Book Review: Of Her Own Design by Birdie Willis & Nicole Andelfinger

I first fell in love with writing my own stories in high school. I got my start handwriting Batman fan fiction, which turned into writing my own worlds, which turned into an MFA in Creative Writing. The act of writing was my escape from a high school where I didn't fully fit in and allowed me to process a lot of my emotions in a healthy way when I didn't know how to express them to others.

So imagine my surprise when I saw the main character Brie in a very similar situation in the opening pages of Of Her Own Design. I immediately connected to her, because in many ways, I was her when I was growing up. And that was just where my love of the story started.

After her mom forces her out of the house to do "normal teen stuff" Brie finds a bookstore she's never noticed in their small town before. There, she meets Ambrose, a mysterious bookseller who seems to own every single story Brie has ever wished to read. However, instead of leaving a book, she leaves with a magical pen and ink pot - and then proceeds to go on a writing binge that night.

But when she wakes up the next morning, Brie is in for a surprise when she discovers her stories have taken over her small town - and the real people she wrote those stories about were now sucked into the fictional worlds that she created. To save them, Brie has to confront her fears, her emotions, and her troubles - while learning all about the power of her own words.

I found Brie to be a very realistic and compelling main character. Her motivation is simple: survive high school - a struggle I know many teenagers can relate to. In addition, her ex-best friend is now her main bully, her parents are fighting nonstop about a potential move, and Brie has absolutely no idea how to even talk to her crush - especially after accidentally almost breaking her nose! There's a nuance in the way Brie is written, where you can see how all of her struggles seem world-ending to her, without it feeling ridiculous and immature as an adult reader.

However, where the story was already strong and entertaining, its strength was amplified by the art of the graphic novel. The real world starts in black-and-white and as we move into the worlds of Brie's imagination we are shocked with color, in a move that is very evocative of The Wizard of Oz.

As Brie starts to resolve her feelings through her stories, color starts to seep back into the real world. It starts very subtly - I actually didn't notice it at first! However, as we continue, the color schemes of the stories first lose the brightness of the color, and then the intensity of it, as the real world becomes as real and vibrant as Brie sees her life for what it is.

The use of color was a brilliant metaphor to show off Brie's sense of self, and I found it helped enhance the story experience in ways I didn't expect. I also appreciated how easily we were able to understand Brie's backgrounds with Viv, her parents, and Kay - and how it made us quickly root for her being able to save them from the accidental fictional prisons she created.

Overall, I can't wait to introduce teens and adults to Of Her Own Design. It's a fun and quirky story, that deals with life in a way \ I feel most teenagers will relate to, and most adults will remember from their awkward periods. I hope this team keeps working together, and I look forward to seeing what they come up with next.

Of Her Own Design is available now through Mad Cave Studios.