I am Princess X by Cherie Priest
May is still mourning her best friend Libby, who died a couple of years ago when the car went off a bridge.
But maybe Libby didn't die.
The comic character created by the girls, a princess with blue hair, red Chuck Taylors and a katana suddenly shows up in graffiti all over Seattle. Then, May finds clues hidden in a webcomic: clues that lead her all over town, with a trail that might end with the discovery of a hiding, still-alive Libby.
This quick-moving story is interspersed with pages from the Princess X comic, and features action, adventure, friendship, mystery, and NO ROMANCE. Extra points for racial and gender diversity among characters that does not feel forced or tokenistic.
Things get a little name-droppy in the Seattle department, but at least the author used to live here and understands that just because there's a Starbucks on every corner doesn't mean that most natives actually buy coffees there.
Recommended for readers of print and graphic novels, ages 12 to adult.
