We had the honor of being gifted a copy of Black Dolls volume 1 and I couldnโt be more grateful and excited to share! Black Dolls is a graphic novel by YA author Rachel Fatouroti and illustrator Flo Woolley about a group of misfit Black girls trying to make their rockstar dreams come true.
Rachel Faturoti is a YA and children’s fiction writer, editor, and poet with a passion for broadening the scope of authentic Black representation in YA and children’s fiction. She believes it’s important for readers to see themselves represented well in stories. Rachel’s favourite books are Skellig, Coraline and A Monster Calls. The Black Dolls: Vol. 1 is her first graphic novel.
Flo Woolley is a freelance comic artist and illustrator based in Leeds, UK. They grew up in Glossop, Derbyshire, and studied Comic and Concept Art at Leeds Arts University. After graduating, they published their university final year comic Skin Deep’ (a short queer horror/romance) with US indie publisher, Silver Sprocket. Flo is part of the Leeds Comics Collective as well as The Biscuit Tin Comics Collective.
Itโs hard to talk about this graphic novel without giving spoilers. The story follows four teenage girls, Jada the founder of the band and of attitude on drums and vocals, Sassy (who lives up to her name) on lead vocals,Dina on guitar, and sensitive soul Silvee on bass as they struggle through personal issues and the battle to make their dreams come true!
217 pages was not enough! By the end of my read, I found myself upset and confused. Confused because I could have with that i was watching a show and upset because the episode had ended already!
What We loved
- The random anime reference! That Completely took me by surprise and Iโm not sure why. Of course at least one of the girls would like anime!
- The artistic choice to have crickets playing violin to indicate silence.
- Each girlโs personalities are shown prominently and it doesnโt take long for you to feel like you understand who they are, which, in my opinion, is hard to do with graphic novels. Many authors need several volumes to accomplish this.
- The playlist: A playlist was curated to go along with the release of volume 1. Not only is this rare for books these days, many playlists miss the Mark and readers trash the song choices. I donโt believe this will be the case here.
Black Dolls is a must have for every alternative Black girl, young and old. I believe this series will set a precedence for Alt Black representation. Each character deals with real issues that we as Black Alternative women, and just as Black women in general, deal with in reality. Always being seen as angry, supposed promiscuity, and pressure from family to fall into the person they want you to be. This story definitely hits close to home.
