Ok, so how much did I LOVE this??? I was not sure I would after the first story, which didn't go much of anywhere, but the second had me cracking up and the end had me in legit tears missing my own ride or die girls whom I love and miss. Such a beautiful story about strong female friendship!

Oh my gosh I loved this book!! Beautiful stories revolving around a group of friends in their daily lives.
I always tend to enjoy graphic novels, and this one did not disappoint. The art style, the characters, and the representation were all perfect. I have been wanting to see a 'slice of life' story centered around BIPOC characters for a while now and these heartwarming stories were just what I wanted.

I love this!

First of all, I love the cover! Each character has a distinct personality, and you can tell just on their looks.

Now, back to the review. The first "Chapter, we're introduced who I believe is Kimamana , and the name of the chapter is "Wash Day." May I note, each character (4 in total) have their own Chapter, and they have a different story. We start off with her coming home for the night, waking up, getting and the shower and such. I like the inclusion of the bonnet, because people don't include those much, but I fangirled over seeing it in Twins by Varian Johnson, soooo. Anyway, there is LIGHT nudity, including her breasts, but I don't think that's really anything to worry about because it's human anatomy. I could understand if it were showing her full body, especially since I'm, yk, a minor. She peeks into her roommates' bedroom to check in on her before heading to get breakfast at what seems to be a corner store nearby.

She gets to her friends house, continues washing her hair, and they bond over smoking weed, and catch each other up with life.

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The second chapter is called 'Group Chat', where we follow a girl named Nisha. She enters her local hair salon, in need of a DESPERATE hair wash. Sitting at the wash station, she gets her hair washed, and whilst it's being braided, she chats on text with the other girls. She tells a story about her date (Small Spoiler, it went somewhat wrong, with a sneaky link crashing the party at one point!) Again, we have a light point where it's definetly proper to label this graphic novel as 'Adult' and 'Young Adult', with a small sex scene (One clip).

We end her chapter with her braids being tightened and done.
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The third chapter is called 'Bright Side', where we get to the mental health side of things.

We meet a character named Davene, who seems to be on the left side of life when it comes towards her mental health. She seems tired, and according to her friends, she hasn't been herself. Waking up, she realizes she missed her hair day, and messages a stylist letting her know. Davene ends up texting a friend (Cookie) who does her hair in cornrows for her, so she can wear a wig for the day.

Davene's place is a mess, and this is when we meet cookie, where she says that it isn't her for her place to look like this. They talk, allowing for Davene to realize that her friends miss her.
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The Fourth chapter, we meet our last main character, which is Cookie!!

We follow Cookie around and meet some valuable people in her life, including her grandma, who suffers from dementia.
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VERY last chapter is where we see the girls get all together and head out to party for the night. They all look stunning, They have romance problems, unwanted interactions, and romantic encounters, which is what made this book so enjoyable.

Five stars from me, I LOVED this!! Cannot wait for publish date. <3

Black Girl Reads,
Zoe Harris

This gorgeous graphic novel follows four young Black women in both their personal lives and friendship with each other. It’s a truly excellent book. All of the characters are unique and fun and likeable. There’s also really great representation—there’s different colored black women, but my favorite is Cookie, a Black Latina who is also a queer black woman. There’s also good representation of different issues that all women deal with—mental health, feeling alone, struggling in relationships, family issues. Finally, the friendship that the four women have is probably the most beautiful part of the entire book. They stick up for each other, take care of each other, and love each other with all of their hearts. This book really has it all: good characters, fun plot lines, enjoyable dialogue, heartwarming. I highly recommend picking this up ASAP.

Art and color were superb. The friendship between the four women was heartening, especially as adult women. And seeing them all come together despite their various challenges was also very positive. The plot was a bit weak, but aside from that it was great.

AHHHH

THIS WAS ONE OF THE BEST GRAPHIC NOVELS I HAVE EVER READ. LITERALLY!

To start off, the artwork was so freaking pretty. I will literally never recover from it. The amount of detailing and thought put into each frame was amazing. The artist really must have had so much patience, as it was not only hair, but color mixing and such that would have probably been a pain to do.

Now to talk about the plot, I really loved it. Graphic novels are obviously drawing and dialogue driven, so I really just sat down and enjoyed the ride! Every aspect of the plot also felt well thought out as well. I especially enjoyed the fact that all the stories were tied into different aspects of a hair washing day. As an Indian woman, I too have to dedicate the majority of one day towards haircare.

The thing that impacted me the most though, was how harassment and racism were used within the plot. It didn't feel like simple plot devices used to spruce up the story, it felt real. Honestly, it hit too close to home for me. When this book is released, I will be first in like for a physical copy. It is too pretty to not get one.

Thank you to Net Galley and Chronicle Books for this advanced copy, but all opinions are my own :)

Wash Day Diaries was an amazing graphic novel with beautiful art and a great story. It takes place around four friends and their everyday struggles with social, mental and other issues. It address many hot topics and issues without making it the main premise of the book or it taking over the story. This story is not meant for me nor could I relate to the characters but the way it is written has something for everyone to take away. I found myself laughing at funny moments or gasping at the drama and the story was truly enjoyable. I can’t wait to be able to sell this and see other people read it.

I LOVE girl power stories, I love slices of life and I love found family. This was SO enjoyable. I know it wasn’t meant for me and wasn’t something I could relate to, but I love how the hair was framed throughout the story. Also the fact that racism wasn’t a central plot point? Amazing and I’m so grateful for it. I love how REAL their friendships are and would ABSOLUTELY love to get a physical copy once they’re out. The art perfectly matches the cover and doesn’t fluctuate very much, but where it does(watercolor panels) its BEAUTIFUL.
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I love this little slice of life adult graphic novel! I read it in one sitting and enjoyed the journey of friendship between these 4 Black women, the everyday life and mental health struggles that they faced. As a woman of color in her 20s, I could very much see a part of myself in this book.

I really valued the self-care aspect of the book and how the focus was rooted in a Black woman’s personal experiences in how they take care of their hair. We need more books like this that focus on Black joy and if you’re looking for that, I wholeheartedly recommend this book to you.

Rating: 5 stars

This book was everything to me, it was a love letter to being a black woman and I loved every second of it. I loved how all of the characters experienced different aspects of blackness though the sections like washday and mental health struggles. I also loved the art and animation style. I felt like the book could’ve maybe used more dialog but overall it felt substantial.
Pros: creative, diverse, beautiful characters that gave us a glimpse into the beautiful intimacy of the black woman experience
Cons: lack of dialogue/ text

This book was incredibly slow at the start due to their not being any wording for what felt like the first 35 pages. Overtime, I noticed the author spent more time with the illustrations than wording because it showed; the illustrations were highly detailed and drawn well! This book reminds me of Sex and the City because it’s 4 best friends living there life, backing up one another and being each other’s ride or die.

WASH DAY DIARIES is a love letter to Black femininity, with beautiful art that adds depth and dimension to a thoughtful story of friendship and caretaking (both self- and other-oriented). The four friends (Kim, Daveen, Cookie, and Tanisha) are in very different places when it comes to careers, mental health, and romance, but there's no sense of shame or competition -- they're cheerleaders and besties, with their intimacy and trust in one another demonstrated through the familiar routines of hair maintenance. You can feel the love these friends share while you're reading this book, and the graphics and layout are so creative and subtle in the ways they emphasize the characters' states of mind. The group chat chapter, told as Nisha gets her hair braided, is a real standout. Can't wait to stock this beauty in store & to see what's next from Rowser & Smith!

Wash Day Diaries is a celebration of friendship. Centered around the wash day experiences of these Black women, it's a story of ritual, self-care, and acceptance. Not only is it about the ways we take care of ourselves, but also how we take care of others. These vignettes were touching glimpses into friendships and personal journeys. It's tender not only in how our hair impacts our sense of self, but how it can be a signal of affection and love.

What a great adult graphic novel about friendship and self-care. Loved the interconnecting stories revolving around wash days. And that cover is GORGEOUS. Will definitely be adding to my list of graphic novel recs for adult friends.

I loved this graphic novel! I didn’t mean to read it all in one sitting, but it happened! The art and colors were beautiful and I really enjoyed the story. I liked this slice of life from four friends.

- Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

The ways to best describe this book:

Quick-read
Fun
Great imagery
Awesome characters
Heart

All ingredients for a story that will have you coming back for more installments.

Note: I am reviewing the advance uncorrected proof, thanks to the publisher and NetGalley.

I really loved this graphic novel! It’s split into 5 stories that could technically be enjoyed standalone, but work even better when read together. Through each chapter, the author and artist create a detailed portrait of the central friend group that is both endearing and complex. In particular, I loved the relationship between Cookie and Davene, and how that storyline explored depression. In addition to the naturalistic writing, I also adored the art in every story. The layout of the panels — especially in the Group Chat chapter — is really creative and fun, and the three colorists provided a unique, atmospheric color palette to each story.

I absolutely loved this graphic novel. It did a great job of showing the love and friendship between these women through interconnected short stories each from a different perspective. I highly recommend this one.

5 powerful, beautiful, strong, female friendship stars!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a digital copy for review ^^

I really loved this. I came in blind, not reading too much about the novel. I wanted to be completely surprised, besides reading a bit from the title's description.

This was so beautiful and powerful, sometimes dark, and just so much more than I expected. This is about celebrating Black beauty and culture and cherishing amazing female friendships. This graphic novel is composed of a handful of short stories and they all tie beautifully in together. I smiled, laughed, and cried throughout. And can we talk about how GORGEOUS these illustrations are?? A true work of art in every aspect.

My only disappointment would be that this is a standalone! T_T I would absolutely read more of this, were it a series. Amazing and stunning!

Wash Day Diaries is beautiful. Each page is an artistic masterpiece. The various styles featured, curls, braids, cornrows, become the basis upon which the story is built, both figuratively as these women’s tales are connected by their hair and literally as the details of the different styles become the background the images are juxtaposed against.

This graphic novel follows a set of four friends, each with a unique story, as they nurture their hair and their souls on wash day. My personal favorite of these stories was Group Chat because of how well it captured the personality and spark of the storytelling. Each character’s unique color palette, whether it’s Davene’s blues or Cookie’s sunburst, reflects her personality and her unique challenges and experiences. Altogether, the stories and art are intentionally and gently emotional. When I first started reading this, I didn’t anticipate the level of raw emotion that would be captured so quickly and with so few words. There is an intimacy in the connections that these women share as they style their own and each other’s hair that symbolizes the rich cultural tradition of Black women caring for themselves and each other.

Once I started this book I couldn’t walk away. I devoured the whole book in one sitting and when I finished reading it once, I went back to revisit my favorite scenes again, and then again. A final note, I will never personally understand the experience of a wash day and the beauty of cultivating Black hair, and that’s okay. Wash Day Diaries created a window for me to see a bit more clearly into a community full of love and kindness and I am so appreciative to have had the chance to look.