Review by Frank Plowright
Known as the twins of bestselling music group Tegan and Sara, Sara Quin and Tegan Quin have also produced High School, an autobiography of their teenage years on which the TV show of the same name is based. Junior High is fictionalised and set in the present day, but is a form of prequel aimed at a slightly younger audience.
It begins with the family moving house and Tegan and Sara allocated to separate classes when starting at a new school. While being twins isn’t as common, their experiences and concerns are initially much the same as any other young girls, making Junior High extremely identifiable. Helping distinguishing between identical or, as one smart student knows, monosygotic twins is colour coding of art and lettering during crucial moments. Identifying artist Tillie Walden is the use of purplish grey for the remaining art.
Not that it will matter to the readers at whom Junior High is aimed, but it’s odd seeing Walden working on someone else’s material when her career to date has been following personal projects. Her attractive style, though, is ideally suited to the material, and although aimed at a younger audience the LBGT theme fits with her solo projects. She draws girls who’re cheerful for the most part, but whose uncertainties show, and the simplicity avoids confusion.
Plenty of other graphic novels deal with school concerns. Like them Junior High features the resolutely unpleasant kid, the polite geeky one and the old friend left behind, but even before the introduction of sexual tension it’s elevated by more open discussion. An early chapter deals with the embarrassment of the first bra, periods are honestly addressed, and a crisis is prompted by the sisters falling out, which has a deeper resonance than the same between friends. Whether or not the events prompting the fallout were actual or fiction, it’s an exceptionally well written sequence, resonant and real, as are the events following from it.
It’s halfway through before sexual attraction is properly introduced, and it’s rapidly followed by the instant attraction of music after Tegan and Sara discover their stepfather’s guitar. That’s another scene written from the heart, powerful in describing the rush of holding a guitar and just strumming a chord. While the focus is naturally enough on the girls, a nice aspect is showing how understanding their mother and stepfather are. Really bad behaviour isn’t on the agenda, but neither is inducing resentment by over-reacting to mistakes.
More relatable than most high school graphic novels and never dropping into lecturing, Junior High is smart, funny and touching, and the hope is that it’ll make a lot of people feel better about themselves. You’ll want more, and be pleased to know Crush is due to provide it in late 2024.
