Kelly Thompson (1) (1976–)

All right folks I'll say it upfront, I helped fund this book through Kickstarter. I also wanted the super duper deluxe edition with all the nifty extras which included everything from the Hardcover deluxe edition to so much swag I can't help but glory in it. This in no way biased my opinion towards the material however.

Honestly speaking I signed up and helped fund this because the book is damn good. Kelly Thompson takes superheroes, grief, growing pains and learning to adjust in a world that's treated you pretty badly from the start and mashes them together to create a cocktail of thoughtful, provoking writing. Bonnie, who loses everything in the car crash that changed her life and Lola, who thought she could have everything if she changed her life, have parallel stories of grief and searching for answers that come to several encounters that neither walks away from completely.

Even more than how they chose different paths in regards to their powers, I think it was interesting as they learn about their mothers and the paths they chose. We learn more of this from Bonnie's point of view passages then we do Lola's (which let me just say I think how Thompson denoted the different POV's was great. Subtle, yet very very effective). Bonnie is much more driven to find out the nature of what's going on with herself (and by extension Lola), though Lola is more of a trial and error girl. Their different approaches to figuring out their unique abilities are reflective of who they are. Bonnie is cautious and likes to think things through, Lola is more instinct.

The girls' journeys are parallels of each other. Lola obtaining her 'power' and Bonnie leaving the Orphanage she grew up in happen at relatively the same time. Though Bonnie has has her powers for longer, she didn't experiment with them too much so Lola is quicker on how to harness things. They almost meet briefly, but go in completely opposite directions across the US. Bonnie goes to NYC where she tries her best to make a life for herself (friends, place to live, boyfriend, job) and Lola goes to LA (eventually) where she does the same thing...just more violently.

While I rooted for Bonnie to win the day, I liked Lola. Putting aside her kill first attitude, I could relate more to her at times. Feeling let down by a parent, knowing there's something more to life but being unable to find it, finding it hard to find a 'friend'--I get that. And even though Bonnie goes through much of that as well, it was Lola's mistakes that made her more relatable. Even her mental instability after a tragedy was more relatable to me.

I'll warn that the epilogue is kind of like 'Ahaha no sunshine and rainbows for you!' kind of thing. I wasn't keen at first, but it makes so much sense within the context of the story that I couldn't outright say I hated it. Thompson is careful to make it clear that you can't have one without the other, that balance has to be maintained. Also, every action has a consequence.… (mere)

:sniffles: That is all.

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Heart in a Box explores a lot of different issues in sometimes poignant, very often painful ways. Family, loss, betrayal, friendship, love, companionship - but none of that is what caught me and kept me reading. What kept me reading was the honest sincerity of it all.

I've never been in Emma place, but I've been hurt and I can relate to those feelings if not that experience. The aching gulf of betrayal when you realize you gave your heart to someone who didn't care, that feeling of detachment from it all because why bother? The knowledge, whether true or not, that you just weren't enough. That rage because how could they do this to you.

Its a feeling anyone who has ever cared about another person understands.

And for Emma, The Man With No Name was just the latest in a series of heart breaks where she lacked any ability to take control of the situation.

Look its not easy caring, especially if you care with all your heart like Emma does. When you go all in on someone, when you think your future and theirs are so intertwined there is no future without them...its so much easier to just NOT. Not care. Not try. Give up. Not die, but just not...live really.

And Emma experiences that firsthand when she's offered a chance to give up her heart by Bob. Its a little unclear whether its her literal heart or not (there's a physicality to it that I'll explain a bit more later), but the effect is immediate. Emma goes from bright colors to drab dreary grays and brown as she "lives" her life without a heart. She no longer has the pain of the betrayal from the Man With No Name, but she also can't find any sort of interest in the rest of life either.

Thus does she try to re-negotiate with Bob (who's just a middleman really) to gain her heart back. But as with anything in life, something worth having is immensely harder to retake then give up sending Emma on a cross-country trip to find the pieces of her heart that have been spread across several sources.

I mentioned earlier some confusion over whether Emma physically lost her heart, or if it was metaphorical sort of thing. Bob tells her she needs to collect the pieces of her heart that she needs to recover and put them inside a box. One of the first people she comes across, someone who also deals in the heart (so to speak), she needs to PHYSICALLY get the piece from him. Later its a matter of having it, more or less, willed back to her.

Looking back at her journey it follows a pattern that not only let's her get her heart back, but also able to deal with the ramifications (all the painful painful ramifications) of getting it back. She's a much stronger person by the end for having gone on the journey and met the people she did. As an allegory to how we deal with pain and learn from it, Thompson (who I already know can do a superb job at handling these issues--see [b:The Girl Who Would Be King|16050500|The Girl Who Would Be King|Kelly Thompson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348778051s/16050500.jpg|21832796] or her current run on the [b:Jem and the Holograms: Showtime|26031312|Jem and the Holograms Showtime|Kelly Thompson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1438626463s/26031312.jpg|45957614] comic--is thoughtful and doesn't exclude that sometimes the answer isn't to forget, but to remember.

McClaren, whose artwork I'm less familiar with, is a very good foil to the story. The sometimes minimalist scenes or exaggerated moments blend perfectly with Thompson's story telling.

I highly recommend this graphic novel.… (mere)