Author: Keezy Young 

Publisher: Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group, LLC 

Genres: young adult, fiction, graphic novel, LGBTQ+, romance 

“It’s a pleasure to lose yourself in the beautiful artwork, and one of the loveliest queer romances I’ve ever read.” — K. O’Neil, author of The Tea Dragon Society 

Blue has been living as a ghost for a year when he meets Hamal, a beautiful and sweet gardener who has the ability to see and communicate with ghosts. Together, their friendship develops into something more, but being a ghost, Blue can never truly be connected with Hamal. 

When Blue realizes Hamal’s strange ability may be putting him in danger, Blue has to find a way to protect him—even if it means leaving him. 

To begin with, the artwork is fantastic. It’s packed with lovely sceneries and attractive color palettes. There are some beautiful green and blue tones in this story, and it’s worth looking at for the graphics alone. 

The graphic novel’s liberal use of color is what actually pleased me. Because the ghosts are predominantly blue in color—likely because they are dead—they blend in better with their surroundings. They are especially clear, yet, at the same moment. Visual cues that identify a person’s identity and the group they belong to—ghosts or humans—are obvious. It’s important not to undervalue the use of color in this book; most of it is more or less vibrantly colored, and when it isn’t, it gives the reader a visual cue that something isn’t right or is out of place and introduces them to fresh problems and anxieties, for example when the ghosts are seeing the scary forests and when the grim reaper is arriving. The fact that the main character, Hamal, is a gardener makes me think it was done on purpose. The use of color in the art does indeed convey that. 

I also loved the characters. Hamal is the kindest character I have ever come across in a story, and Blue is a true friend to Hamal: loving and close to him, the young adorable ghost Joey and a funny grim reaper. 

Taproot is not only about gardening, flowers and romance, but it covers everything including the life-and-death cycle that all living things (including humans) go through. Although Blue (Taye “Blue” Alvarado in life) is a ghost, Hamal (a necromancer—who according to Blue is a person who hunts ghosts, Poltergeists, Ghouls and people trying to bring back loved ones) can see him and the other dead people. 

What I also liked about Keezy’s Taproot was her use of humor. Keezy plays well with words to bring out humor in several instances, mostly through the grim reaper’s speeches. Also, when the grim reaper calls Hamal and assigns him a task in Chloe’s home, Hamal picks up a bottle of bees he can use to attack ghosts, ghouls and forest bugs and names it as “Zom-Bees.” There are many more examples of humor used across the comic that makes it fun to read. 

I liked the LGBTQ+ characters (Hamal and Blue). Blue sees that Chloe loves Hamal and suggests to him that he respond to her, but Hamal is not interested in her. Blue even talks about how Chloe has nice boobs to which Hamal agrees. One can easily know that both Hamal and Blue are gay after they disagree about Chloe and give each other a break. 

The only let-down in the story: It was a bit rushed and disjointed. I could not get enough background for many characters, including the ghosts, Hamal and Chloe, except for Luciana and Natalia. The parts I felt were disjointed include when Hamal agrees to the grim reaper’s request and buries Blue’s taproot in Blue’s ghost, which then changes to a tree. Then the story is rushed through some pages without any explanation and quickly moves ahead to a year later. 

Still, if you are a sucker for supernatural, cheesy romance novels—and LGBTQ+ romance stories and web-comics—you will definitely love Keezy Young’s Taproot.

-Weldon Ngetich