Potential
by Ariel Schrag
Found it on the library book cart at Pride (yay!!). Kind of disturbing, and sometimes I couldn't tell if it was intentional or not. There are very few black people (and no real black characters), and every time a black person appears in a panel they're yelling or angry or intimidating or outright scary---I'm pretty sure that wasn't intentional. Also some unexpected homophobia ('butches are icky and gross eww')---maybe it was being lampshaded? And weird consent stuff, which Schrag didn't directly address, but I was fairly sure that she was trying to portray it in an honest and self-critical light.
Overall, I think I didn't connect strongly because I didn't have any messy stupid messed-up high school relationships. I know I'm in the minority there. (I was a complete classic naiive nerd---shocking, I know.) I don't have a strong desire to go back and read the first one, but I think I will look out for the next one along, since the improvements in art and storytelling were so vast from beginning to end of this volume.