GHOSTED IN L.A.

A new girl finds friendship with old souls in this graphic novel.

After following her boyfriend, Ronnie, from Montana to Los Angeles for college, Daphne Walters finds herself ghosted, then dumped. Tan, dark-haired, Jewish Daphne can’t find companionship with her roommate, Michelle, a moody white girl who locks her out of the room when her Bible group meets. Adding to her isolation, she is fighting with Kristi, her BFF, who is studying in Santa Cruz. Stumbling upon Rycroft Manor, with its old Hollywood elegance (and swimming pool), Daphne finally feels at home…even though all the other residents are ghosts. While a slew of ghosts are introduced, only a few get flashback sequences in this installment, leaving the manor residents’ histories and mysteries mostly unexplored. Free of flourishes and trippy sequences, the clean lines, limited palette, and crisp, realistic artwork focus on Daphne’s emotional journey, the loneliness of life in Los Angeles, the fear of being friendless as a college freshman, and the larger existential dread of dying without fully living first. The ghosts died in different decades and include a black woman and a gay white man; all are haunted by their pasts, and not all are friendly. Some living characters bring racial diversity to the cast, and sexual orientation is explored in depth.

A short and somewhat wistful coming-of-age with a paranormal twist.