MIKI FALLS: SPRING
by Mark Crilley & illustrated by Mark Crilley
A young girl’s journey into love evolves with the seasons in the stellar first volume of a quartet. Miki is an extremely likable 17-year-old girl, who, like most teenaged girls, wishes she were more assertive. Unlike her fanciful friends, Miki believes that there are more important things in the world than boys . . . until she meets Hiro. Handsome, brooding and mysterious, Hiro is a man of many secrets, and may be the only one who can never truly be with Miki. When she refuses to relinquish her conquest of him, Miki stumbles upon why Hiro is so enigmatic—and her feelings for him become all-consuming. Complex characters combine with masterful, expressive art culminating in an arresting new series for teen readers. The soft, gentle romance between Miki and Hiro is brilliantly juxtaposed with the darker elements of the story creating a salient tension between the two, and crescendos in the next volume entitled Summer (ISBN: 978-0-06-084617-6). A stark departure from Crilley’s previous Akiko series, Miki Falls is a ruminative look at a love and a richly developed labyrinth of fantasy and secrets. (Graphic novel. 12-16)