The yearly break from chapter books. This post has been years in the making, because I wanted to wait for Lou! Sonata to finish before I posted this. Sonata just finished a few weeks ago.
Lou! might be the most popular modern graphic novel series in France. Up there for sure. Only the first four books have been localized in English, but there’s a nifty collection for the first 8 books in French that’s much cheaper to import than my last Carte Blanche series. That and a translation app and you’ve got a stellar time. Those other books aren’t getting localized anytime soon, so don’t wait around.
Also this was written and illustrated by Julien Neel, in case you wanted to be really jealous of someone else.
Premise
The marketing around Lou is she’s “the kid that grows up with you”. She starts book 1 at age 12 and is 20 when the sequel series Sonata starts. There are a ton of people that literally grew up with Lou and probably related a lot to what she goes through (except maybe that one part). This is kind of unprecedented, and a super cool idea.
This is a slice of life series, if you didn’t get that yet.
Lou! follows our main character as we see the big events in her daily life as she grows up. Most books start and end with entries from her diary, which is more like a scrapbook, and always very cool.
Lou! Sonata follows Lou in her early 20s out on her own. She loses the diary, but not the charm.
Characters
Lou
Our main character. She likes music and journaling and learning about all kinds of new things. As she gets older, she struggles with finding her place in the world. She still hasn’t found it.
Lou’s Mom
A semi-successful science fiction writer. A very successful stay-at-home mom and gamer. Her boyfriend left her at a young age, leaving Lou’s mom to raise Lou herself.
Tristan
Lou’s on-again-off-again boy she likes. They haven’t even dated yet. Neel even admits in the Lou artbook that that’s intentional. Will they ever get together? Who knows.
Mina
Lou’s best friend for the majority of the series. She’s not always around, but when she is, she has Lou’s back. In later books, she has a boyfriend that’s Tristan’s best friend. They argue a lot.
Marie-Emile
One of Lou’s more prominent friends. I really don’t like her, and I don’t think I’m supposed to? She’s not Pénélope levels of dislike, she just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. She’s kind of this rebel-type in school, but still continues to hang out with Lou long after. She’s not all bad, I guess.
Lou’s Grandma
A stubborn old lady that becomes less stubborn as the series goes on. Her strict behavior caused Lou’s mom to run away from home as a teenager. The town she lives in (Mortebouse) becomes central to the story as Lou and her mom reconnect with her.
Paul
Lou’s other on-again-off-again boy she likes. He lives in Mortebouse. They kind of dated? He’s pretty cool, and kind of gets more character development than Tristan, despite not being around as much.
Jeanne
Lou’s half-sister. She’s fun, but comes in a bit late in the series. You know, when Lou’s old enough to deal with finding out she has a half-sister.
Lou!
The best character in this series is (surprisingly) the main character. The series gets really close to her and we see her go through a lot. You can’t help but like at least one part of her. I’ve read a lot of reviews of people that strongly relate to what she’s been through.
Series Breakdown
As mentioned earlier, Lou gets older each book. At the start of Sonata she’s 20 and moves out of her mom’s apartment. I’m using translations of the French titles here for 1-4, not the localized English ones. They’re very different in the localization.
(1) Secret Diary – Lou goes to school and likes boys and makes friends.
(2) Mortebouse – Lou and her mom visit Lou’s grandma in the countryside. Lou learns a lot about both of them.
(3) The Bus Graveyard – Lou’s mom meets a new guy and gets her first book published. Lou has trouble with friends. Tristan’s apartment gets torn down to make way for a bus parking lot.
(4) Romance – Lou and her friends go on vacation at a friend’s fancy house. Tristian and his friends also happen to be nearby. Is this fate?
(5) Laser Ninja – Lou’s apartment complex burns down, and her and her mom find a new home. Lou’s mom has a baby. (The book is called Laser Ninja because Lou’s mom was briefly considering calling her new baby that.)
(6) The Age of Crystal – That one thing happens that I’ll talk about later.
(7) The Cabin – Lou and friends make a big treehouse the the woods near Mortebouse. Like, really big. Lots of bonding occurs.
(8) Off To New Adventures – Lou goes on a road trip to discover herself. (This was where the series was supposed to end, but Lou! was so popular Neel kept it going.)
(S1) Lou! Sonata – This was one of the only books I gave 5 stars on Goodreads last year. I read this in one sitting and sat in silence after. I’ve never had a book make me feel lonely and empty and like I just moved to a new town for college. There’s significantly less text than previous books, and a ton of beautiful wordless spreads. You don’t even have to have read the first 8 books, but it’s cooler if you have. Lou’s defined a lot by her friends and how easily she makes them. Moving makes her “lose” all that and start from scratch. While she does make a ton of new friends, she spends the majority of the book wandering around aimlessly, wondering what she should be doing with her life. The ending blew my mind.
(S2) Lou! Sonata 2 – The entire book covers the events of a music festival Lou puts on from start to finish. Lou runs around making sure everything goes off without a hitch, but she can’t be everywhere at once. There’s a big reveal at the end of this, too.
(S3) Lou! Sonata 3 – Lou returns home to some sad endings and new beginnings. I really can’t say much more without spoilers. Also because not too much actually happens. Lou still doesn’t know what to do with herself, and I think it’s really bold to keep that up for three books.
(Special) Génération Lou! – It’s an art and lorebook. A lot of the lore goes into some really cool details. Not all is Lou-related, and goes into Neel’s work before Lou.
Cool Stuff
There’s vinyl ambience albums for the Sonata books.
Really. They’re meant to be listened to while you read, I guess. Book 2’s album features all the “bands” from the festival and their songs in the order they appear. Like you’re really there. You could actually stop reading and listen to each song as they happen in the book. I think you’re “supposed” to do that.
The sequel series is called SONATA.
You know, “sonata” like a musical composition for a soloist. Because Lou has moved out of her mom’s place and is off on her own. AND because music plays a huge part in her life. Good name.
Lou has a lot of friends.
And they all matter. Sonata 2 is kind of the cumulation of all of that. I think every person she’s met in the series is there. As attendees, bands, staff, caterers, and more.
The use of color is on point.
Especially in the Sonata books. See next point.
Those wordless spreads.
Here’s some of those Sonata arts I was talking about. Really fun.
The Crystal Crisis
This is that one part I mentioned earlier. If you’ve already read Lou!, you probably knew I was going to talk about this. This is kind of a big spoiler, but also not really because it hasn’t actually mattered too much despite being a huge global event that affected everyone in the world of Lou. I wouldn’t be surprised if Neel did it as some weird social commentary, or just to be weird in general. The man writes books using tarot cards, after all.
A bunch of weird alien quartz crystals sprouted up all over the world, disrupting electronics and throwing the entire world into a panic. Society was able to keep itself together, until eventually the crystals disappeared one day. Lou spends time researching them to no avail, then decides to use the event as an excuse to travel. The artbook goes into more detail with a full set of comic pages, showing what happened immediately after the initial fallout. This is something we don’t actually see in the comics, which makes the event very surreal. It just happens, and everyone seems to adjust pretty quickly.
Conclusion
Go read Lou! At least book 1. Or Sonata 1. One of them. I’ll wait.
If artbooks aren’t enough extra content for you, there’s also a live-action movie and a ton of canon animated Youtube shorts (in French and English!). Even I haven’t absorbed all of this content yet. Something to do while I wait for another Lou series, if it comes. She still has a lot of life to live.
Until then~
