104. Drama

Drama. Raina Telgemeier. 2012. 238 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Do you think Mr. Madera will let me operate the spotlight again?

Premise/plot: Drama chronicles the misadventures of stage hand, Callie, as she navigates middle school--notably her falling in and out of love with unavailable guys. So the book focuses in almost exclusively on the middle school stage crew as they get ready to produce the play, "Moon Over Mississippi." Callie works on set design and her "baby" of the project is a cannon that shoots confetti--if she can get it to work and keep it working. But everyone IN the play and working ON the play have super-super-melodramatic lives...the book depicts how hard it is for love to actually be requited... Callie herself seems to almost always be crushing on guys crushing on other guys.

My thoughts: One of my favorite things about Raina Telgemeier's previous graphic novels (her graphic memoirs) were how super-relatable they were. That wasn't the case with Drama. For me, I just couldn't relate to any of the characters. It wasn't just that I couldn't see myself in any of the characters and relate to any of the situations. It's that I just didn't connect with any of the characters. I felt it was all drama and little substance. As opposed to her other graphic (memoirs) novels that were all substance.

 

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