With plenty of teen LGBTQ+ graphic novels coming out lately, The Girl From the Sea is definitely one of the best fantasy and romance novels combined. It includes romance, falling in love, finding sexuality, family problems, friendship problems, siblings and secrets. Released on June 1, 2021, right at the start of Pride month, Molly Knox Ostertag welcomed her first book about homosexual romance. It is significant because it shows that readers don’t have to like someone who’s the opposite gender, and that all that matters are true feelings. 

When readers first open the book, they are greeted by text conversations in colorful bubbles between a group of friends introducing the main character. In the story we meet Morgan Kwon, a 15-year-old girl who lives on a tiny island with her mom, brother, and  grandparents. One windy night on her walk to the beach she accidentally drowns and gets saved by a selkie named Keltie, who was a seal that could transform into a girl with a kiss. Morgan is immediately attracted to Keltie’s cuteness and out of desperation they kiss.

This book was very romantic because it shows a few scenes with Morgan and Keltie kissing and their feelings building up. The relationships that the characters had with each other was significant and pleasing to read. However, the character development and pacing of the book was a bit too fast. Keltie met Morgan’s mother the next day after saving Morgan, then soon met her friends later that day. 

The art is unique and different from other graphic novels. The character designs stayed the same throughout the whole book. It features Kelties big eyes, and Morgan’s texts with her group of friends in the beginning with colorful bubbles, and then two full pages of Morgan drowning in a sea. Readers get an inside look of her problems, one of the biggest ones being her parent’s divorce, then being saved by a girl. 

If I could add anything to this book, I would add more details into the characters, specifically more shine in the hair and eyes because it would make them more magical and show off their unique style. I also imagined some gills and fins on Keltie, even though she is not a fish. This book is purely fictional, so it would be fitting if they could have superhuman abilities and more freedom from their little island. 

Overall, I liked the author’s message through her art style and representations of different sexualities. Ostertag is married to a woman herself, and she supports the LGBTQ+ community. Morgan in the story is homosexual, and Keltie agrees to date her. Morgan’s only concern was that she struggles with coming out and telling her family she has feelings for another girl, which could be a problem in today’s society too. 

The Girl From the Sea was a very good book and it made me tear up in the end. Morgan’s family and friends did end up supporting her sexuality after finding out her relationship with Keltie. I have read other books by this author, and this one was the best by far. Her other books include The Witch Boy, The Hidden Witch, and The Midwinter Witch. They are good fantasy books about friendships and magical creatures for those who believe in it. I would recommend you read this if you like fictional books. Some books seem too real to not be true!