If You Liked… #15: Graphic Novels & YA Books

I’ve never been the biggest graphic novel fan, but over the past few years, I’ve slowly been dipping my toes further and further into this pool, and it’s fantastic?

I really love the way the art adds to the story, and I’ve definitely found new favorite books when I was introduced to graphic novels! So today, I’m recommending YA books based on graphic novels I loved (but the recommendations work both ways!)

So whether you’re someone who wants to get more into graphic novels, or someone who loves graphic novels and wants more YA, this recommendation post is for you!

Goodreads links are in the titles, so you can find everything easily too! *wink wink*

(Also, did you notice that this If You Liked… post is actually a week early because next week I’m shouting out our May YARC reads!)

If you liked Check, Please!, you’ll love This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story!

I read Check, Please! on a whim, and can I just say that I’m so so in love with all the adorable romances and loveable characters? GIVE ME MORE.

Bitty and the whole hockey crew are just so loveable, and it reminds me of how invested I was in the adorable This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story earlier this year! Nate has his own epic love story, just like Bitty, and if you’re someone who’s into queer romances, you should totally check these out!

I just—all the cuteness. Fluff, fluff, and more fluff is what I live for. I will die happy if I only read fluff.

If you liked Nimona, you’ll love In Other Lands!

Nimona is one of the few fantasy graphic novels I love, but it’s so very cool and really goes on this epic sort of journey! And a book that reminds me of epic journeys is Sarah Rees Brennan’s In Other Lands!

It’s sort of like all 7 years of Harry Potter smooshed into one big growing up book, but I love love loved In Other Lands and its magical, light fantasy world as well as its endearing characters. It’s not a graphic novel, but I can envision Elliot and I just want to smoosh him and make sure he’s happy because AHHH MORE FANTASY FEELS.

I’m so into these two fantasies & would wholeheartedly recommend!

If you liked The Prince and the Dressmaker, you’ll love Truly Madly Royally!

If you’re looking for something light and contemporary and . . . royal?!, you should definitely check both of these books out!

The Prince and the Dressmaker is just so wholesome and sweet and is about a prince who likes to wear dresses sometimes and a dressmaker who makes them for him and I love them so much? This graphic novel is just so sweet and something I’d hand to middle schoolers to 99 year olds. Ugh.

And Truly Madly Royally is a romcom I just finished and AHHH FOR ALL THE SWOONS! It’s light, it’s fluffy, and it’s very underrated and something that has royalty (!!!) and adorable romances. Watch out for it this summer!

If you liked Aquicorn Cove, you’ll love Hot Dog Girl!

I feel like these two books just have very similar aesthetics? I mean, I’m so in love with all the pinks they both bring to the table, but also I really enjoy the way that they’re both a little big “ahhh! aHHHH!” while still being happy and sweet and fun and exciting.

Aquicorn Cove has all this interesting fantasy stuff going on, with the sea creatures in town, while still being sweet and adorable, while Hot Dog Girl has the issue of saving the park, all while Lou is being a disaster bi and being an awkward (loveable) mess.

Both books just give me all the fuzzies inside, so if you want something that’s sweet and queer but still has ~stakes~, definitely check these two out!

If you liked On a Sunbeam, you’ll love The Weight of the Stars!

These were the books that inspired this whole list, but as I wrote the list, I managed to completely forget about these books until I was stuck on picking a fifth set of recommendations. Oops.

But I really think people who love Tillie Walden’s On a Sunbeam will adore K. Ancrum’s The Weight of he Stars. They have such similar aesthetics—sci-fi and queer girls and bit of vagueness and open-endedness that some people will love and some people will find infuriating.

I think they’re just very thematically similar, focused on subtext and reading between the lines, and they’re really great. (Plus, On a Sunbeam has some really gorgeous art. I love it so much.)

What graphic novels would you recommend, knowing that these are some of my favorites?