This anthology has been sitting on my shelf for around three years. I have a copy of the fifth printing, which says so much about the supportive nature of the comics community.

I bought it because I knew that the proceeds would go toward helping the Pulse victims, for whom it was put together. And because I always intended to read it.

This afternoon, I had some free time in between study sessions. Just enough time, I hoped, to be able to (finally) read one of the graphic novels that I can hardly ever find time for lately.

So I picked this one.

I started crying on the first page and didn’t stop crying until long after I finished it. Had to put my glasses on and enable the smoothing function on the Zoom call for my last meeting because my eyes were so red.

I didn’t realize until partway through that the day I had chosen to read this book was June 12th. I mean, I obviously knew the date, but I didn’t realize the date until partway through. When I saw one of the memorial pages and it clicked that the Pulse nightclub shooting happened four years ago. Four years ago, on June 12.

And then one of the reasons I kept crying was that the overall message in this book is so hopeful, so defiant, and after four years I honestly don’t know if I can look back and say things changed.

I really encourage you to purchase this book. It is still in print, and all proceeds still go to LGBTQI+ charities.

The artwork and the stories are beautiful, and painful. To be quite honest, the book is a swift and vicious gut-punch, and I think everyone needs to read it. Everyone.

Please buy it. Please read it.

Please encourage other people to buy it.

Please encourage other people to read it.

Please support people. Please love people.

#LoveIsLove

Image credits: my photographs of my copy of the book.

Categories: Comics/Graphic Novels

Tags: book review, book reviewer, Bookstagram, Comic Books, Graphic Novels, IDW Publishing, LGBTQI+, Love Is Love, Pulse Nightclub