Lora wants to stay a kid forever, and she’ll do anything to make that happen… including befriending Alexa, the ghost who haunts her house. A middle-grade graphic novel about growing up that’s perfect for fans of Ghosts and Making Friends.

Growing up sounds terrible.

No one has time to do anything fun, or play outside, or use their imagination. Everything is suddenly so serious. People are more interested in their looks and what others think about them than having fun adventures. Who wants that?

Not Lora.

After watching her circle of friends seemingly fade away, Lora is determined to still have fun on her own. A tea party with a twist leaves Lora to re-discovering Alexa, the ghost that haunts her house — and Lora’s old imaginary friend! Lora and Alexa are thrilled to meet kindred spirits, and they become best friends… but unfortunately, not everything can last forever.

This graphic novel was mediocre for me. 

I loved the illustrations. They were beautiful and fun to look at throughout the story. The colors were bright and vibrant. I liked the art style, and the ratio of artwork to word bubbles was perfect. 

But I just wasn’t blown away by this story. I’ve seen so many rave reviews for this graphic novel, but I don’t quite understand it. It was cute and charming, but not a big standout for me. It wasn’t too memorable, and it was very predictable. 

The main character, Lora, was a sweet, charming, and relatable character, but she just seemed really immature for her age. That was the point of the story; she didn’t want to grow up when her friends were, but she came across as very juvenile to me. I couldn’t relate to her and started to get annoyed with her instead of feeling empathy or compassion for where she was in her stage of development. I wasn’t feeling patient enough to read about her journey, so I started feeling annoyed and frustrated. 

I did enjoy the ghost, Alexa, in this story. She was very sweet, and I liked learning about her past and her death. I actually preferred this character over the main character. I felt more empathy and compassion for her. 

Again, I found parts of this book inappropriate because there are queer side characters, and I don’t believe that mature content belongs in children’s books. So that was a turnoff for me. Once again, publishers with their checklist of forced diversity, which is getting very boring and tedious and extremely cringy.  

Overall, it’s a sweet, whimsical, and mildly entertaining coming-of-age story. I didn’t love it, but I also didn’t hate it. I wouldn’t personally recommend it, but I wouldn’t discourage anyone interested in picking it up. It was middle of the road for me.