We’re human. All we are are beautiful contradictions.


Will — short for Wilhelmina after her deceased grandmother — is a creative soul. Will lives with her aunt who runs the family antique store; it’s a job she inherited. It was only a year ago that Will moved in with her aunt Ella, after her mother and father died tragically and suddenly.

Important things to know about Willa that she’ll tell you herself: she’s an old soul. She loves creating lamps and playing with light. And she’s scared of the dark.

Important things to know about Willa that she won’t tell you: she’s creative, passionate, romantic, and deeply aching inside from all of the loss in her life these last few years. When hurricane Whitney roars into town and the city is left without power, Willa is forced to face the shadows in her life head-on. Is she as strong as the face she’s putting on? Is she allowed to show a moment of weakness? Can she let herself have a break?

Will & Whit is Laura Lee Gulledge’s sophomore graphic novel, and while it’s not as compelling as Page by Paige, it’s still a well-drawn, well-written story about the means and ways of creative people. This is the kind of book that you know the readership for — it’s those teens who always feel a little on the outside, who love to creative and express and explore and sometimes lose the core of themselves in the midst of it or who feel like they’ll never fit in with other people because of their passion. They live big lives internally and externally, even when it means that sometimes, their wants and their drive can collide with real world things.

Will is an incredibly complex main character. She comes off at times like she’s well beyond her years, but she’s really not. Will puts on a tough face, and it’s one she carries off by constantly reminding people how awesome and talented they are while taking a step back and brushing off those things in herself. This is her grieving process. She can’t break, and she won’t allow herself the chance to cry, to get angry, to feel all of the ugly things that accompany loss. Doing so would mean she can’t be there for her aunt. It would mean not being there for her best friends Autumn and Noel. It would mean not being the cheerleader in everyone else’s life.

But she can’t escape those shadows, even as she tries to repress them.

The storm is what sets the story into motion. Will has agreed to help a group of local kids with their low-budget carnival (think talent show more than ferris wheels here) by getting her friend to do a puppet show. But when the power is knocked out and the carnival kids need someone who can help illuminate the show, they seek her out personally. She has the light skills. She has the passion for creating and manipulating light. This is her chance to shine — literally. It’s a small and subtle moment but it highlights the entirety of Will’s story: rather than step in and offer her own talents to the show when she hears about it, she offers up the talent of her friend. Even when she herself is asked to take part, she’s still a little take aback that she has something worthwhile to offer.

When she’s convinced, though, she discovers the importance of letting herself showcase her talents . . . and letting herself be comforted by those who love and care about her when she needs it.

There’s a romantic subplot in Will & Whit that follows Autumn and one of the theater kids, who ends up not being all he’s cracked up to be. Autumn, who is Indian, chooses to change her appearance for him, even. But doing so left her alone in the end, and she discovers that embracing who she is — as she is — will snag her the sort of boyfriend she deserves. And, well, who happens to have been there all along. Will, too, will get a chance to have something romantic happen in her life, as well, and both instances work well in the story. They don’t feel shoved in and they feel authentic.

In many ways, Will & Whit reminds me of Drama by Raina Telgemeier and I think they’d make good read alikes. Gulledge’s story is a little bit more mature, though I wouldn’t hesitate to hand it to a middle school reader who was ready for an older story. Both books are about creative kids and about how embracing that creativity matters. Both encourage teens to be happy with who they are and to chase those things which matter to them. There are also some interesting comparisons to be drawn about the stage crew story — being “in the back” of the show — in Telgemeier’s story and Will’s knowledge of, experience with, and passion for lighting and the role that plays in getting the carnival going. Likewise, both books make their characters talk, interact, and look like the age group they’re portraying. There is no doubt that Will is 17 and that her friends are all in that age group. Even Reese, who is Noel’s 13-year-old sister, looks 13, as opposed to 17 like her brother and his friends.

I’d hoped for a little bit more of a relationship to be seen between Will and her aunt because I was
curious to know more about her aunt. Like Will, she, too, experienced a great amount of loss in a short time. Perhaps it’s the description Will gives of Ella at the beginning of the book which captured me most about Ella and which is something I’d personally aspire to be: quietly badass (this is as profane as the story gets). Why there isn’t more of a relationship ultimately makes sense, though: Will has tried to be the strong one for both of them, and as such, she hasn’t allowed herself to let Ella in. I suspect that after this story’s close, their relationship becomes what I’d hoped to see, and I can settle for that.

Gulledge’s art is fun and her characters are bold. Her people stand out in every scene, but it’s never at the expense of the scene around them. Because this is a story about people and not things, it’s important that they do stand on their own.

I appreciated the black and white only method here, particularly because it plays well into the story itself, about darkness and light, about power being on and then being lost. About storms that come and shake things up and then leave you to pick up the pieces. The black and white illustrations are not boring; they’re perhaps as bright and powerful as possible throughout. The use of shadows swirling behind Will are at times loud and at other times soft and subtle. It mirrors her feelings and how she interacts with and allows herself to have them. When the power goes off, the book goes much darker, as well — and as Will explained at the start of the story, the third thing you need to know about her is that she is afraid of the dark. It’s when she cannot suppress the shadows any more. It’s when she cannot control the light because it is out of her control. It’s smart stuff.

It’s worth checking out the tumblr that Gulledge has going for Will & Whit. Pass this along to artsy readers who enjoy graphic novels and those who like graphic novels that are stand alones. I think Gulledge’s book is also a great pick for readers who are more reluctant to try a graphic novel. It’s a very nice introduction to the format.

Will & Whit is available now. Copy borrowed from my library.