Review by Woodrow Phoenix

In Unicorn Crush, the 19th book in the series, Dakota is mad at Phoebe. “YOU ARE WEIRD AND YOU MADE ME WEIRD,” Dakota says to Phoebe.”I was cool! And popular! And you messed all that up. Your unicorn gave me magic hair, and that made goblins start following me around, and now I have the stink of weirdness on me and it’s all your fault.” You could describe the relationship between Phoebe and Dakota as Frenemies, as Phoebe explains to Marigold. The pair met back in kindergarten, Dakota was the cool girl who always had lots of friends and Phoebe never had any, and Dakota’s friends were always mean to her. But somehow, there was still something that drew them together. Dana Simpson’s take on the cool girl/weird girl dynamic is amusing and the solution to Dakota’s problem is a combination of Phoebe logic and applied Unicorn magic – but is that the best outcome?

This volume also features lots of scrappily drawn cartoons in a Dog Man style as Phoebe decides to become an autobiographical cartoonist, drawing her innermost thoughts and desires. These get off to a slow start as she realises that “you should probably write your comics before you start drawing them.” After Marigold decides to help, Phoebe’s comics lead to a revelation, which happens to explain the title of this book. The situations and conversations don’t break any new ground but the general funniness of this strip continues its upward trend throughout this volume and Phoebe is rocking a slightly tweaked hairstyle too. Next in the series is Unicorn Time Machine.