Quirky Cat
Written on Aug 15, 2017
Taproot is a beautiful short story (in graphic novel form) about love and loss. It’s also a really cute and quick read, and as a bonus it is supported by beautiful artwork. The color palette is stunning and complements the theme and subject of the graphic novel perfectly.
Don’t let the short length of Taproot deceive you – it’s actually got a lot of character and heart packed into its pages. It focuses on two men, Blue and Hamal. They’re best friends, but there’s a problem. Blue is actually dead – he was drawn to Hamal for a number of reasons, one of which being he can see ghosts (an important factor when it comes to making friends with them).
Hamal loves plants and prefers to spend most of his spare time in the garden center he works at. Blue tags along mostly for the sake of just being with Hamel. Their relationship is pretty clearly just that of friendship, but it has potential to be so much more. Watching them figure that out and progress was actually pretty wonderful.
I loved the main plot of this story – I don’t want to give it all away, but I will say that a turn of events force Blue and Hamal to learn to accept loss as part of life before they can move on. It was very poignant and well stated.
The story doesn’t really end at the conclusion of the main plot, and instead bops around a little bit with another quick story. Perhaps setting up to turn it into a series? Either way it was another well written, but again short turn of events.
I’m not sure whether Young is planning on continuing the story or not, but either way I’d be interested in seeing what he does next. He undoubtedly has a lot of talent and potential.
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