Orange by Benjamin

Title: Orange
Author: Benjamin
Illustrator: Benjamin
Publisher: TokyoPop Inc.
Copyright: 2009
Price: $14.99
ISBN: 978-1-4278-1463-0
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Summary: Do not be fooled by the smiling girl on the cover of Orange for she is Orange, a depressed high school girl. The story opens up with Dashu as he jumps off of the apartment building to his death. Orange explains to the reader that he was a drunken artist that she may have loved. The story is a collection of her memories explaining her depression and how he played a role in her life until the moment he jumped from the building.
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Thoughts: It honestly took me a little while to get used to the photo-like artwork of the story, yet once used to it, I felt like I was reading a short movie instead of a short graphic novel. This book does not shy away from showing Dashu falling and crashing to his death (he lands on a car). Orange is not always a relatable character to me, but I do understand her depression and the feeling that the friends you hang out with are not really your friends. The afterword of this story by artist Benjamin was more intense than the story itself as he wrote about the creation and publication of Orange. While the images are memorable for the use of color and shadows, the afterword text is haunting. A story about depression, Orange is a book that you have to be aware is there and that it does serve a purpose like other books about suicide.
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Will Teens Like It? Probably high school students.
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Things to be aware of: sexual situations, suicide (shown), drinking and smoking
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Bonus: I was surprised that this was a TokyoPop book, but only because I’m used to their manga titles that are all uniformly the same size.

2010 ALA Great Graphic Novel for Teens
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Source: Library copy.