Book Review: Giant Days – Volume 9 by John Allison

Image Description: book-cover of Giant Days: Volume 9 by John Allison.

Title: Giant Days: Volume 9
Creators: by John Allison (Writer), Liz Fleming (Illustrator), Jenna Ayoub (Illustrator), Whitney Cogar (Illustrator), Lissa Treiman (Illustrator), and Max Sarin (illustrations).
Social Media: Goodreads
Publisher: BOOM! Box
Format and Price: Kindle Format at $16.82
Stars: 5 out of 5 stars

About The Creators:
The relevant links are available above.

About The Book:
It’s the end of the second year, and everything is happening so fast! Moving out, breaking up, breaking hearts, breaking…bones? Best-Mates-for-Life Esther, Daisy, and Susan had better hold on tight if they want to make it to their third year, never mind in one piece! John Allison (Bad Machinery, Scary Go Round) and illustrators Max Sarin and Liz Fleming shepherd us through another action-packed semester in Giant Days Volume 9, which collects Issues #33-36 of the Eisner Award-nominated series.

General Observations:
~Character Conflict – Ingrid and Daisy: In the previous volume, it was foreshadowed that Daisy may be put in a position where she has to choose between her relationship with Ingrid and her relationship with Esther and Susan, and in this volume that tension comes to a head (sort of). Both Susan and Daisy have decided to move out and live with their respective partners, which means Esther is stuck in a position of having to find a new place to live (more on this later on).

The crux of the problem is that Daisy and Ingrid are fundamentally and radically different people. Ingrid could have adapted to Daisy’s environment if Daisy, Susan, and Esther were willing to sit down and have a chat about acceptable boundaries and behaviour, however, due to the British tendency to want to avoid conflict at all costs, this didn’t occur. This has placed Daisy in the precarious position of having to adapt to Ingrid’s environment instead.

Needless to say, Daisy comes to the inevitable conclusion that living in a filthy warehouse with only a small wooden box for privacy isn’t what she wants, and it turns out that Ingrid and Daisy are just too different. It’s a shame really, I enjoyed Ingrid’s artistic brand of weirdness, however, it’s probably for the best. I’m looking forward to seeing how Daisy is going to handle the truth-bomb Ingrid has dropped on Granny. Even when Ingrid isn’t present; she’s still causing chaos.

~Character Conflict – Esther and Ed: One of the major sources of conflict in this volume is Esther attempting to find another house for her move into, however, she spends most of this volume feeling sorry for herself. AS the gothic artist, I do find it amusing that a lot of Esther’s emotions and thoughts tend to visually manifest in her environment, it’s mostly played for laughs but in a darker graphic novel it could be a cause for concern.

I’ll try not to spoil things, however, a solution is found, however, this is mostly because of Ed.  In this volume, Ed is trying to do the right thing and, as per usual, is the one who ends getting hurt in the process. I honestly hope the creators resolve the unspoken but obvious situation between Esther and Ed. I feel as though the only way for Ed to truly move on, and find happiness for himself, is for “the thing” to be acknowledged and finally resolved.

All in all, I hope the next volume will provide valuable conclusions to a few major conflict points raised in this volume, looking forward to Volume 10.

Available For Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository | Kobo Books