Mangaman by Barry Lyga, illustrated by Colleen Doran

Traditional comics meets nontraditional manga in this graphic novel-format masterpiece. Marissa Montaigne is popular, and she surely prides herself on being herself, and never any version of who someone might want her to be, and that's probably the reason she broke things off with her popular, jock boyfriend. But when she lays eyes on Ryoko Kiyama, she's smitten for sure. He's the boy, or the non-boy, that everyone's been talking about. When there was a rip in his world, he finds himself the odd-man-out in the "real world." Everyone makes fun of the sound track word bubbles that follow him around, and they can sometimes see the images that he's thinking, but he's only really concerned with two things: getting home, and Marissa. But what if he can't get home? And what if Marissa gets sucked into his world without him?

There's a lot going on here, and I kind of hope that there is more to come with the storyline. Recommended for any and all readers -- the non-"sex scene" is hilarious. And for the record, Barry Lyga is AWESOME.

Reviewed by kate the librarian.