Author: Sophie Burrows
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Genre: fiction, graphic novel, romance, YA/new-adult

She’s lonely and searching for connection. He’s lonely and afraid to reach out. Life in the big city means being surrounded by connections—making them, missing them and longing for them. But is finding someone else really the answer to their problems?

Crushing, the stunning debut graphic novel from Sophie Burrows, is a story told in silence; a story without words but bursting with meaning; a story about loneliness and love.

Achingly beautiful, quietly defiant and full of subtle wit and wisdom, Crushing is a unique meditation on the human condition in the twenty-first century, and a timely examination of young adult life in an age of isolation.

This graphic novel is cute, whimsical and relatable, as a shy young male and female attempt to connect in a busy but lonely world.

Color is used dramatically to pick out their red scarves, shoes and hair against an otherwise gray and black crowd, and gray and black world. We see them encounter each other three times in the story. The first two times she peers at him when she thinks he isn’t looking, and he peers at her when he thinks she isn’t looking. By their third encounter, they’ve gathered enough courage to finally connect – in the self-serve lineup of a local grocery store.

Though it purports to be a story for young adults, panels showing each of the two going to bars and clubs, and running across vomiting drunks and bra-and-underwear poster ads, makes it more of a “new adult” graphic novel. Not that teens couldn’t relate, but probably not a candidate for high school libraries.

We see each returning to their solo apartments where there’s only a pet to greet them. We see her at her dead-end job, and we see her attempting to navigate a singles site, then a fitness class, only to retreat in fear. We see him at his embarrassing, dead-end job, and graciously accepting the kindness of a nurse after a bike accident. We see the city teaming with life and connections – other people’s connections – only enhancing the sense of loneliness and trepidatious hopefulness each is experiencing. We also see for ourselves the difference between loneliness and solitude, in panels that burst with life when the individuals are relaxed and enjoying some alone time.

Isn’t it too true that when we encounter someone we might feel drawn to, someone on whom we might even experience an instant crush, we’re too shy to act on it? And the fast-paced world in which we live makes it so easy not to pursue the connection. But maybe three time’s a charm. Told with almost no words, and using those lovely bursts of color, this is not deep, but it’s a charmer.

- Pam Withers