Blue Is The Warmest Color

Description

Blue is the Warmest Color is a tender, bittersweet, full-colour graphic novel about the elusive, reckless magic of love: a lesbian love story for the ages that bristles with the energy of youth, rebellion and the eternal light of desire. Clementine is a junior in high school who seems 'normal' enough: she has friends, family and even a boyfriend. When her openly gay best friend takes her to a gay bar, she becomes captivated by Emma, a punkish, confident girl with blue hair, an event that leads Clementine to discover new aspects of herself, both passionate and tragic.

Julie Maroh is an author and illustrator originally from northern France. She studied comic art at the Institute Saint-Luc in Brussels and lithography and engraving at the Royal Academy of Arts in Brussels, where she still lives. After self-publishing three comics collections, her French-language graphic novel Le bleu est une couleur chaude was published by Glenat in 2010; it won several awards, including the Audience Prize at the Angouleme International Comics Festival, Europe's largest.

Julie Maroh, who was just 19 when she started the comic, manages to convey the excitement, terror, and obsession of young love--and to show how wildly teenagers swing from one extreme emotion to the next ... Ultimately, Blue Is the Warmest Color is a sad story about loss and heartbreak, but while Emma and Clementine's love lasts, it's exhilarating and sustaining. --Slate.com A beautiful, moving graphic novel. --Wall Street Journal Delicate linework conveys wordless longing in this graphic novel about a lesbian relationship. New York Times Book Review (Editor's Choice) Blue Is the Warmest Color captures the entire life of a relationship in affecting and honest style. --Comics Worth Reading A tragic yet beautifully wrought graphic novel. --Salon.com Love is a beautiful punishment in Maroh's paean to confusion, passion, and discovery ... An elegantly impassioned love story. --Publishers Weekly (STARRED REVIEW) A lovely and wholehearted coming-out story ... the illustrations are infused with genuine, raw feeling. Wide-eyed Clementine wears every emotion on her sleeve, and teens will understand her journey perfectly. --Kirkus Reviews The electric emotions of falling in love and the difficult process of self-acceptance will resonate with all readers ... Maroh's use of color is deliberate enough to be eye-catching in a world of grey tones, with Emma's bright blue hair capturing Clementine's imagination, but is used sparingly enough that it supports and blends naturally with the story. --Library Journal (STARRED REVIEW) It's not just the French who have a better handle on sexy material than Americans -- Canadians do, too ... Who's publishing it? Not an American publishing house but by Arsenal Pulp Press, a Canadian independent. --Los Angeles Times A deeply compelling story ... Maroh displays tremendous insight into the highs and lows of a young girl's journey of self-discovery as she moves from adolescence into adulthood. --Lambda Literary A hymn to love. --Le Figaro A sensitively told narrative. --Tetu Magazine