What an adorable queer teen graphic novel! This is incredibly well rounded and delightfully sweet. It’s also age appropriate and takes the time to cover a myriad hard hitting subjects with grace and compassion. The only thing I wasn’t interested in was the few pages of the fictional manga book throughout, but the artwork overall was spectacular. Highly recommend.

4⭐️

First, thank you NetGalley and Mad Cave Studios for the ARC.

Navigating With You by Jeremy Whitley is a POC-led WLW graphic novel.

I absolutely loved Neesha and Gabby’s relationship and their characters were incredibly realistic. The art was equally stunning.

I also adored the whole idea of the book club and the role that the shared love for the manga played in the evolution of their relationship.

TW: PTSD, biphobia, death of parent, emotional abuse, toxic relationships

I had a wonderful time reading this book. Both characters were well developed, and I loved seeing their relationship grow, and how the characters evolved with each other. I thought the representation present was well done, including a lesbian, disabled MC, and a Latinx, bisexual MC struggling with grief and PTSD. I also enjoyed how the book included snippets of the book series that brought the two girls together. The art style was lovely to look at, and I will definitely think about picking up this author's other books.

Thank you so much for letting me read this graphic novel. This is a very tender and relateble story. And the art is so cool.

Very hard to not have a biased POV, but I simply can not find much to fault this story because there were far to many aspects of this story were I felt SO SEEN and it was such a simple concept but It held its own and stood firm and tall.
ART- SUPERB
STORY- HEARTWARMING
ME BY THE END- COMPLETLY CRUSHED

I loved this so much!!! One of my favorite graphic novels now, I'm so happy to have a graphic novel with sapphic, POC, and disability representation.. The story was perfect, well-developed, made sense, and was entertaining to read. I also loved that it took me more than an hour to read as I go through most graphic novels in 20-30 minutes. The characters were also great, I felt connected to each of them and their stories, and their relationship was also done magnificently. The art was done beautifully, I loved the colors as well as the drawings themselves. I also really enjoyed the snippets of Navigator Nozomi that the author included throughout the novel! Overall I would 100% recommend this to anyone and everyone, 5 stars from me!

Thanks you to Netgalley and the publisher for sharing an egalley with me ahead of the books publication.

I really enjoyed the character dynamics here. I love the casual undermining of racist and ableist Tropes from other characters. I also love how different the main characters are. They're the odd couple. I do feel like they looked a little similar (even with different skin colors and clothes) which I found distracting yet I love how they used fandom to relate to each other. That's been my experience too.

The storytelling didn't totally work for my but I did enjoy the character development generally.

Three stars.

Rating: 4.25

Themes / Representation:
Disability rep
PTSD
Cerebral Palsy
LGBTQIA+
Sapphic / WLW
Manga
Book Club
High School
POC MC

Content Warnings: abusive relationship, death of a parent, minor homophobia, ableism

A fantastic and fun story of two girls becoming friends (and maybe more!) Neesha and Gabby are both new in town and become fast friends. After finding out they both love the same manga series that neither had finished - off they go onto a quest to find the volumes and finally finish the series. But as they grow closer as friends, they learn more about themselves and each other - and a growing spark forms between them.

I absolutely loved each character! They each had their strengths and weaknesses, and worked together. No miscommunication trope here! I loved how the Neesha and Gabby talked to each other and learnt to be vulnerable with one another, having clear boundaries and communication.
The artwork was gorgeous and the story was well paced, but the clear highlight was the characters. If you like character-driven stories - this one’s for you!
Overall, a gorgeous sapphic romance I recommend to everyone!

First off a BIG Thank you to NetGalley, the Author and the Publisher for this ARC!

This was just sooo cute! 😍

Heartwarming and very love filled read, whether it be a friendship or as lovers, it was very respectful.
Topics like how one can be a supportive friend or partner to someone with different needs, or is in crisis and needs gentle and caring comfort, or sharing a past experience in which struggles like racism or biphobia were invalidated, are all handled perfectly sweet.
We consistently see the girls respond respectfully and supportively to one another, and the positive response of how validating and affirming it is.
But we also see either brief interactions of malicious or ignorant passerby, or a short retelling of a past (bad) experience. But the negative is always brief and balanced out by experiencing the positive now.
It’s handled honestly but in a way that doesn’t force us to watch the girls be mistreated.

This is one of the rare stories that feels like it was written for teenagers instead of adults reflecting on their teen years from their current perspectives. It dwells on the thoughts and emotions felt during those years in such a perfect way. I really enjoyed it.

I binged this book in one sitting. Neesha and Gabby’s friendship was so natural and believable. The way they provided safe spaces for the other and respected each other’s boundaries was refreshing and sets an example for readers’ to think back to and refer to in navigating their own friendships. Getting to read along with their book club was fun (even if I wished those pages were more detailed and felt less like sketches) and the arch these friends go through is a joy to follow.

This is a teenage romance that really feels like being that age and dealing with big emotions and hard situations and it being so hard to navigate. Which is why the title of it fits so perfectly. These two girls are figuring out life. They’ve both had past relationships and breakups and different intensities of heartbreaks.

They become friends through the love of a hard to track down manga, but eventually as they support each other through highs and lows for them both they come to realize their feelings run deeper than friendship. It’s nice to see the development of their maturity as the comic goes on. They realize and grow together both as friends and later on as girlfriends and it was really beautiful to see. The full circle moment we find them in at the end really brought home to me how great of a read this was.

While I would’ve loved to have a comic like this as a teen it still feels relevant to now. We all experience tragedies and we all experience good and bad relationships in life. When we find the people that are truly there for us and love us exactly are those are the people that are treasures to never let go of.

This is a beautiful read for simply being human.

📚✨ BOOK REVIEW: Navigating with You by Jeremy Whitley ✨📚

I just finished Navigating with You and wow, this graphic novel really hit all the right notes! It’s not my usual pick when it comes to illustration style, but the story sounded so intriguing that I had to give it a try—and I’m so glad I did!

The story follows two young characters on a journey of self-discovery, love, and friendship during a transformative summer. What really stood out to me was how supportive the parents were throughout the story, especially the relationship between Neesha and her mom. It reminded me so much of how I was with my own mom, who passed away 17 years ago. That connection made this read even more special.

Plus, how fun is it that the author, Jeremy Whitley, also wrote My Little Ponies? When I told my daughter, who’s currently obsessed with My Little Ponies, she got so excited! It’s always fun when our reading worlds collide like that. 🦄📖

And Gabby? As a Florida girl who loves the beaches and outdoors, I felt an instant connection with her character. The ending was perfectly imperfect—realistic and satisfying, which made the story feel even more genuine.

If you’re looking for a heartfelt, inclusive, and beautifully crafted story, Navigating with You is a must-read. Highly recommend! 🌊💕

I love to see more and more types of representation showing up in books. But to me it felt like that was the only purpose of this book. The characters and ploy felt like an after thought from someone who wanted to make a point. And a point that has been made MANY times already at that. Felt un genuine to me

OH THIS WAS CUTE! a story about two girls starting a book club and falling in love is such a cute premise!

This story was really wholesome and realistic to how relationships form. There was a heap of representation for queer, poc and disabilities and while I can’t speak to how accurately it was portrayed, I did appreciate the list of resources at the end of the book!

The only part of this book I struggled with was the short stories of the manga they were reading in between. It really took me out of story and I struggled to follow the side story along with the main.

I loved the references to nerd culture with cosplay and conventions!

alsoooo revolutionary girl utena reference <3

Thankyou NetGalley and Mad Cave Studios for an ARC of this graphic novel for an honest review

This cute graphic novel follows two queer teens in their quest to finish their favorite manga series and their journey to self-acceptance. Neesha Sparks, a passionate costume designer and outspoken community activist with a disability, is starting fresh at a new school. Gabby Graciana, an optimistic surfer, is also the new kid in town. When they discover a shared love for the manga series *Navigator Nozomi*, they quickly bond over more than just being the new faces at school. However, there's a twist—they've both read the series, but neither has finished it! Determined to find out how the story ends, the girls embark on an exciting quest to track down the remaining books. Along the way, their story intertwines with the adventures of *Navigator Nozomi*, as they discover not just the missing books, but also acceptance, friendship, understanding, and love.

This was a beautiful story that was told in a unique way, with us following the characters' journey while it was told in parallel to their manga. It brought up some heavy topics too such as toxic relationships and survivor guilt. I recommend this book to anyone who has found companionship in a shared interest for a book!

This comic is lovely. The art style is really cute (it feels like the artist may have been inspired by One Piece in the way he draws faces, but it's a lovely unique style), with really lovely colour work. The story also flips between the main story, told in full colour, and a manga the girls are reading, which is black and white, and that style switch is a really nice touch.

The story is great -- two girls moving to a new school, one battling with grief over her mother and in a long-distance relationship with a controlling biphobic dickhead, and the other jaded with how the world treats her because of her disability. I really liked both characters a lot.

My one complaint with the book is that the test is pretty small and it does that horrible thing Western comics do where every third word is in bold italics and you get really bad eye strain because you keep having to emphasis random words in your head . Like, enough, please. It didn't happen much in the first half of the book (I'd have DNFd it if it had), but suddenly 60% through it's like they realised they weren't hitting their bold italics quota.

This was such an enchanting story of love, friendship, disability, support, just gave me all the feels start to finish. The relationship between Neesha and her mother was so pitch perfect, Neesha's blend of vulnerability and self advocacy, Gabrielle's optimism and anxiety. I sometimes feel a little jealous of tweens and teens coming of age in a time of such great books, reading this book was definitely one of those times.

This was the sweetest and most wholesome story. I loved the diverse representation and their friendship, their shared love of manga, and their journey. I like that they set up a sequel and I really hope there is one.

This is a lovely book featuring diverse main characters. Neesha and Gabby are teens who meet at school and bond over a shared interest in a manga series they both started reading but never finished. They decide to track down the books and read them together. They soon bond and develop a strong friendship while reading the manga series together. As they continue getting to know each other, a sweet romance blooms. If you are looking for a cute story that features manga and developing relationships look no further. Thank you Mad Cave Studios for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.