Red as Blue

Ji Strangeway’s RED AS BLUE beckons LGBTQ youths and GenXers to beautifully come of age again with this prosey hybrid graphic novel.

15-year-old June Lusparian is an outcast caught between worlds. Half Mexican and half Armenian, June hovers on the border of adulthood, searching the streets of Paradise and the halls of Paradise High for signs of redemption – symptoms of life. She longs to carve open her own space to find a beating heart in a barren world. Only her secret gift for music offers a hint of hope. When she falls for blonde, cool girl Beverly, captain of the Spirit Girls cheer squad, June hopes she may, at last, have found that one true thing.

But as their nascent romance grows, June learns true connection requires more than a bond of pain and the ache of desire. Paradise is more than an idea, more than a town. And forgiveness never falls from heaven of its own accord.

Set in a fictional desert town in 1980s Colorado, RED AS BLUE is a moment of eternal tension on the verge of explosion. With a unique, genre-bending style that is sometimes lyrical, sometimes sharp as a razor’s edge, and always engaging; Ji Strangeway paints word-pictures of the volatile world between worlds in which June struggles to find relevance and worth at Paradise High. But June’s Paradise is on life-support, barely breathing.

Will death be the only answer?

Reviews

"This is one of the most unique, powerful, and quite frankly, goddamn gorgeous books I’ve read in years. Strangeway’s style and format are as unique as her characters, and I found myself thinking about the story for days after putting it down." - TheFandomentals

"Myriads of books have been written about high school…but Ji’s unique approach with Red as Blue makes this graphic novel an essential – certainly among the few gems that really nail it and have something to say." - Lesbian News

"Strangeway creates a story that pulls at your heartstrings and will show you how complex and difficult life can be. Her characters are multifaceted and show how much change can take place over a short period of time. Red as Blue is a fantastic read and I strongly recommend it." - Nerdy Girl Express

"Ji Strangeway’s unique hybrid of graphic novel and young adult literature is an addictive, eclectic fusion of styles and identity that blazes a brand new path for storytelling." - AfterEllen

About the Author

Ji Strangeway is a film director, author, and poet based in Los Angeles. She embraces the female-centric coming of age story. Her stories ride the shoulders of the misunderstood anti-hero, exploring the crash zones between society and self, the physical and the existential. Creating from the margins of gender, orientation, and circumstance, Strangeway's work is an unconventional call to action. Her words are for the dreamers and the idealists.