Fairly Queer Books | The Blue Road: A Fable of Migratio...

The Blue Road: A Fable of Migration

Author: Wayde Compton, April dela Noche Milne
Genre: Graphic Novel

In this stunning graphic novel, Lacuna is a girl without a family, a past, or a proper home. She lives alone in a swamp made of ink, but with the help of Polaris, a will-o’-the-wisp, she embarks for the fabled Northern Kingdom, where she might find people like her.

The only way to get there, though, is to travel the strange and dangerous Blue Road that stretches to the horizon like a mark upon a page. Along the way, Lacuna must overcome trials such as the twisted briars of the Thicket of Tickets and the intractable guard at the Rainbow Border. At the end of her treacherous journey, she reaches a city where memory and vision can be turned against you, in a world of dazzling beauty, divisive magic, and unlikely deliverance. Finally, Lacuna learns that leaving, arriving, and returning -- they’re all just different words for the same thing: starting all over again. The Blue Road explores the world from a migrant’s perspective with dreamlike wonder. Ages 12 and up.

Additional Resources

Reading Recommendations

  1. Purchasing: I have linked the book to this post; Bookshop has a paperback version. Or buy directly from the publisher, who has an epub excerpt you can view before you purchase.
  2. Borrowing: I recommend putting in a request at your local library, or purchasing a copy through Bookshop.
  3. Lending: If you prefer an e-copy and are having difficulty accessing it, I have added an epub version you can access in Discord.

Community Engagement

If you do end up reading it by epub and can't financially support the cartoonists, I highly recommend rating the comic on Goodreads and StoryGraph; it helps the comic get on other people's radar.

You'll notice our first two reads of the year are aimed at young readers and are not particularly long, by design. I read a variety of genres and dense books all year long, but the ones that get less love because they're short are the ones I want to highlight and read together. I hope that interests you as well!

The poll is up in the Discord now to vote on the next discussion date.