Aya: Love in Yop City: 09/12/15

Aya: Love in Yop City by Marguerite Abouet is the conclusion of the once six part graphic novel series. It was combined in the English translation into two omnibus volumes.

In this last half of the series, Aya is having trouble at university because her professor is a lech. Meanwhile a young man, Innocent, has made the move to Paris in hopes of finding a new life. Personally I ended up being more invested in his story, than in Aya and her friends'.

I can see the temptation to import a series as two instead of six to get the story out there all at once. But from a reader's perspective, a little Aya goes a long way. The stories are based on real life memories of life in the Ivory Coast in the 1970s, so the plots and characters are complicated. There's a lot going on and even with the family trees at the beginning of each volume, there's still a lot to keep track off.

Add to the mix, the fact that I read the book as a library book. There's a certain pressure to read at a faster pace to get the book done before its due (even with renewals). The Aya books aren't ones I can skim.

Someday, I hope to get all the Aya at one time (meaning, I'll probably purchase my own copies) and read it slowly.

Three stars

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