Mimosa

A graphic novel about a group of friends in their thirties that’s fun and messy just like the real thing.

I gotta say, I do love a queer found family. This book starts us off with a friend meal where we establish the characters and what their current wants are. Each character is unique and has their role to play, and I loved that while there were clearly defined character roles, there were enough blurred lines to accurately reflect how people in real life don’t just fall into neat character boxes.

The main plot of this is about how all of these friends keep themselves above water while navigating really difficult aspects of their lives. Chris is a recently divorced single parent, Elise has a crush on her boss and is desperate for a promotion, Jo works at a rock camp with kids and also has a dominatrix “OnlyFans”, and Alex is an artist that seems to never have money or worry about money. In order to help each other find love, they decide to host an old adults only night at a queer club. Which sounds fun, but things may not go as planned.

I enjoyed seeing these characters interact, and I enjoyed watching them make good and bad decisions for their lives. The character relationships felt very real. They lifted each other up, but also let each other down. Personally, I believe it is important to show that while we love people, we can do a bad job of showing it. AND when we don’t communicate our needs and expect people to read our minds, we get hurt. All valuable lessons to be learned.

My biggest gripe with this book is that there is one relationship that is Not Good and no one calls it out for what it is. One person does say that it’s a bad idea for a specific reason, but not for the other very valid and very real reasons. Like… this is not a good idea for many reasons people!!! We should not be letting our friends do something like this! (Obviously our friends are independent people who make their own decisions, but I would definitely sit my friend down and tell them how bad of an idea this is.)

If you enjoy graphic novels and stories about queer people in their thirties, I think there is no other place to look than right here. Mimosa is fun and hard-hitting and will make you smile and shake your head. Give this a go if for no other reason than to support nonbinary authors.