This book made me feel like I was 20 again. The messy characters were so real, and were written so well that I feel as if I knew them in school. This book and it's beautiful graphics teleport you back into the confusion of being 20 and desperately grasping at love.

I adored the art and colours. The little drawing of food were delicious. Marseille! The parties!

There was a lot of tenderness and an unbelievable amount of messiness, but in a fun way. The story gets a little hard to follow at times, and I'd hoped for a more satisfying resolution, but overall it was lovely. Lou is a precious baby <3



Thank you Netgalley for providing digital advanced copy in exchange for honest review.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this arc!

i’ve recently ventured into the wonderful world of graphic novels, comic and manga and i’m loving seeing how different art styles can bring a story to life!

this story was Very messy and most of the characters were pretty unlikeable at times but i think this was the intention? the art style was very pretty, but unfortunately this fell short for me and felt a little one dimensional.

I'm not sure what to think about this comic book.

I really enjoyed the art style, especially the coloring but the plot didn't work for me.
I think my main problem is the number of characters and their connections. There's like six of them and everyone has their own story arc. But you cannot fit all of it in such a short book. I think the whole France plot is too much because the author doesn't get a chance to create more nuanced story, and both girls are really undeveloped. Meanwhile in US storyline things are happening too quickly.
But I actually really liked the characters, I liked how messy they are. Really felt like young adults who are making a lot of mistakes.
If you're looking for a quick read with cute art and realistic characters, and don't mind chaos than I can recommend How Could You.

Not gonna lie, I kept getting confused between the characters. All the characters kinda suck and were super messy. The only character I liked was Lou but they weren’t involved much. I felt like the story ended abruptly and had no real conclusion. I did really like the art style and colouring.

Thank you to Oni Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this graphic novel. This art is beautiful, the lgtbqia+ representation is intriguing, and the coming-of-age plot was interesting. However, the disability representation was a bit questionable to me, and some aspects went quicker than expected. Because of these points, I have to give this a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Great little graphic novel about relationship breakdowns and the aftermath. Got through this in about an hour was an easy read. Loved the colour palette and that the author gave each character their own colour and used certain colours to represent different emotions.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this arc

This is such a "slice of life" short graphic novel. It follows the romantic lives of five friends and their time in college. To me, the banter was a bit high-schoolish but you have to remember that they are all 19-21 years of age. I thought this was an overall fun read that showcases what can happen in friend groups. I also really enjoyed the diversity of the characters and background characters shown throughout the book as well as disability representation. Jackie has to be my favorite character because she didn't hold back on letting Molly know how bad of a friend she was. Also, the ending is so relatable haha!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for me to review! Love a messy queer college story, so scooping this one onto the TBR was a no-brainer.

There's not a lot of growth to the characters throughout and they're all so self-centered and ignorant of possible consequences, it reads very much like a bunch of idiot college age kids still figuring out what kind of people they want to be. The premise did make it sound like it would be focused more on Molly, but having the large cast really worked for having so many intertwining storylines. The art is lovely and soft, and the characters are all well defined. Definitely a fun read!

I had a really hard time getting into this one, because the characters all make pretty huge mistakes in their relationships CONSTANTLY. That being said, the illustrations are amazing and the further I read, the more connected I felt to these kids. They do definitely make selfish decisions, but they are college students who are figuring it out. The queer representation is very nice.

I loved that the ending left it with growth, but also without guaranteed forgiveness for past mistakes. Thanks to NetGalley, Ren Strapp, and Oni Press for the chance to read and review.

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through Netgalley.)

Molly and Lou are two besties who were both recently dumped by their girlfriends, Olene and Yona - who then left (together!) for a semester abroad in Paris. Determined to keep Molly from pining the rest of the year away, Lou devises a plan for them to experience all the lesbians that po-dunk Hillock College has to offer. This involves no small amount of help from Molly's roommate Jackie, who's more outgoing than both of them combined, and seems to have all the connections. Drama ensues when both Molly and Lou hook up with Jackie's ex, Anjali. Meanwhile, across the pond, Yona makes a play for Olene, who (unbeknownst to her) is still figuring out her sexuality.

On its face, HOW COULD YOU is mostly about relationship drama - hot, messy, chaotic relationship drama. As an introvert with social anxiety who lived at home during college - and thus missed out on many of these college experiences - I had trouble relating. Some of the characters are pretty unlikable, and they do some terrible things to one another, but I guess that's kind of the point. But this isn't a "love to hate them" kind of situation, either (see e.g. GONE GIRL). Just a really sad train wreck that you totally saw coming but were powerless to stop.

The ending is the story's saving grace, with Molly realizing the redemptive power of change. Sure, she might be kind of a shitty person now, but that doesn't mean she always has to be.

There's also a ton of diverse representation here: Molly and Jackie are lesbians; Yona is bisexual; Lou is nonbinary (I think) and uses a cane; and Anjali is a trans woman (or at least I thought it was heavily implied).

I had somewhat high hopes for this graphic novel as a queer college student with queer friends who studied abroad in basically the same place as two of the characters, and I’m not sure it really lived up to my expectations. It’s a cool concept, and some of my disappointment is probably because I was expecting to relate more, but it also just felt hard to fully care about the characters, in part because I had a harder time telling them apart and in part because I didn’t understand why I should care about them. The art itself was cool, and I liked the author’s note about how it was used to showcase character associations and emotions. I do think we should have more messy queer stories and if that’s what you’re looking for, I think this is a great book to check out. At the same time, I wasn’t particularly compelled by it, and didn’t really feel like the story arc was all that satisfying, even with what could be called some character growth. I hope that this book finds the people that will love it, it just unfortunately wasn’t for me.

It was almost too fast of a read where I never got into it and didn't vibe with any of the characters. Story didnt feel completed so after I was done reading I wasn't left fulfileld or happy about the ending.

Thank you to NetGalley and Oni Press for this eARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

How Could You follows (and I say this affectionately) some messy ahh b!tches, and we love that for them. A fragmented story, one half follows Molly and Lou through college while the other follows their ex-girlfriends, who appear to be cosying up together in the City of Loooove on their semester-abroad. If you tried to connect all the characters in this book with string on a pinboard, you would tie yourself in knots, making for a complex and interconnecting story where no one can sneeze without it causing a breakup, a hook-up, or a bust up. Objectively, the stakes aren't super high, but it will bring you right back to that coming-of-age point in your life where the relationship tension is taut enough to strum a jaunty tune on.

The main POV characters are kind of unlikeable, so if you're a person who wants someone to root for in a book, that may be an issue. Personally, I loved it. There's something really cathartic about reading a book where people are kind of grim to one another, but in a way that feels relatable and not entirely irredeemable. It's also a great reminder that who you are in college...is probably not the greatest person. But that's okay, because everyone is still finding their feet, exploring their identity, and just trying to get by. All we can do is try to minimise the collateral damage we cause.

This book is a must-read for people who enjoyed Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, Loveless, and The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott.

I liked the drawings and some of the parts of the story were interesting but the relationships were too convoluted and one of the MCs was too much of a screw-up without any redemption or even purpose, it seemed. too immature for my liking, didn't work for me

It's a comic about a group of lesbians who study and university and party. Ow and all of them are exes. 🙂 I liked it enough but it's a bit short for my taste. Plus there are 6 characters and it's a bit difficult to keep track of everyone. I am sorry I can't remember anyone's names. They get in all sorts of funny, awkward and "WHY did you do that?" kinda situations.

You do not drag an introvert to a party to then abandon them. 😡

I also wish I had rich parents lol.

#NetGalleyARC A great look at the complexity of relationships, both friends and romantic. A great read that tackles real life situations and makes the reader feel like they’re not alone if they’ve had these experiences.

Intriguing
This cover immediately spoke to me on Netgalley, especially with the genre description. The book was advertised to fans of Heartstopper and Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me. I enjoyed both graphic novels/comics, but this story surely has a more mature vibe to it. For once, our main characters are set in college and find themselves having way more sex than the other characters. Secondly, they go through more relationships on both romantic and platonic level. Our first protagonist has a lot of baggage and struggles with maintaining healthy connections. But not only Molly struggles to find herself and love, but also the other characters teach us about heartbreak and boundaries.


The story
We are thrown into a setting of breakups and heartbreaks. The mood is thus primarily sad and dense, but lightened by the friendships the characters cherish. Our main characters are Molly, Lou, Olene, and Yona, who try to find themselves through their last year of college. Some of them change their course of life and their perception of themselves entirely. And I loved this representation of drastic change, although they struggle with sustaining their friendships through these changes. Although the story only covers a few months, the characters go through a lot of troubles—some self-induced, some in response to other’s decisions. Friendship is the main focus of the story despite the initial scenario of romantic heartbreak. The ending is less overtly happy but important and realistic in a way of a continuous struggle to be a good friend and person.


The style
By the end of the book, Ren Strapp allows us to see behind the scenes of this debut graphic novel. We find some earlier stages of the pages as much as cut characters. Strapp made it easy for us to distinguish the characters due to their distinct personalities and moods, but also by their diverse styles. The cast of characters itself is wonderfully diverse and becomes even more diverse during their self-discovery. The illustrator moreover put specific emphasis on colors, as she explains, and thus gives the whole book amazing dynamics and a lot of thought. Both the colors and the structure of the panels and illustrations emphasize the moods represented in them, which I adored! The book is thus very three-dimensional in its story and on the surface.


In conclusion,
Easy to read but still emotional and complex, this story quickly drew me in. We follow mainly four characters on their way to find love and themselves, struggling with friendship and desires. I really enjoyed this colorful and proud story of growth.

Thank you to NetGalley and Oni Press for a free digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book was so MESSY and GAY. I've never read something that so succinctly captures the experience of every lesbian in an isolated area knowing each other and having canoodled in some way or another. I feel like I was just whispering "oh my god, please stop" for the entirety of this book, but I also could not tear my eyes away. Some of these girls need a time out, I swear to god. The art style is so delectable, which could be to blame for me not giving myself a break from this stress! All of that to say, this book was also incredibly hilarious and messy, and I had a great time reading it.
I haven't seen such creative use of panels and bleeds and layering and breaking the walls of panels since reading the manga Our Dreams at Dusk, and I adored how visually stunning it was. One scene that really entranced me was when Molly was running while crying--just so fucking cool. The author's choice of color was so playful and bold, and I was just in awe. I loved that the author included a little bonus explanation behind their choice of color in this book. This is the messy lesbian rep we need!!! 5 stars, no notes.

This was an extremely fast read but I didn't get into it. The characters felt pretty surface level, they lacked a little depth and I just didn't truly care about their "love" stories. I didn't really feel the feelings, it was all a bit surface level really. There were so many terrible decisions that just came out of nowhere and I was just left confused. It almost felt like it should have had a first volume or something that I missed. I basically didn't get it.