Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free arc in exchange for an honest review.

Kirby’s Lessons for Falling (In Love) is a graphic novel following Kirby Tan, a climbing prodigy who suffers from a falling injury and ends up joining her school’s newspaper club as an extracurricular while she recovers. She becomes co-editor for the astrology column with Bex who is very loud and opinionated.

Honestly, I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more if i read it when I was younger. This graphic novel is so quintessentially high school, and it does a really good job of showing how difficult it can be to reconcile being queer with having a religious family. I also liked how it explored the way that some queer people can also be very judgemental of queer people who stay religious, or keep their religious family around.

With that being said, I wasn’t invested in the main relationship. I just didn’t feel the chemistry between them. In part, I think this is because we got a quick montage of them catching feelings, then spent a lot more time on the pining after they already liked each other. There’s nothing wrong with establishing a relationship this way, but it’s not my preference.

I requested this arc because I read Messy Roots by the author and absolutely loved it (also the title is so enticing!). I won't lie I wasn't super into it at the beginning. I'm not huge into astrology so I found Bex a bit annoying. But when we got more into the story and Kirby's life, I really enjoyed it. This book made me cry but in a great way. I think Laura Gao is just incredible at writing about family.

Content warnings: Grief, Death of a parent/parental figure, Drinking, Sexual Harrasment

Thank you netgalley and Harperalley Books for a copy of this comic.

I've really been enjoying Laura Gao's work. This coming of age story is full of heart, following Kirby Tan, a girl with a lot of pressure and anxiety from her grief stricken family, her overbearing church aunts, her struggles with internalized homophobia stemming from church, a strained relationship with her mother, to the woes of having a crush on a girl in the school's journalism club. I really liked how this story showed all the different aspects of her life as one large beating heart rather than these separate parts, it made it feel like a much more grounded story than other YA graphics I've read. Every character was so wonderful to meet.

Kirby is on hiatus from her rock climbing passion after an injury, and joins the journalism club to have something to do and somehow, starts a love advice column for the club along with her crush. It leads to way more than Kirby ever expected. Not only do we get to see her grow confident in expressing her feelings to her friends and crush, we also get to see her relationship to her mother transform as she becomes more honest with herself. I highly recommend checking it out when it releases!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the e-ARC of Kirby's Lessons for Falling (in Love)!
4.5 / 5 ⭐

A cute coming of age (and coming out) high school story. Kirby’s Lessons for Falling (in Love) features a slew of dynamic LGBTQIA+ characters, complicated teenage hormones, and a bittersweet ending. In addition to the expected themes, we also have multiple brief depictions of death, illness / medical decline, and grief.

A lovely YA coming of age graphic novel about finding yourself and first love. Kirby has a lot going on - her father passed away when she was young, she recently came out to her mom, her church has certain opinions about homosexuality, she hurt her arm which interferes with her competitive climbing, and she is failing English. To help with her grade she joins the newspaper and meets Bex, the outgoing and eclectic newspaper's astrologer. As the two team up to write a new column Kirby begins to open herself up to living her truth. This is a really fun and sweet graphic novel. Every so often I was confused by pacing and picture placements but overall this is really enjoyable and wonderful intersectional representation.

I really enjoyed this LGBT love filled high school drama with more heart than I thought there would be. The meet cute between the love interests was easy to root for and I look forward to more from this author.

A coming of age graphic novel.

The beginning sucked me in and I was very excited and then it took a turn to Kirby finding a new group of friends through the newspaper team and it just dragged and I wanted it to go back to the climbing. Overall a good story just slow.

Thanks to netgalley and HarperCollins for an eARC

A poignant graphic novel that young adult readers will definitely relate to. It hits all the right notes of the struggles that the target audience typically faces. I think it will appeal to a wide variety of readers. Definitely recommend.

I probably should have read the description more closely because religious themes and trauma take me out of a story to a certain extent. I really enjoyed the romance between the protagonist and the love interest, but the religious subplot made this slightly less enjoyable overall for me personally.

2.5/5 rounded up

I enjoyed #LauraGao 's graphic memoir Messy Roots , so I was excited to read this ARC of #KirbysLessonsForFalling. The story follows Kirby Tan, a teen rock climber who experiences and injury that forces her to try a different club during the school year: newspaper. Here she meets Bex, who helps her write an astrology love column even though it's definitely not what Kirby would normally do. Kirby starts to fall for Bex, but also has to grapple with her feelings as well as her family, family responsibilities, and church community. There are moments of conflict, but overall a tale of exploration of who you are and what you want. A good purchase for HS libraries! Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC!

Finished reading Laura Gao’s Kirby’s Lessons for Falling (in Love), a sapphic YA graphic novel about a girl who gets injured during a rock climbing fall and (reluctantly) joins the school newspaper as an alternative extracurricular. While working with a quirky, astrology-loving girl on a new column, Kirby finds herself falling again—but in a different way this time.

This graphic novel had a ton of fun art, with interesting perspectives and uses of panels. And I loooooved the color palette! There was a great ensemble of characters, and I really enjoyed how Kirby’s rival came back into the story in an unexpected way. I liked seeing Kirby’s relationship with her mom and how it progressed from the flashbacks to the present, as they each dealt with the loss of Kirby’s dad.

Publishes March 24, 2025

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

Very glad I read this, Gao's storytelling and artwork are simply beautiful. I wasn't expecting to see an exploration of paternal loss, and a church family while also talking about religious trauma in the church and tarot. Being able to juggle so many different aspects of Kirby's life in the narrative of her just trying to get her scholarship back post injury was done strongly.

Another great YA graphic novel from Laura Gao, this time a Sapphic opposites attract romance between Kirby, a star rock climber and Bex, an astrology loving relationship advice geek. When Kirby falls in a competition and hurts her wrist she needs to find another extracurricular activity and chooses the newspaper club where she gets paired up with Bex working on an astrology-based matchmaking/advice column.

I loved the great cast of queer friend side characters, the complicated relationship Kirby has with her widowed single mother and the secondary storyline involving Kirby's grandfather who suffered a stroke when she came out and is now confined to a wheelchair. Full of family drama, high school antics, great illustrations, anxiety rep and tons of heart.

Recommended for fans of books like Laura Dean keeps breaking up with me by Mariko Tamaki. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

Laura Gao’s sense of storytelling continues to impress me. Kirby’s character and relationships drew me in from the get-go, and reading her story felt so real. The characters and story are ones you would see in a classic romcom, but the way they were written and the nuance they were given made them feel like you could meet them in person. The only complaint I have is that the bouldering sections were a bit confusing to read, but as someone whose only climbing experience is rock climbing camp in 6th grade, I’ll give it a pass. I adore Laura Gao’s work and will continue to read whatever they write.

Kirby's Lessons for Falling (in Love) is a really sweet sapphic graphic novel that follows a high school rock climber and her relationship with a girl in the newspaper club. It deals with religious homophobia really well, and the messy relationships with family that can cause. The illustrations were great, and I really enjoyed this one!

Thanks to NetGalley, Laura Gao, and Harper Collins for the chance to read and review. My opinions are my own!

Incredible graphic novel about finding inner strength and bravery to do hard things, believing you'll be okay in the end. I loved the sweet Sapphic romance and all the multicultural aspects. There is some religious trauma and fear of disappointing family and grief for a lost parent. I adored the supportive friend group and the astrology references. This is a great read with a lot of emotions.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

An absolutely adorable story about love and learning who you are as a queer religious person. And the love and support of immigrant parents.

Kirby's Lessons for Falling (in Love) is a multi-cultural coming of age story when life comes at you from all sides-- a sidelining injury, a batch of new friends that come with trying to figure out what to with that sidelining injury, an immigrant family dealing with grief over years, both of those passed and those heading toward passing, familial and church expectations, the expectation of someone to love, maybe, and who needs to know about it...

It's a good graphic novel that seems at least partially memoir of friends-to-girlfriends while dealing with basically everything teenagedom has to throw at you.

Thank you to HarperCollins Children's Books | HarperAlley and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for review!

'Kirby's Lessons for Falling (in Love)' is one of my new favorite graphic novels and a key contender for favorite of the year and it's not even out till the next one!

This graphic novel has everything you need to fall in love, whether thats with Kirby Tan, the storyline, the gorgeous romance, the atmosphere, the hope or the artwork in general. I was so attached to Kirby from the very first page and was bawling by the last. There is so much hope and young love and second chances all wrapped in this little book. This is a story I'll cherish forever, I need to hold this physically in my hands desperately.

You will root for these characters that only live in this 2D space because while reading they feel more dimensional than any person you've met. You will hope for them, love them and watch them fall over and over again and still reach a hand out to pull them back up.

Laura Gao please never stop creating.

I felt bad for the main character and how she had to recover form her fathers passing while trying to be the daughter that her mother always wanted. 10/10 read.