are entirely my own.

A Romeo and Juliet story set in the modern day comic book world, Comics Will Break Your Heart bring together Miriam and Weldon, two teenagers whose family members have a complicated past. Will their family's past tear these two apart or bring them together?

I'm a big fan of Faith Erin Hick's graphic novels and artwork. Friends with Boys was one of the first ARCs I obtained from NetGalley and loved. I've followed her work in The Nameless City trilogy and Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong. She's a great comic book writer and author, but that prior experience didn't translate well within her first YA novel.

There are some good aspects to Comics Will Break Your Heart. I love the plot of the story. Romeo and Juliet, star-crossed lovers, and all that are always fun to read. I like that it was centered around comics as well as characters that have to face their grandparents/parents' decisions and decide how they want to handle their feelings toward it. There was definite growth in the characters by examining their family's decisions and seeing both sides of the story. I also enjoyed that Miriam's parents were actively in their child's lives. Like there was actual pertinent dialogue between Miriam and her parents that was an important plot point to the story. I liked Miriam to an extent. She wasn't an annoying angst ridden teenager, but she had her flaws. Miriam not wanting to leave her small town but not being sure how she was going to pay for it was a nice side story to follow along. I could completely understand her point of view and I think teenagers at that point in their life would relate to her.

I did have some minor issues that added up including the way the story was written in third person POV. I think it could have benefited from being written in first person. It was kind of distracting how the parents of the two MC's first names were written after they said something like it would have been better as "said mom" or "said dad." It wasn't like Miriam or Weldon called their parents anything other than mom and dad so that made no sense to me. Towards the later half I started not loving the romance. I didn't really feel any excitement towards their relationship. I didn't feel anything for Weldon so that might have added to that viewpoint. He had his own side story but he just felt like the generic love interest most of the time. The secondary plot around her best friend was kind of meh. The story wrapped up easily and seemed silly. What really got me was the climax of the story didn't do anything for me. It wasn't that big of a deal so the tension that comes with that part of the story just wasn't there. The conclusion wasn't as satisfying as I was hoping because I wanted Weldon to stand up for himself with his father. Weldon's side plot surrounded his materialistic father who didn't have the time of day for him and he was kind of a crook. I needed that moment as a reader of him really having it out with his father. Now that I think about it, maybe he had a little moment, but it was just unsatisfying.

Overall, I thought Comics Will Break Your Heart was an okay read. I didn't particularly like it but I could see fifteen and sixteen years old reading and enjoying this. It does have curse words but the way the story is written seems like it is for younger teens despite the MC worrying over college. I think Faith Erin Hicks could do better. I hope she continues to write YA novels because I want to see her improve. She already does a fantastic job in graphic novel format, so I know she has it in her.

Comics Will Break Your Heart is a Romeo & Juliet-style young adult romance that features the youngest generation of two feuding comics families. Miriam's mother settled the big lawsuit case years ago, after her father died, but now the TomorrowMen franchise is massive and has spawned a sure-to-be-huge live action film. Miriam is resentful, even before the scion of the Warrick family, Weldon, shows up in town for the summer. Weldon has been sent back to his father's hometown so as to "not be a distraction" to his father.

As you might expect, both kids have baggage they need to unpack. This worked well as a coming-of-age story, even if there was honestly not much of the "two rival houses" conflict that I was expecting. Miriam's mom is very chill and loves to paint and Weldon's dad is the stereotypical industry bigwig who's lost the soul of the comics. If the two of them had been the romantic pairing, I would have expected more fireworks.

As it was, the story unfolds in a somewhat sleepy, somewhat angsty way, with more focus on the themes of money-can't-buy-happiness and be-grateful-for-what-you-have than I expected. Miriam's BFF's boyfriend is a total jerk to her, in no small part because he sees that her mom paid off their mortgage with the settlement and he thinks her financial woes are trivial. He may have a point, but so does Miriam. Weldon came off as a sad little rich kid and I had a hard time feeling sorry for him, especially since we first meet him when he's just stolen a car. There's no discussion of the fact that since he's a rich white kid, he gets away with this crap.

Overall, I'm glad I read the book. I've loved Faith Erin Hicks's comics for years, and I genuinely enjoyed all the comics nerdery in this novel. It works well as a coming-of-age story and as a romance, but it isn't quite the feud I was expecting.



I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley for review.

3.5: This was cute! I appreciated how there weren't easy answers for the complicated relationships, though I don't know if this was as emotionally heavy as it could have been, given how complex some of the familial/friendship matters were. Sweet romance however which made me very happy and I would 100% read Tomorrowmen comics.

Miriam is the granddaughter of a comic book legacy. Her grandfather was one of the original creators of one of the most famous superheroes. However, he lost the rights and the money to this dynasty, when he was bought out by his partner. Miriam live a quiet life in their Canadian town. Even though her family doesn’t have access to the superhero world, Miriam loves it and works at the local comic shop. While working, a cute tourist stops by and purchases one of her mother’s pieces of art. Miriam is not impressed by this obvious rich boy, but he is super cute. As the two get drawn further and further together, they find that their families have a very tumultuous past…think Romeo and Juliet for comic book geeks. Is it possible for them to have a relationship, or even a friendship?

I wish that there had been a multimedia component of this book, like chapter vignettes with comics. Overall it was an interesting book.

This is going to be a quick review, but I'll post on goodreads and on my blog another longer one.
I really enjoyed this read, it was very sweet, full of comics references and I loved how Geeky the main character was.
Mir was very relatable, sometimes coming as a little too much as a teenager but it didn't make the read less enjoyable.

The romance was slow as sweet, but a little predictable. Also, the issue between the two characters was a little shallow and easily resolved. I guess we could've had something different happen between them, if the book was a little longer.

The ending at Comic Con was amazing, I loved it!

I loved everything about this book (including the fact that I feel more confident about Canadian culture!)

I'm a huge fan of meta novel sand novels that deal with readers and fandom. The great twist of this book was that the characters were not only fans of the comics but that they were intimately related to them. The dual point of view was fabulous as well--as we got both sides of the story. I really liked Mir and Weldon. I loved how complex they were and how honest and real they felt. I stressed alongside Mir about her friendships, future after school and money problems. I liked that Weldon wasn't some spoiled heir to a comic franchise and that he was flawed (I dug the bad boy aspect, I'll admit!).

The worldbuilding of the comics too was really wonderful--it added an extra story that I enjoyed. Faith Erin Hicks is such a talented writer that I really was invested in the comic characters as well as the main story.

My only wish was that we could get some panels in the book! I want to see the TomorrowMen in real life!

I loved all the nods to geekery and fandom in this book and would recommend it to any graphic novel/comics fans who are looking for a fantastic novel to fall into.

I can't wait for Faith Erin Hicks' further novels--I'm sure they're going to be just as enjoyable!

First of all, Happy Book Birthday to this book today! When I first saw that this book was being released, I knew I needed to get it. I have been dabbling in the world of graphic novels for awhile. When comics meets YA, it is a yes please.

This book did not disappoint! It was a story about Miriam and the challenges in her life. No spoilers, but it will keep you turning to the end to find out what happens next. I am glad that I had a chance to read this one, thank you for the opportunity.

Disclaimer: I was awarded this book from Netgalley. Though I did not pay for the book, the opinions are strictly my own.

Comics Will Break Your Heart is a romantic comedy that it's afraid to be funny, serious, lush, and heartbreaking. Miriam is a great narrator, realistically bitter about her family's loss of the TomorrowMan, but not as upset as to dampen her own love of comics. With the inclusion of Weldon, Miriam finds her self caught between her heart and her family's legacy which is just ripe for the DRAMA. Which is not only here in spades, but natural enough for the story to flow easily, allowing itself light moments as well. This isn't a particularly impactful story, but damn if it isn't a fun one.

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillion books for my free copy in return for my honest review! Love you lots!

Two words…Bill Finger also known as the guy who got snuffed on being one of the original creators/illustrators of Batman. The guy who spent decades of his life, trying to get recognized for his work, but was not
acknowledged until after Mr.Fingers death in 1974. Mind you Batman made his first appearance in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_Comics back in 1939! Tsk tsk on the comic book world, but this was and still a big issue in the Graphic Novel industry. There is a great documentary about Bill Finger on Hulu https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/batman_and_bill_2017

Ok now that I have ranted a little, my review on Comics Will Break Your Heart by Faith Erin Hicks, which is out now! Go pick it up at https://www.amazon.com/Comics-Will-Break-Your-Heart-ebook/dp/B07G14VS3N/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2SCF1LW33FQBB&keywords=comics+will+break+your+heart&qid=1550118951&s=gateway&sprefix=comics+will+%2Caps%2C221&sr=8-2

We follow Miriam who is the granddaughter of the co-creator of the famous 1960’s comic book The TomorrowMen. Her family should be rich, considering The TomorrowMen has a huge nerdy fan base, with a multi-million dollar movie coming out. But when her grandfather had to sell his rights, his family literally got nothing. Then a strange handsome boy walks into her job and her world is turned upside down.

This book was really great. I try not to consider myself a comic book snob, because I’m a thirty something year old mom, that bags and boards all her comics, and may or may not have a stash of action figures her kids can sell when she dies. I just know the feeling of being a nerd. Before it was cool be a nerd. When you would get looks for reading comics at lunch time, or you were the only girl in the comic shop filled with boys. I digress, I’m sorry.

We are giving this very great, very awesome book a 5/5 stars! Why you ask? BECAUSE IT GAVE ME ALL THE FEELS!!!!

Make sure you follow us on Instagram! @beedlethebardbooksleeves

See ya soon!

Angie

When I read the premise of Comics Will Break Your Heart, I was all for it. Not only am I a fan of Faith Erin Hicks, but this story is a hate-to-love trope revolving around the world of comic books. Can it get any better than that? No, no it can't.

In a Romeo and Juliet style, Comics Will  Break Your Heart is about Miriam, and the struggle that she calls her life. Mir questions choices, like most teens do, but in this case, she questions if she should continue with her life, her future, if her family can't barely continue with today. The story starts off with a bang. A meeting of Miriam and Weldon, our fated Romeo and Juliet, a fight, and cops. It's an amazing first chapter, and it catapults the story into this superhero trajectory.

I adore Weldon. And while some may say "first-world-problems," emotions are a valid thing. We all want to be love, despite what fortunes life affords us. And Mir. Ugh, my heart breaks for her. We have all been in the place of insecurities and uncertainties. She is on the opposite side of the life spectrum, but her emotions are also a valid thing.

Comics Will Break Your Heart talks about the upside and the downside of riches. But there is so much that goes on within the pages of this book. There are tones of family, loyalty, and forgiveness.  And why I won't seclude it to just financial riches, Faith does a great job talking about these topics in the most relatable way.

I enjoyed this so much, and I think you will to.

*Thank you to the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.*