Genre: Graphic Novel, Queer
Summary
Le bleu est une couleur chaude tells the story of Amélie, a young french woman living "la vie quotidienne" in her small town. Her high school friends seem to be on a different page than her; they are over-involved in the dating scene while Amélie is infinitely more interested in the dusty old novels that they read in their literature class. Amélie seems to find very little interesting in life until one day she spots a young blue-haired woman in the street and is immediately smitten. The pair embark on a winding romantic journey that no reader could fully predict.
Mini-Critique
First things first: Le bleu est une couleur chaude includes adult content, and is thus meant for a target audience of about 16 years or older. That being said, I would highly suggest that anyone who is comfortable with such content read this book! It is one of France's most famous books, and perhaps the country's most famous graphic novel. The book is wonderfully written and perfectly depicts a queer youth experience without falling back onto common tropes or stereotypes. The characters are realistic, with major flaws, which further adds to the power of the book. To top it all off, the illustrations are beautiful, and all done in shades of black, grey, and blue, which gives the book an overall nostalgic feel.
Difficulty Rating
★★★✩✩ Intermediate
See our "About" page for an overview of our difficulty ratings!
Because Le bleu est une couleur chaude is a graphic novel, it is an easier read than most French novels, however because of its advanced language and usage of slang, it is not as easy to read as most graphic novels. I would suggest that language-learners at the Easygoing level give this book a try, all you'll need to do is rely more on the images and maybe utilize an online translator to help you with more difficult words.
Click here to buy Le bleu est une couleur chaude on Amazon!
Hint: a used copy is much cheaper, as is the kindle edition!