The Deep & Dark Blue by Niki Smith

⭐⭐⭐

The Deep And Dark Blue is a middle grade graphic novel that tells the story of two royal twin siblings, Grayce and Hawke. When a coup is carried out against the monarchy they flee and join the Communion of Blue, a sisterhood that harnesses the magic in blue dyes and sewing methods passed down over time. (This could be off, this was unclear to me.) As Hawke grows restless and frustrated in his new role in the communion, Grayce finds her home there, because while the girl's names and clothes that the twins are wearing feel like burdensome disguises to Hawke, they fit her much better than her old life. My main compliant with the book is actually that we rarely see much of Grayce's inner workings, personality, and her own conflicting feelings about being at once more at home in her body than she likely ever has been but also dealing with the loss of her grandfather in the coup and the turmoil around her remaining family. No spoilers, but Grayce has to do a pretty dark thing towards the end of the story and it doesn't feel resolved. While the ending is somewhat whole, we don't see her guilt or processing, we don't see much beyond base level facial expressions out of Grayce most of the book really. I felt like I only saw her blushing at being correctly gendered, and her anguish at being misgendered in conflicts with her brother, but we didn't get to see her actual personality like we did with Hawke or Calla (so sorry that name is probably wrong, but I loved their friend who really stuck up for Grayce but at times became sort of a mouthpiece for her- while she still had her own lovely personality, it frustrated me that the only time I felt like I knew Grayce was not from the pages we had with her but her friend's explanations.)

I'd love to hear from other readers if I'm being too harsh here? I really enjoyed the art style and I thought a lot of the world building and magic system was sort of beautiful. The character designs (especially the villian ladies, not gonna lie) were well done and I can't help but wonder if this is just me and maybe Grayce is just quiet and I sped through and missed something?

I found this book because I heard about Niki Smith's newest graphic novel, The Golden Hour (which I saw the words midwestern and gay in and then immediately swept up), and thought this book sounded great! Trans girl protagonists feel a little rare, especially one living out in a cool fantasy universe, so I'm glad it exists, but I couldn't help feeling that it was a bit hollow.