Crumbs, by Danie Stirling, is a cute graphic novel set in a fantasy world. When Ray, a girl with unique powers who is trying to get a position in the governing council, falls for Laurie, a barista who longs to be a professional musician, they soon find themselves struggling with what they each want out of their lives and what that means for their relationship.

I loved the characters in this. Ray is a unique sort of seer who has the power of seeing what’s true in the present. She has always longed to make the best possible use out of that gift, and thus has sought since childhood to join the council so that she can actually have an impact. However, as she begins her internship for the position, she begins to struggle with whether the responsibility and costs of being a council member (most notably the fact that everybody else’s memory of you is erased) is what she actually wants, or if it’s just something that she’s been reaching for for so long that she doesn’t know how to do anything else.

Laurie definitely takes a backseat in the narrative, which I was okay with because I found his story less interesting. He’s been working in his aunt’s magical bakery for years, and is now trying to make his way as a professional musician, which comes with its own series of pitfalls that he tries to hide to pretend as if his life is perfect. I wish his character had been explored a little more; he’s very self-sacrificing, often putting others first at the expense of himself, but it just doesn’t feel like that’s ever resolved in any sort of satisfying character arc.

Ray and Laurie definitely have tons of chemistry, and their romance is by far the strongest aspect of the book. You just can’t help but ship them; there’s a gravity and realness to the situation. It’s a coming of age romance between two teenagers who have different goals in life, and that’s a story that rings true no matter the setting.

I will say, though, that the weakness of this particular setting definitely hindered the strength of that storyline. Starting the book, I was initially enchanted with the world. Laurie’s aunt sells magical baked goods that are spelled to grant the eater a particular emotion. The characters’ phones have little VR creatures that are the cutest possible version of Alexa or Siri, each one unique and having its own personality. They travel on broomsticks instead of cars. It’s an adorable world, which made the government setup stand out and be all the more intriguing.

The dystopian council setting, where positions aren’t chosen through elections and where everybody you love forgets you if you become a council member, was just begging to be explored in greater depth. Unfortunately, not only were the full ramifications of those qualities not explore beyond being a minor drawback in Ray’s debate over whether to pursue a job there, but very little else about it is ever explained or fleshed out.

The most confusing part was that there are different branches to the council that have different duties, but they’re only referred to as non-descriptive names and what they do is never explained, which would be okay if their difference wasn’t a major plot point in Ray’s character arc. When you want your reader to understand why a character is deciding between two choices, and why other characters demean the character for their choice, you need to explain what the two choices actually are.

I would have loved more fleshing out in every other part of the world, and particularly for some sort of attempt to be made at exploring the dystopian government structure, but at least explaining enough to understand the plot is the absolute bare minimum.

The plotting of the entire book felt strange. The romance plot-line has a lot of repetitive conflicts that felt contrived to allow time for Ray’s character arc to happen, but even that was never quite resolved in a satisfying way. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the ending. It didn’t entirely feel like a natural conclusion for either Ray or Laurie’s character arc, but it was still realistic in a way. I think that the story could have definitely benefitted overall from a little more reworking plot-wise.

There’s a lot to enjoy about this book; the art is lovely, all of the characters are wonderful (several having satisfying character arcs of their own), and the romance and protagonists are realistic and compelling. However, the lack of care to world-building, particularly when it is a driver behind the plot, is just confusing and inexcusable in a fantasy book. If you’re okay with a certain amount of suspension-of-disbelief and accepting not understanding some aspects of the plot, then these aspects likely won’t bother you, but they are there. Nevertheless, it’s still an enjoyable read; I’m giving Crumbs 3/5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

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