"Battle Monsters & Social Anxiety With Friends!"
Title: D&D: Dungeon Club Vol 01 – Roll Call
Author/Artist: Molly Knox Ostertag & Xanthe Bouma
Publisher: Harper Alley
Category: Family, Fantasy, Young Adult
Review by Brayden (they/them)
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We know that Molly Knox Ostertag can create amazing stories through graphic novels, just look at the best-selling ‘Witch Boy‘ series or the incredible ‘The Girl From The Sea‘, but this time she is collaborating with artist Xanthe Bouma and if you even glance at the cover of this book you can tell you are in for a visual treat.
We follow Jess & Olivia as they head back to school after a break filled with fantasy adventure in their Dungeons & Dragons campaign, only now Olivia wants to start a D&D club at school and Jess is terrified at the idea. We get to really see where these two youngsters are at on a social level. Jess has a best-friend in Olivia and is quite socially awkward, filled with anxiety and caution, while Olivia is a bit more extroverted and has other friends bringing other events into her life like running for school government.
The stand out of this book is how well the creative team captures and utilises its “Officially Licensed” label, using aspects like Monster stat-blocks both in-game as well as to introduce characters in their everday lives. Jess uses elements from D&D to try to understand and interact with the world around her, resulting in really enjoyable experiences in reading where the worlds cross-over, allowing for her to embody her character Sir Corius or for us to see how she truly sees mean schoolgirls as monstrous creatures.
This story is a classic tale of friendship and personal growth through the tumultuous time of middle school, where we barely understand ourselves let alone the world around us. Our characters are flawed and struggle to communicate effectively, but we also have to remember that only a couple years before they were only just learning to speak somewhat fluently. It also wears its influences on its sleeve because it is incredibly believable that a middle-schooler would want their D&D character to be a dramatic and suave anime-esque badass, or a pretty and friendly newcomer with a backstory worth hearing.
Middle school is hard. Making friends is hard. This book captures that slice of life feeling, all while having the awesome fantasy adventure scenes of something like ‘The Lord of The Rings’ or ‘The Adventure Zone’ (mind you in a much more age-appropriate manner – there aren’t any “Abraca-F***-You!”s in here).
Overall, this is a really enjoyable book that is perfect for readers of all-ages. With brilliant and beautiful art, an important message on friendship and a fun first-step into fantasy adventures, ‘D&D: Dungeon Club’ is off to a great start and I personally cannot wait to see the larger adventures of the Highland Middle School’s First Dungeons & Dragons Club!