I'm not sure what I was expecting going into this book, but I do know that I wasn't disappointed. I loved this book and I wish I could reread it again for the first time.

This was basically Princess Diaries meets Diary of a Wimpy Kid. There's not too much about it that was super memorable to me. I did like that it included an unhealthy relationship that was gotten out of when the character realized it. It's categorized as a graphic novel on Netgalley but I think the ratio of text to images is too high for that. It'd be a good read for teens that want to read something more book like than a graphic novel but are still a bit intimidated by prose. And this is a minor gripe but it annoyed me that the character accessing the video history of her friends was seen as no big deal. It might be the librarian in me but I was internally screaming at the violation of privacy.

Sadly I couldn’t connect with the story in any way. This was in the graphic novel/ comic section on NetGalley but it’s a written diary with some drawings. I think the author constructed a very real view of the live of a 17 year old in 1996 but I didn’t find the story or characters very interesting to follow for over 200 pages. The art style is very nice and was very helpful in providing a visualised look inside Christine’s brain and the turmoils she went through.

I loved Hope Larson's fictional take of her teenage years in "Be That Way.' As a person about the same age, I appreciated the very authentic look back at the 1990s. She captured the teenage experience perfectly, and I just really liked the characters and story line.

Partially prose journal, partially visual/comics storytelling — this book allows Hope Larson to explore some highly creative ground, and the result is very cool. Each page offers for and allows for something new and unexpected.

I really enjoyed this at the start. It is kind of a YA version of “Amelia’s Notebook” since the main character Christine keeps a journal (with some pictures and comics) for a year during high school. The art was really cool. I liked the bigger pictures that she drew rather than the comics (which weren’t really my personal favorite style) and I enjoy these “slice of life” stories.

However, as the story progressed, I liked it less. I didn’t like how catty Christine was with the other girls around her and I didn’t like how the friendship breakup was handled. Clearly Landry needed some kind of intervention and Christine just blew her off.

I also really didn’t like the romance. It was obvious the guy Whit was a tool, but I feel like she had sex with him just to prove a point to Paul. This is a personal preference for me, but I don’t like it in books when the main character has sex with the sleazy guy that you know is going to turn out to be awful. I especially don’t like this in YA. Again, that has more to do with me as a reader than the book itself.

Overall it was okay.

I was disappointed because I went into this thinking it was a graphic novel but instead it was a novel with a few illustrations throughout.

With that being said it was a good book. It was written how a 17 year old would write, & felt like it was set in 1996. It dealt with topics like breakups & griefs which are universal topics despite your age.

This is a quick read & should definitely be checked out!

Larson has done a number of graphic novels for young adults, including some featuring classic comic book characters like Batgirl and a couple of “high school” series, but also the highly regarded standalone Salt Magic, which won an Eisner Award. This one, while it’s definitely a rom-com, is probably her most thoughtful book so far. It’s also about half-and-half text and illustration (and not all the latter is “comic book,” either). The narrator, Christine, is a high school senior in Asheville, North Carolina, and her life revolves mostly around her widowed mother, her two younger siblings, and her best friend, the boy-magnet and frequently uncontrolled Landry. And, of course, her writing and her drawing, in the form of this diary/journal, which covers the entire year of 1996, from New Year’s Day to the following New Year’s Eve. Chris is going to grow up a lot in the course of that year, losing old friends, acquiring new ones, losing her virginity, and having her heart broken more than once. She’s also going to learn some things about herself and what she’s capable of when she asserts herself, and that’s going to help as she faces going out into the world of college next year. The nice thing is, Christine is not an extraordinary person with amazing talents. She’s pretty ordinary, in fact. But watching her learn and mature is a fascinating experience and you’ll find yourself hoping for a sequel, just to find out what happens next.

Be That Way is an incredibly charming mix of text, comics, and illustrations that combine to give you the impression that you're really peeking into the journal of a teenage girl in the 90s. It was thoroughly enjoyable for me, as someone who, although I was born in the 90s, remembers a time before smartphones and ubiquitous social media. Be That Way touches on all the staples of being a teenager - crushes, friendships, fights, break-ups, frustration with school, family, and figuring out what you want to do with your life. While I found it entertaining and charming, the story was a little trope-y; if you've read a lot of chick lit like I did in high school, you can pretty much see where things are going, but that doesn't undermine the overall experience. I did wish there was a little more time at the end for Christine to breath and enjoy the place she was at rather than cutting abruptly after a big moment, but that's a minor thing.

This was such a special, unique deep dive into a girl's diary. A time capsule of growing up in the 90's and what it was like being a teenage girl back then.

Christine wants to be popular and liked and wants some love, too. Recuperating from the grief of losing her dad, this really gets started when her friend Landry accuses her of not being the same since his passing. And maybe that's true. Either way, Landry's not a part of her life anymore and Christine is facing a lonely summer. So she gets a job at a video store and starts dating her neighbor.

Not going to lie to you, this is a little plot, just vibes kind of book. The art is absolutely beautiful and truly makes it. As a kid that was alive in the 90's, I can tell you that the nostalgia was real here.

This book was pretty special to me.

So, I had kind of assumed that this was a graphic novel, but turns out it's not. Oops. There are illustrations, but it's definitely not a graphic novel.

The plot of Be That Way was pretty much exactly what the blurb promised - a teenage girl's diary entries. In this case this wasn't a good thing, because the book was boring. The plot is just the main character's day to day life, and honestly, teenagers just aren't that interesting. Since I was not invested in the story at all the book seemed to drag on forever.

The way the mc talked about her former friend or other girls was pretty mean sometimes, so that was something that bothered me.

In the end this was a disappointing read. I really enjoyed some of the author's previous works (e.g. Salt Magic, Goldie Vance), but this book didn't live up to my expectations.

I liked how the main character is in her teens. I like how the book is written as a graphic novel. It’s interesting how the book explodes different topics teenagers deal with. I liked how the main character has many different emotions in the story. I think it is cool how the story portrays friendship.

Christine's life is a bit of a mess, but she is totally fine! Plot twist she is kind a not fine and the more you read about her antics in high school, the more you hope she does get some nice peace. From friendship issues, to grief, to first summer job, to getting a car, to various moments of love. We get to read it all in a journal type format, composition notebook diary. A true blast from the 90's past. The pages are adorned with artwork, and personalized touches as the years go by creating a true sense that this is the personal thoughts and days of Christine.

Overall, very lovely format that I haven't seen done a lot and for that creative reason I am deeply in love with this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The format didn’t work for me personally, but I think some people will really enjoy it. Rather than a more traditional graphic novel, it’s a mix of longer diary entries (all text), short comics, illustrations, and some pages that are primarily illustration with sparse text. I really liked that the illustrations had a mixed media feel - some had a colored pencil look, some had a pen and ink look, etc. And while many of the comics feel modern and polished, there are plenty of illustrations that are a bit messy and look like they are authentically from a teenager’s journal. It really shows the range of the illustrator.

I think since the illustrations were so appealing, and then the journal entries were often large blocks of text, I tended to be less engaged in the large text portions. I ended up skimming some of them to just get enough of what was going on. I think I probably would have preferred to have the longer text blocks done in comics as well with just a few snippets of diary entries.

*3.5 ⭐ rounded up to 4*

This book was an eARC from NetGalley. Thank you so much to the publisher and Hope Larson!

I will start this by saying that I'm a huge fan of Larson's comics. I love her artwork and her stories (I love the All Summer Long series and A Wrinkle in Time.) This book was quite different, but by far the best of her art. It was really dynamic and thoughtful. The story itself is kind of lacking in some parts. It's typical high-school drama and problems, crappy boyfriends and moody teenagers, but I liked the ending. It pretty much made up for the smaller parts that I did not like and I loved how honest/raw the mc Christine was.

An amazingly woven tale that goes in and out of fiction and visuals - truly a treat for the eyes! Thank you, dear publishers, for allowing to read the ARC!

I love how this book flirts with the graphic novel and fiction line. I love the way the story is written in diary entries and how the story is formatted with the drawings interfiled with the entries. I can't wait to order this for my library.

I was a little disappointed because I was really expecting a graphic novel when in reality it was more like a lot of text with a few illustrations.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to identify with or understand the main character and that made my reading very slow and a bit annoying at times. I couldn't understand what was going on, and as I didn't feel involved with the story, that certainly didn't help the situation.
I just don't think this book was for me, but the writing was pretty good and I'm sure others will find its positive points.

Thank you so much to the publisher and netgalley for accepting my request to read and review this title!

Unfortunately, I released fairly soon after starting this that this wasn't the one for me. I assumed it would be more of a graphic novel but it was almost more of an illustrated book. I also struggled with the protagonist as I could not for the life of my figure out if she was 12 or closer to 16-16 as she has very immature thoughts whilst also having relationships etc. I did not resonate with nearly any of her inner thoughts.

But overall this was definitely too young for me and after getting through a good chunk I thought I'd better mark it as a DNF instead of finishing it and rating it poorly due to me not being the target audience.

I've given the book a 3 star rating as netgalley does not allow reviews without ratings, this is because I found the illustrations to be appealing and I could tell that maybe some younger people would enjoy this and I simply wasn't the target audience.

I liked this!

Did it say anything new or particularly interesting? Not really, but the writing is good, the teenagers feel like real teenagers (with intense emotions and impossible scenarios and a vision of the world filtered through everything that encompasses the life of a 16 year old without being overly cliché or making fun of them) and the story is cute.


Thank you NetGalley and Margaret Ferguson Books for the opportunity to read this ARC.