Cheer Up by Crystal Frasier: A Review

Two reviews in one day? Who is this person and what have I done with AJ?!

I’ll keep this review short and sweet, because really, this graphic novel speaks for itself how wonderful it is.

This follows a cheer team, the two central characters being Annie, who doesn’t want anything to do with cheerleading, and Beatrice, who joined cheerleading as a way to express her femininity during her transition to female. Their relationship is so wholesome, the cheer squad is so wholesome, and the whole comic just made my heart happy. Annie is an angry fat girl who accidentally ends up being pretty well-liked when she stops feeling like she has to fight everyone, so I really felt like I was reading about myself in high school. Not to mention Annie was appalled to learn her mother was a cheerleader, which felt equally as ripped from my own life.

Cheer Up is the kind of graphic novel I wish I could’ve had the chance to read as a high schooler. It was so, so wonderful. I’ll be recommending it widely, because it was just so freaking cute.

Trigger warning for transphobia and men who don’t seem to understand consent.