Book 2 of the mega-popular webcomic series, Always Human. Love and Gravity is the finale of Ari North's heartwarming coming-of-age story about love, the future, and charting your own path.
"Healthy relationships and healthy conversations unfold in a sweet slice-of-life story....These elements reflect a theme throughout this charming work: cultivating satisfying relationships through open, honest communication. The art is mainly in tones of blue and pink, executed in a fluid, dreamy, watercolor-painting style. Heartwarming." -Kirkus Reviews
"[T]he story is intimate-grounded in emotions, relationships, and life decisions. Sunati and Austen navigate universal questions about love, career, family, and happiness with wisdom. Rendered in beautiful pastels, the art shows manga and anime influences, but with its own stylish storytelling tweaks. Love and Gravity is a sweet, futuristic graphic novel in which young women make hard, adult choices in their lives." Foreward Reviews
Sunati and Austen are back in the final volume of their inspirational love story. First serialized on the popular app and website WebToon, Always Human is now reformatted for a print edition in partnership with GLAAD. Sunati and Austen's relationship is growing stronger by the day in this near-future, soft sci-fi graphic novel. Austen is working hard to overcome the limitations Egan's Syndrome, a very rare condition that rejects body modifications, which is making school difficult. But while Austen is forced to confront her plans for the future, Sunati receives a once-in-a-lifetime job opportunity...on Saturn's moon, Enceladus! Will Austen find her way, and will Sunati leave Austen when she needs her most, or will she follow her own dreams of space exploration. The wonderful ending to this story celebrates the complexity and beauty of what makes us human.
She is trying to keep most private information because she used to work as a primary school teacher. She has a husband, was born and grew up in Australia, now she is living in England.
This is a precious story and has beautiful artwork. But I do feel like the story was a little redundant and had a lot of the same lessons that we had in the first volume.
But I do love the communication between the two people in the relationship
first off the art is amazing and gorgeous, like the watercolor texture and the lighting and the sparkles and colors and just the way they look at each other--- dude
Secondly I adore the writing style and the way they can communicate so well, each chapter feels encouraging and sweet while also carrying great messages about mental health and emotions. A lot of the comics I read have a sense of unreality, but even though this is clearly sci fi based fiction, the conversations between characters and the way they think and interact feel both realistic and entertaining. I love the way Sunati and Austen are developed, both as characters and as a ship. They're so cute!!!
I would recommend this to tons of people and all my friends. Guys, read it.
No entiendo muy bien porqué pero terminé llorando con este libro. No es queja, solo comentario 😂.
Me gustó mucho la historia, sigue siendo tierna como el primer tomo, pero acá se tocan temas más sensibles (problemas alimenticios, pensamientos intrusivos, conflictos interpersonales).
Me súper sorprendieron estás protagonistas, su forma de enfrentar las cosas y como van superar cada miedo y conflicto que tienen a medida que la historia avanza. Inspiran fortaleza y coraje ver cómo hablan sobre los inconvenientes que tienen, los malentendidos en la relación o las situaciones personales que afecta a cada una. La manera en que se acompañan, se cuidan y desean lo mejor me parece lo más tierno y un buen modelo de lo que puede ser una relación sana y en constante comunicación.
Sunati and Austen have come over many hurdles in their relationship thanks to open communication. Now that Sunati’s best friend is moving, she’s becoming closer than ever to Austen. Right as they’re about to take the next step in their relationship, Sunati finds herself on the receiving end of a huge opportunity. Now she just has to decide if she wants to spend the next year living on Enceladus and away from Austen, who is going through a life changing shake up of her own.
I enjoyed reading the first book, so I was very excited to see that the second book was available since I’m not big on the webcomic format. I did have a few complaints about the first book, so I was even more excited to see that they were resolved this time around! There’s a lot of character development in addition to all of the additional world building. I also like that we spend more time with Sunati and Rae. I loved seeing how they first met and how close their friendship really is.
Much of the story follows Sunati and Austen’s relationship as they both go through major changes. We see Sunati begin to embrace her abilities and grow in confidence at the same time Rae begins to feel like she might be lost without Sunati close by. I loved seeing how intricate their friendship is and how they both relied on each other in different ways. It was so great to see how supportive they are of each other and how they point out the other’s strengths. I love seeing excellent relationships appear in books and I’m excited to say that this is one of them.
Meanwhile, we watch Austen struggle with changing direction in college. We see how unsure she is of herself and how sometimes we can’t always achieve our original dreams, but we can create new ones and work our way to making them happen. I loved seeing her and Sunati’s relationship deepen as well as how she gets to interact with Rae.
Plus, the artwork is absolutely stunning. Every single panel looks like a masterpiece. Every page is so colorful and full of detail. I’m excited to see more of Ari’s work in the future both for the writing and the artwork.
um so i didnt expect to fall in love with a random webtoon that a random person recommended on a random goodreads page but here we are. im in love. i cant believe this is just free, just waiting there on the internet?? like what?? anyway the diversity of characters, the characters themselves, the art style, the relationships, the dialogue and how the characters interacted with each other, even the world and i dont even like sci-fi usually? amazing. i feel like now im hyping it up too much but whatever it deserves it. this also just solidified that i really like the fact that you can read other peoples' comments on webtoon lol best way to read graphic novels
edit: forgot to mention its set in futuristic australia of all places!!
5 stars - this was SO CUTE and SO GOOD. It's the perfect coming of age uni age space sapphic story yes please.
This work fulfills Book Riot's Read Harder challenge prompt - "Read a completed webcomic." - which includes the first print volume I devoured earlier this year.
Man, I think I cried a few times on this one, it was phenomenal. I remember having so much love for the first, and this sequel made me even happier. This is a book about choices, at its core, and the art and story both reflect that. Change is difficult, and I loved Sunati and Austen's journeys.
I know this is not published yet, but i still wanted to add it on goodreads and leave my thoughts on season 2 of always human, because oh boy did i love it.
In season 2 we really got to see Sunati and Austen's relationship develop, and i enjoyed the way the comic depicts the beginning of a relationship: the excitement and giddiness, but also the fears, the struggles, and the desire to do things right but fucking them up anyway. As someone who started a relationship during the past year, I think this comic feels very realistic and simply... human.
I also think i relate to Sunati a little too much, the good and the bad parts (i cried a lot when Austen asked her *that* question at the end).
In conclusion, i think this was beautifully written, drawn and musicalized; i'm very happy that i read it.
But conflicted on this, it’s been a hot minute since I e read the first volume so I forgot alot of it. But I think the first volume was better. While I do like the very young adult themes of change and junk. It was just too much drama and moping for me. I do like how Rae, Sunati’s friend got a lot of screen time and her own arc of moving away. But tbh it doesn’t feel as impactful because this is a sci fi world, they say that they can talk anytime but it won’t be the same. I mean that is true I can call my friends from the other side of the world anytime but it doesn’t feel the same. But here i just don’t believe it. They can go into VR and although they can’t touch Eachother it still makes it look like they can be together. Idk I wasn’t convinced on that. There’s another side plot halfway through involving Sunati being offered a job off planet for a year. Again more long distance stuff. Idk why that’s the theme of this issue. There’s just so much drama and talking and uhhh THIS IS SCI FI ROMANCE!!!! Come on! I want my sci fi lore about the mods. They’re so interesting. For example Austen remarks of a mod someones using is legal. Lore??? Idk this was an interesting world that I wanted more fleshing out. I don’t want to just read a soap opera. It kinda just felt like they didn’t know what to do now that the Austen not being able to use mods plot was completed in the first volume. But they wanted to make another volume so they did this. Idk the romance is cute ig but I don’t think I’m as invested in this couple anymore. After the first volume they kinda are just a pretty standard couple idk. They’re only intresting cuz of the drama to me at this point I’m so sorry. If there was another volume I probably wouldn’t read it. I’m not saying it’s bad! I It’s good just 3.5 good. Also this is one of the fantasy world where homophobia doesn’t exist, not saying all queer stories have to be about overcoming bigotry. I love happy queer stories. But I can’t take the stories seriously that are a queer utopia. I think they’re more for younger queer people. The art is pretty style wise but I found the panels kinda bland, I read the panels pretty quickly cuz they’re just not much going on. Yeah styles beautiful but it’s mostly talking heads. This was originally a webtoon and they have to update more frequently so I can excuse it ig. I don’t really like webtoon if you can’t tell lol. All In all if you loved the first volume and the characters yeah pick this up. But if you were more iffy and are hoping volume 2 is better idk go at your own risk
Enamorarse a primera vista parece algo irreal, especialmente en este mundo donde la apariencia de las personas cambia de manera constante; pero encontrarse a una chica tan valiente como para no usar mods de apariencia debe merecer la pena.
Aunque… no es que sea valiente, simplemente tiene una condición que no le permite hacer estas modificaciones, eso no le quita lo hermosa.
Suanti y Austen se conocen en la estación del metro, donde tras tiempo en el que Sunati observaba a Austen, decide acercarse y hablarle, pero las cosas terminan en un mal entendido. Pero este desliz puede llevar a ambas a dar un paso diferente en sus vidas, donde deciden comenzar una relación donde se conocerán y vivirán un amor de apoco en poco.
Opinión personal:
Es un WEBTOON bastante ligero, con capítulos cortos y trama sencilla, el dibujo y diseño de personajes es bastante bonito.
Algunos puntos que no me encantaron fue lo rápido que comienzan una relación, creo que debieron darse el tiempo de conocerse y así evitar problemas a lo largo de la relación, también sus personalidades no me terminan de encantar, Sunati tiene una personalidad muy sumisa, si Auseten le pidiera que se dejara pisotear, podría hacerlo, y no hubo un gran avance en cuanto a esto, creo que lo más cercano a un cambio en su personalidad es cuando decide ir al espacio.
Y luego está la personalidad de Austen no me encanto, pero si tuvo un buen cambio en cuanto comenzó a enamorarse de Sunati.
This was a sweet book. I would absolutely recommend this book. If you like sci-fi with magically drawn queer romance, this book is for you!
I liked seeing the characters learning to have a healthier and stronger relationship where they are open with each other. They learn to be separate people while also in a romantic relationship. I so rarely see a healthy relationship in a romance. But this book clearly showed the relationship healthily and so that you can see that they are still learning to be in a relationship. I could cheer for this couple and the relationship.
The art was absolutely gorgeous. The characters were in all unique in some way, but some are also similar enough that you can tell that they are related in some way. The characters are diverse, but their diversity isn't the focus of the book. There are characters with all different skin colors, queer and straight characters, and disabled characters. That very much adds to the beauty of the book. The art was done with a purple, blue, and pink color pallet for at least most of the book. The art entranced me.
I absolutely recommend this book to all the LGBTQ graphic novel readers out there. Happy reading 🏳️🌈
It’s a fine series but just very average to me, in my opinion. The characters are cute but the writing feels so surface level and rushed and I had the exact same issues with the first book. Also some plot points were just never resolved like Sunati meeting Austen’s parents? Again, it was cute and I love the artwork and the concept of the story but the execution in this sequel and even the first book were not it for me.
QUE LINDOOO😭💗 NO PUEDE SER QUE HERMOSO LO AME MUCHOO En el primer tomo sentí que a veces la relación era como muy superficial pero en este sin duda me dejaron callada la forma en la que resolvieron todos sus problemas a partir de la comunicación debería ser la meta en cualquier relación, me encanto ver como se apoyaron mutuamente siempre y trataron de hacer lo mejor la una para la otra es un webtoon/novela gráfica increíble aspiro con tener algo así de lindo algún día
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
4.5 so easily rounded up! I enjoy how character focused the conflict. The character are already so lovable and the conflicts only lets us see more of them as the highlight of the book and has both characters grow with help from their incredibly wholesome and cute relationship with each other. The main conflicts are Just like the first half collected in book one there endless healthy communication and fluff woven into the story so expertly. It also continues to ooze style from its amazing digital watercoloring style and sense of transhumanist fashion.
The poor review is mostly my fault. I didn’t realize this book was the second in a series. Totally makes sense why I felt I was missing context and not connecting with characters. Overall, I’m just not a sci-fi fan and wasn’t invested in what the characters were doing. I felt the book dragged on and on. And I wasn’t a fan of how the text was formatted. I’m not interested in reading the first book even to help with context.
More sweet lesbian couple stuff throughout. The ending definitely made me like this more. I know some people wanted like, a wedding or something, but I think the author was right to stop where they did. The character arcs resolved nicely and we know these two nice young people have their whole lives ahead of them. I enjoyed it.
Adorable and heartwarming. We see the pair once again trying to figure out the trajectory of their lives, as well as their blossoming relationship. I loved reading about each of them finding out the things they want at their core as individuals, as well as settling into relying on the other person. Short, sweet, and absolutely stunning panels.
Un des cadeaux de Sunati m’a aussi beaucoup parlé : elle offre à quelqu’un un livre avec une page pour chaque jour où elles seront séparées, et un message pour elle sur chaque page. C’est quelque chose que j’ai déjà fait, quoique sous une autre forme, et j’adore cette idée.
Recent Reads: Love And Gravity. The second book of Ari North's SF romance graphic novel gives both Austen and Sunati hard choices to make, choices that will define and shape their lives and their love. All this is wrapped up in a beautiful watercolour-style art. Recommended.
I didn’t realize this was a sequel (I haven’t read the first book). Even so, the dialogue and pacing wasn’t great, and the jump from 10 years ago to present day left me confused.