Strange Bedfellows | Graphic Novel Review

Title: Strange Bedfellows

Author/Artist: Ariel Slamet Ries

Genre: romance, fantasy, sci-fi, LGBTQ+

Ages: Teens

Publisher: HarperAlley

Volume: 1

Release: March 4th, 2025

Order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

In the not-too-distant future, most of humanity resides on its last-ditch effort at utopia: Meridian, a remote alien planet where you’re more likely to be born superhuman than left-handed.

None of that is important to Oberon Afolayan. Since his mildly public breakdown, his whole life seems to be spiraling out of control—from dropping out of university to breaking up with his boyfriend, it seems like only a karmic inevitability when he wakes up one day with the ability to conjure his dreams in the real world.

Oberon’s newfound powers come with a facsimile of his high school crush, Kon, who mysteriously dropped off the face of the planet almost three years ago and who is a little more infuriating (if not also infuriatingly hot)than Oberon remembers.

Kon makes it his mission to turn Oberon’s life around, and while they struggle to get a handle on his powers and his disastrous personal life (not to mention the appearance of strange nightmare creatures), it turns out this dream version of Kon has secrets of his own—dangerous ones.

Oberon might have more on his plate than he originally thought, but is giving up his dreams—even the one he might have accidentally fallen in love with—the only way to find happiness in reality?

The best part about this was the art, that has its own sort of dreamy watercolor charm~

The first 40 or so pages:

I found it quite hard to follow. The panels were often overloaded with speech bubbles, making them difficult to read. At times, it was jarring and confusing to the point of sounding like actual nonsense. It’s hard to enjoy something when I constantly have to reread just to figure out what’s going on.

say what now?

The Rest:

Not bad—definitely interesting, but honestly, the headache from trying to decipher the first part of the book lingered. I also found it a bit cringe, with some secondhand embarrassment. I’m the type of person who has to look away, or my body will cave in on itself lol.

The pacing was all over the place—super rushed at times and oddly slow at others. The layout also suffered from issues (not sure what to call it exactly), albeit less than in the first half. Some pages were filled only with art panels, while others were overloaded with dialogue bubbles—often from minor side characters who didn’t add much to the story besides making it even harder to follow. Occasionally, the art itself was difficult to decipher.

I think this one tried to tackle too many things all at once: their relationship, Oberon’s anxiety/mental health issues, his powers, etc. I will say the author/artist handled the heavier topics with grace, but it all felt like too much to deal with in a singular graphic novel.

Honestly, though, I loved the premise of this just not the execution. I think I would love to read this as a book with it being more fleshed out or made into a series of volumes instead of just one.

This just unfortunately ended up being not my cup of tea, however, I do understand why a lot of people liked this one. Sidenote: I’m not a vibe reader. I try to be—I really do—but I struggle to get through things if I can’t figure them out or if the writing, grammar, etc., is full of errors (the writing in this one was overall fine besides being a bit confusing). I mention this because in fact, I would still highly recommend this if you want to read something kinda tripy, with lots of queer representation, gorgeous artwork, and a mc who deals with anxiety.

tldr: The art is beautiful and I wanted to love this one, but I just felt forced out of the story too many times having to read dialogue that (1) didn’t make a whole lotta sense and (2) didn’t add to the story or explain any lore.

“Booble” LOL

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