Taproot: A Story About A Gardener and A Ghost is the dreamy, YA, early cold spring queer romance you didn’t know you needed.

While doing some perusing of the WPL catalogue on community gardening, I stumbled across this gem of a graphic novel.

We meet Blue, a lonely teen ghost wandering aimlessly until he meets Hamal, the heart-of-gold sweetheart and gardener extraordinaire who can see and talk to ghosts, and they begin an adorable friendship that turns into a CRUSH!

Hamal works in a garden centre and is a community fixture for orchid advice, despite most people thinking he’s a bit wacky for always talking to himself.

Blue is head over heels for Hamal, which of course, naturally makes them star-crossed given Blue’s whole not-being-alive thing.

While this is a tooth-achingly sweet YA story of young love, it is also about the painful acceptance of life’s cycles and our role in those cycles. There are times to grow, and time to rest, and Taproot expresses that beautifully. Also, sometimes it’s just good for the soul to read something cute, and dare I say, have a happy ending???

The art in Taproot adds such an interesting dimension to the story, too. One of the things the author does really beautifully is the colours – the blues and greens are so vibrant and varied, and it really is such a feast for the eyes after a long, grey winter.

Author Keezy Young’s bio says it better than I ever could “She draws and writes the stories she wanted to see more of growing up — stories starring queer characters, brightness, a title creepiness, and a lot of heart”.