I went to the bookstore over the summer to pick up a newly-released graphic novel that the internet promised they had in stock. Unfortunately they couldn’t find it once I got there. While the unfruitful search was taking place, I picked Alex Assan's young adult graphic novel Sunhead off the shelves and decided to give it a try. This volume is a quick read at 250 pages and its story will resonate with the younger end of the young adult demographic (13-to-15-year-olds). With a focus on visual storytelling over dialogue, it will appeal even to those who are not confident in their reading abilities.
Rotem is a Sunhead, a fan of the international smash hit Sunrise series of books and films. She’s obsessed with the story’s love interest, Edmund, and no one else gets it. But all that changes when she befriends Ayala, a shy classmate and avid book lover who’s as swept away by the romance as she is. The two become fast friends, but as their deep connection grows stronger, Rotem starts to wonder: What exactly draws her to this story?Alex Assan’s debut, Sunhead, is an earnest coming-of-age graphic novel that explores how the stories we love help us understand our friendships, our relationships, and ourselves.
Rotem is a Sunhead, a rabid fan of the fictional Sunrise series of books, about a vampire named Edmund who goes to high school and falls in love with a human girl named Zoe. If you are thinking to yourself… that sounds familiar… You are right. Sunhead in this instance = Twihard (fan of the Twilight books). The parallels are there in the imagery, storylines, etc. In any case, Rotem is obsessed, and no one else around her understands. When she convinces schoolmate Ayala to read the book, Rotem suddenly has a partner in obsession. Sunhead is a slice-of-life comic where a book and its main character act as catalysts for Rotem’s changing sense of self.
In Sunhead, author-illustrator Assan beautifully captures the awkwardness of hormones, the relief and joy of escapism in imagining that you are somewhere else or someone else, and the agony of having romantic feelings for someone for the first time. The story is told from Rotem’s perspective, and she is the only fully realized character in the book. Much of the story is taken up with her reactions to conflict, musings on Sunrise, and self-isolation. Rotem doesn’t have a clear idea of who she is yet, but her first experience with making a friend (Ayala) based on her niche interests leads to intense conversations, longing glances, and acting impulsively on new feelings and then running away. In other words, it is awkward and an accurate encapsulation of the teenage experience.
A note on the setting: I did not realize before diving into the book that Rotem was an Israeli teenager, nor that the book was set in Tel Aviv – this information is not included anywhere in the book blurb. After reading Sunhead, I can see why: the setting plays such a minor part that it could really be set almost anywhere. The only clues seemed to be comments that Rotem made about waiting for Hebrew translations of the Sunrise books and subtitles for the Sunrise film. The time period also seems to be the early 2000s – with computers but without ubiquitous cell phones. The Tel-Aviv depicted in Sunhead is bloodless and featureless, and that feels problematic in our current timeline. Author Assan is visibly pro-Palestine on social media, and talks openly about gay Israeli community, but these do not come through in the book. I can understand why, because Sunhead is all about Rotem’s coming of age and internality, and her perspective is limited and immature, but it does feel like a disservice to the place, its people, and its history.
Let’s talk art! Assan used digital tools to create Sunhead, but the soft lines are reminiscent of either charcoal or brushwork, and the subtlety in shading and coloring of watercolor. Assan uses traditional rectangular panels throughout except for the daydream Sunrise sequences, which are more freeform and loose, and set apart from the rest of the text in tones of pink and red. The art overall is colored in a visually appealing and warm palette of yellows, reds and browns. Assan’s storytelling relies heavily on facial expressions and closeups of body language. So much so that there is a 45-page-long section of wordless text towards the end of the book. I understand the effect the artist was hoping to achieve, but so many pages without text make it easy to flip through quickly, without paying attention to details, and as such may lose the poignancy the author is trying to convey.
In all, Sunhead is a quick read with a slightly unfinished feel. It focuses on Rotem’s joy and angst in falling deeply in love with a book, and how the important stories from our teen years can change us forever.
Recommended for: young teens (think ages 13+) of all reading levels, anyone who has ever fallen deeply into obsession with a book, and fans of queer coming-of-age and slice-of-life stories.