lambclown's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

clementines self realization and shame realizing she loves a woman was very relatable but the rest was rushed and weird to me.
why on earth would emma ever go downstairs naked in clems parents house?
i didnt understand the motivation of a lot of characters and i wasnt a huge fan of the art

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grudgecat's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Beautifully tragic love story

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indeedithappens's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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midnightmarauder's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Blue is the Warmest Color follows the story of Emma and Clementine, two women living in France who start a relationship with one another that lasts from the late 90s to the late 2000s. The story is told through a series of diary entries made by Clementine before her death. 

Throughout the book, Clementine writes about her experiences in life from the ages of 17 to 30. Early on, she talks about her struggle to come to terms with her sexuality. She nearly sleeps with a guy that expresses interest in her at her school, and wonders why she can't reciprocate the feelings that he has for her. It isn't until she meets Emma that she realizes that she is more interested in the same sex. 

Emma and Clementine have a whirlwind of a relationship that could be toxic at times. For starters, although Emma likes Clementine and expresses attraction to her, she simultaneously pushes her away and says that Clementine doesn't really like her and that she's simply having fun with her until she meets a guy that she'll leave her for. Which, ends up being
somewhat true towards the end, as the end of her and Clementine's relationship is ended due to Clementine sleeping with a male colleague.
Not to mention, Emma is also
cheating on her girlfriend, Sabine, with Clementine.
Clementine is also troublesome, with her main issue being her inability to accept her sexuality and
proving Emma's point by sleeping with her male coworker.


I watched the film before seeing this book at work and deciding to check it out. Quite frankly, this graphic novel is immensely better than the film. Although the original story is much sadder than the novel, the writing is better, it isn't overly focused on Emma and Clementine's sex lives, and it portrays the love the women have for one another ten times better than the film ever did. 

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mesposito827's review against another edition

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dark sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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carleesi's review against another edition

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1.0

Super icked out by the adult/child “relationship” and how sexually it was depicted.

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abookishgoth's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad medium-paced

4.5


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ashlislibrary's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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ashurah's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book destroyed me in a good way. I initially thought I wouldn't like the characters, but as I continued reading Clementine grew on me as a protagonist. No one in this book is a good person, but you can somewhat sympathize with the choices they make and understand why they believe what they believe. I loved seeing Clementine's character arc of coming to accept her sexuality, and the overall melancholy tone of the book really added to my reading experience. One thing that I liked in particular was the usage of color, with
scenes in the past being colored in black and white with the exception of Emma's blue hair, while scenes in the present are in color. The choice to use these really muted colors and a mixture of mediums to illustrate the book was breathtaking.


I found the art style a bit too cartoony and rough-around-the-edges, but that's a personal preference that other people may not necessarily agree with. I also thought that the last part of the book
(starting from when Clementine is kicked out and disowned by her parents)
was rushed, and thus I didn't experience as much of an emotional impact as I could have potentially (though I was and still am really emotional about the book).
The drug aspect of the plot wasn't expanded upon as much as I would have liked and the time skip in general was too rushed; I didn't realize that almost ten years had passed until I reread it a second time.


Nevertheless, Maroh does an excellent job of portraying these two women and their relationship. I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did, but it's a very worthwhile read if you're looking for a tragic LGBT character-driven story.

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gayelfboi's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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