Cute Girl Network.

Means, Greg.  Cute Girl Network.  Macmillan/First Second    2013  179p.  $17.99  ISBN 978-1-59643-751-7  hs/adult  Graphic novel VG         

Jane is a skater who is frustrated by the lack of respect shown to her by the men at her job in a skate shop and at the local park.  She falls for Jack, a bumbling soup-cart worker, who makes her laugh.  The pair seem to be fumbling teenagers at first, but they are adults.  She has recently moved to town, and her book club, which is reading a Twilight-type spoof, disapproves of her new beau.  They introduce her to the Cute Girl Network, an underground organization intended to prevent heartbreak by warning women of the “losers” each has dated.  Jack’s exes tell Jane horror stories of their experiences with him and urge her to end the relationship.  Jane must decide if she should follow the advice from the network or her instincts about the relationship.  The novel contains a number of discussions about sex, as the characters are in their twenties. While they are not explicit in nature, it is a graphic novel and there is one sexual scenario that plays out over several pages.  This is a good story about making one’s own decisions about personal relationships, but school librarians should preview the novel before deciding whether to include it in their collections.           

Summary: Jane happily begins dating Jack, until the Cute Girl Network gets involved and his exes provide a multitude of reasons why she must dump him before getting her heart broken.   

Romance-Fiction, Feminism-Fiction                     --Stephanie Pennucci