The Cute Girl Network TPPublisher: First Second
Release Date: November 2013
Price: $17.99
Creators: Greg Means and MK Reed (writers); Joe Flood (artist)
Format: 188 pgs., b;ack & white, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-5964-3751-7
Age Rating: N/A
ICv2 Rating: 4 Stars out of 5
Every guy secretly fears that his ex-girlfriends will somehow communicate with every other woman in the world. This story is about a town where that's true. The Cute Girl Network exists to warn people away from what its members feel are disastrous matchups.
Jack is, by their standards, disastrous. He works, but barely, and he seems to have had several really awful relationships. He's nice, but seemingly not very bright, and doesn't seem to quite pay attention to the world around him. He's socially awkward, but he's good at selling soup, and seems happy. Jane is a nice young woman who works in a skateboard shop, and is tired of being treated as a joke or a stereotype. Together they make a cute couple that threatens the very premise of the Cute Girl Network. Jack's ex-girlfriends relate their tales of woe, and the reader slowly becomes aware that things may not be what they seem, at least until we hear Jack's side of the stories.
By the time the story comes to a very satisfying conclusion, we've learned more about both characters and about how people deserve to be treated in their lives. Jack is no saint, but he may not be a villain after all.
Joe Flood's cartoony art was well-suited to this book, and it should have great appeal for teens and younger adults.
--Nick Smith: Librarian Technician, Community Services, for the Pasadena Public Library in California.