Synopsis:
Finding yourself torn between two potential boyfriends is tough. Domo is learning that it’s even tougher when you’re trying to win the captaincy of your school’s tug-of-war team!
His competition is Jocasta, a serious athlete who will stop at nothing to prove she’s the best. Can Domo lead his team to victory while he struggles with his feelings for ambitious Gabriel and flamboyant Emil?
Love and War is a queer sports rom com about how our conflicting passions can pull us in different directions!
Review:
Firstly, I need to say that I love the play on words with the title. Love and war, tug of war. Absolutely genius if you ask me.
It’s kind of funny how seriously they take tug of war, it’s basically life or death for them, but it’s also very fun. I love the competitiveness added to a childhood game. It’s a bit over the top but that’s why it’s so entertaining. I’m assuming Love and War is meant to be inspired by sports mangas, if so, I love that – despite having never read a sports manga.
The cover is definitely what drew me into this graphic novel and because it was available on Kindle Unlimited I didn’t hesitate before downloading it. Not going to lie, I thought based on the cover this was going to be about gymnastics. I’m not too sad that it wasn’t, but now I really want a graphic novel about competitive gymnastics.
I really love the art style of Love and War, the illustrations were done by Killian Ng and they did such a good job. The character designs were super interesting, the lettering was clean (I’m not sure if they did that, but anyway) and the colouring was really nice. Every page was interesting and I loved the use of foliage to add extra details.
The storyline was actually a little chaotic but in a funny way. The seriousness of the characters when it came to tug of war was very comedic and the romantic plotlines were interesting. I wouldn’t say I was very invested in any of the relationships, but if this were to get a second volume then there is definitely time for that to change.
Volume one of Love and War was a fun, chaotic tug of war masterpiece. I’ve never had any interest in the sport, but this graphic novel definitely made it interesting. I’m excited to see more of the story in the second volume, whenever that may happen.
Check out Young Creative Press on all socials
You can also check out my StoryGraph here
Like this post? Why not read this one too: What I Watched: March 2023
[…] Like this post? Why not read this one too: Graphic Novel Review: Love and War by Andrew Wheeler […]