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Typical of me, I only discovered my school library had a graphic novel section about a week before I graduate. Cue tears of failure! I went there looking for Persepolis, after narrowly restraining myself from buying it last week in Berkeley, but the copy has apparently vanished from our library. I weep more tears at this! However, while I was there, I discovered a beautiful hardback collection of Linda Medley's Castle Waiting. I zipped through it yesterday, and was left kind of stunned that I had never heard of it before. It does a few of my favorite things: focuses on everyday life in a fantasy world, rather than Big Epic Adventures, and draws a variety of female characters with different faces.

The series starts off in what seems to be a fairly typical twisted fairy tales sort of way, but becomes a slow-paced and lovely exploration of the characters and the world. I am particularly fond of the bearded ladies. It's not flashy, and sometimes I wondered where it was going, but . . . not everything really needs to go somewhere. And there are definitely strong story threads that are waiting to be picked up.

(Although I do have to try not to think too hard about the cross-species relationships. Begone, shades of Piers Anthony!)