2somethingI finished reading Hello Sunshine, a graphic novel by Keezy Young.
So, some background. Young got their start with a webcomic Yellow Hearts in 2017, on the now-defunct site Sparkler Monthly. Yellow Hearts was abandoned and then rebooted in Never Heroes, which was also eventually abandoned. I really enjoyed both of those comics and was sad to see them end early.
Young then switched to writing short comics which they self-published on Itch . Then last fall, they released Hello Sunshine, a graphic novel with a traditional major publisher.
Yellow Hearts and Never Heroes had very small fanbases, but Hello Sunshine has been on hold at my local library for months. I finally got to read it.
So does it live up to the hype? Let's find out!
Alex is a 16-year-old boy with some sort of mental illness (eventually stated to be schizoaffective disorder), which was also shared by his late mother. After Alex goes missing, the four people closest to him team up to find him. These include Alex's boyfriend Noah (who can't come out to his parents because they are Fundamentalist Christians), Alex's neighbor and childhood friend Sky (a trans girl and the only one who doesn't have a difficult family), Alex's twin brother Jamie (who is angsty about losing his mother young and having an emotionally distant and overworked dad), and Jamie's girlfriend Izzy (who is gay but afraid to admit it even to herself).
Each chapter is told from the perspective of a different main character: Noah, Sky, Izzy, Alex, Jamie, and then back to Alex. While every main character plays a significant role in every chapter, the change in perspective has us constantly questioning what is real.
Alex's mother frequently heard demons talking to her, and Alex started hearing them shortly before his disappearance. Our heroes start to wonder: were the demons hallucinations, or did he really have magical powers that allowed them to see demons? The reader has to wonder this too, and it's very likely that whatever you guess will be wrong.
The scariest part for me was when we finally see Alex's perspective. In the comic, most speech is depicted with black text on white speech balloons. The demons Alex hears usually have gray, black, or blue speech bubbles, but every once in awhile one of them will speak with white speech bubbles, making it very difficult to discern which lines are coming from demons and which are from "real" people. The author used the unique features of the medium of comics to make us experience what Alex feels.
Now, it's time for some spoilers.
SPOILERS INCOMING! SKIP IF YOU DON'T WANT THE ENDING SPOILED!
Reading through it, I expected to learn that all of what Alex and his mom saw was real, not a hallucination. But it turns out to be both.
Alex hallucinated demons, but he also has magical powers. He tried casting a spell to make the demons visible, hoping it would make them less scary, but in the process he accidentally made them real, allowing the others to see them.
The author manages to avoid either of the pitfalls of making it all a hallucination, while also avoiding the all-to-common pattern in fiction of equating mental illness with horror.
The protagonists are eventually joined by Alex's formerly estranged grandmother Caroline, who is also a witch and provides us with a lot of exposition, and helps the protagonists get to where Alex is: a nightmare world that reflects the town they live in. But it's the protagonists who have to convince Alex to come home.
While I was very surprised that the chapter from Alex's perspective comes before Jamie's chapter, it works really well. In Alex's chapter we see how he sometimes sees others' faces, and so in Jamie's chapter, as Jamie is confused by Alex's reactions, we can deduce what Alex is seeing. I felt fully drawn into the world of these characters, just as Noah, Sky, Izzy, and Jamie were drawn into the world of Alex's mind.
Among the many touching moments was when Izzy realizes that the demons Alex created can't hurt anyone else. Aside from its literal meaning in the plot, it also acts as a metaphor for one of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of psychosis: that it is far less dangerous to other people than it is to the person having it.
The epilogue is very sweet. Alex learns how to live with his mental illness through real-world non-magical means, and he also takes magic lessons from Caroline, which helps him in small ways.
The sweetest part of the ending has Alex writing a journal entry addressed to his mom. He explains that he can't get rid of the demons he accidentally created, but they can't hurt him anymore, and he wishes he could tell his mom that her demons couldn't hurt her either.
SPOILERS END HERE
So, does it live up to the hype?
Yes.
Keezy Young has an interest in horror movies and also has bipolor disorder. They know mental illness and horror/fantasy are usually depicted really badly, but they manage to make it work without invalidating either aspect of the combination.
The book is very emotionally heavy and requires many content warnings: mental illness, discussion of suicide, and family abuse. But if you can get through it, it is worth it.
#HelloSunshine
So, some background. Young got their start with a webcomic Yellow Hearts in 2017, on the now-defunct site Sparkler Monthly. Yellow Hearts was abandoned and then rebooted in Never Heroes, which was also eventually abandoned. I really enjoyed both of those comics and was sad to see them end early.
Young then switched to writing short comics which they self-published on Itch . Then last fall, they released Hello Sunshine, a graphic novel with a traditional major publisher.
Yellow Hearts and Never Heroes had very small fanbases, but Hello Sunshine has been on hold at my local library for months. I finally got to read it.
So does it live up to the hype? Let's find out!
Alex is a 16-year-old boy with some sort of mental illness (eventually stated to be schizoaffective disorder), which was also shared by his late mother. After Alex goes missing, the four people closest to him team up to find him. These include Alex's boyfriend Noah (who can't come out to his parents because they are Fundamentalist Christians), Alex's neighbor and childhood friend Sky (a trans girl and the only one who doesn't have a difficult family), Alex's twin brother Jamie (who is angsty about losing his mother young and having an emotionally distant and overworked dad), and Jamie's girlfriend Izzy (who is gay but afraid to admit it even to herself).
Each chapter is told from the perspective of a different main character: Noah, Sky, Izzy, Alex, Jamie, and then back to Alex. While every main character plays a significant role in every chapter, the change in perspective has us constantly questioning what is real.
Alex's mother frequently heard demons talking to her, and Alex started hearing them shortly before his disappearance. Our heroes start to wonder: were the demons hallucinations, or did he really have magical powers that allowed them to see demons? The reader has to wonder this too, and it's very likely that whatever you guess will be wrong.
The scariest part for me was when we finally see Alex's perspective. In the comic, most speech is depicted with black text on white speech balloons. The demons Alex hears usually have gray, black, or blue speech bubbles, but every once in awhile one of them will speak with white speech bubbles, making it very difficult to discern which lines are coming from demons and which are from "real" people. The author used the unique features of the medium of comics to make us experience what Alex feels.
Now, it's time for some spoilers.
SPOILERS INCOMING! SKIP IF YOU DON'T WANT THE ENDING SPOILED!
Reading through it, I expected to learn that all of what Alex and his mom saw was real, not a hallucination. But it turns out to be both.
Alex hallucinated demons, but he also has magical powers. He tried casting a spell to make the demons visible, hoping it would make them less scary, but in the process he accidentally made them real, allowing the others to see them.
The author manages to avoid either of the pitfalls of making it all a hallucination, while also avoiding the all-to-common pattern in fiction of equating mental illness with horror.
The protagonists are eventually joined by Alex's formerly estranged grandmother Caroline, who is also a witch and provides us with a lot of exposition, and helps the protagonists get to where Alex is: a nightmare world that reflects the town they live in. But it's the protagonists who have to convince Alex to come home.
While I was very surprised that the chapter from Alex's perspective comes before Jamie's chapter, it works really well. In Alex's chapter we see how he sometimes sees others' faces, and so in Jamie's chapter, as Jamie is confused by Alex's reactions, we can deduce what Alex is seeing. I felt fully drawn into the world of these characters, just as Noah, Sky, Izzy, and Jamie were drawn into the world of Alex's mind.
Among the many touching moments was when Izzy realizes that the demons Alex created can't hurt anyone else. Aside from its literal meaning in the plot, it also acts as a metaphor for one of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of psychosis: that it is far less dangerous to other people than it is to the person having it.
The epilogue is very sweet. Alex learns how to live with his mental illness through real-world non-magical means, and he also takes magic lessons from Caroline, which helps him in small ways.
The sweetest part of the ending has Alex writing a journal entry addressed to his mom. He explains that he can't get rid of the demons he accidentally created, but they can't hurt him anymore, and he wishes he could tell his mom that her demons couldn't hurt her either.
SPOILERS END HERE
So, does it live up to the hype?
Yes.
Keezy Young has an interest in horror movies and also has bipolor disorder. They know mental illness and horror/fantasy are usually depicted really badly, but they manage to make it work without invalidating either aspect of the combination.
The book is very emotionally heavy and requires many content warnings: mental illness, discussion of suicide, and family abuse. But if you can get through it, it is worth it.
#HelloSunshine
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