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.

I was really interested and locked in the very beginning of this graphic novel, especially all the stuff having to do with climbing. Once the character's story switched to her joining the school paper I was pretty bored. I stuck with it until close to 70%, but tbh it felt like torture. I was fully bored by this one.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an e-copy of this book. I’ll first start off by saying that I liked the art style and the overall message even if it was hard to discern. But I had a really hard time following along which is an issue that I’ve never with graphic novels. It seemed like the panels would just jump around and the text didn’t make sense in a lot of places. It felt like I was missing pages sometimes. There would be random characters that would pop up out of nowhere and talk and then the next panel they would be completely gone and it would be a new set of characters. There would be text bubbles that just sounded like they weren’t supposed to be there, and didn’t flow with the rest of the text on the page. It just made reading this a chore and unenjoyable.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!!

Wasn’t a huge fan of the art style here, but I enjoyed where the story went. Kirby’s interest in climbing because of her dad was sweet. I’m glad she got some closure and character development. This was a cute graphic novel and I’ll have to read more from this author for sure!