Breaks

by Emma Vieceli, Malin Rydén

Genres: Graphic Novels
Pages: 152
Series: Breaks #1
Rating:

Synopsis:

Cortland Hunt has made some dangerous mistakes. Now he's waiting quietly for those mistakes to catch up with him. Ian Tanner coasts through life denying the spark of anger beneath his laid back exterior. When school politics and personal lives become a battleground, the pair find that what they share may just be their only safe haven. Bringing the world of LGBT young adult fiction into the realm of comic books, and collecting the first arc of the acclaimed weekly web series (2014-2016), Breaks is the story of two young men discovering who they were, who they are, and who they will become. It's a love story...but a little broken.

Breaks (Emma Vieceli & Malin Rydén) is for some reason being marketed with comparisons to Heartstopper, and the similarities are basically: queer British boys in a Sixth Form setting, there’s some sport, there’s bullying, and someone’s got to come to terms with his sexuality. That’s it — and that might sound like a reasonable amount, actually, but it’s the tone that’s most important, and that’s worlds apart. Breaks is much grittier — even where Heartstopper deals with difficult topics, there’s a general sense that things are going to be okay, because they have each other and they’re both good boys.

Cort and Ian are not particularly great people (nor particularly likeable), there’s a good deal of violence, and we certainly don’t get to see them cuddling adorably. The art is also a touch closer to realism, which also reduces the cuteness factor.

It didn’t help the book at all that the reading experience via the Kindle version is bad, and while it’s also available free online, that also has its problems: the choice of background colour doesn’t provide a great contrast, and it’s difficult to know what part numbers correspond to which volumes. Really irritating.

That said, on its own merits it’s… alright? I think it’s ultimately not my thing, but I enjoyed the supporting characters like Amilah and Rennie, and I’m kind of curious about Harvey and where things are going between Cort and Ian.

Rating: 2/5