Graphic Novel Reviews: 920London

It’s 2005 and the scene kids aren’t alright. Remy Boydell brings the angst in the beautifully illustrated 920London. Pairing beautiful watercolor illustrations with a hedonistic outlook, Boydell encapsulates the general malaise of youth.

Hana and Kiki are two friends living near London. Hana is Trans and requires shrooms to keep her anxiety to a minimum, but they are currently illegal to buy. Her solution is to try and grow her own batch. Hana and Kiki used to be a couple but now they are just codependent friends. Hana doesn’t like the party scene as much as Kiki and begins to drift away. Kiki doesn’t understand why Hana can’t enjoy herself and just relax. The two friends who used to do anything and everything together begin to drift apart.

920London is a story about everything and nothing. Boydell expertly weaves the story in and out of the mundane and the serious. That’s how life is generally and is especially true for a young adult. Life isn’t “happening” as they expect it to and everything is just boring and uninteresting. Boydell telling this story with the 2005 scene kid background is an interesting hook. It’s never explicitly stated but can be inferred through style, clothing, and general attitude. The illustrations reflect this nicely with the bright ‘rawr’ colors generally associated with this subsection of Emo. Boydell is known for their use of anthropomorphic creatures as characters in their previous graphic novel, so the use of it here is not surprising and does not take away the effect of the story. Overall, 920London provides a bit of nostalgia for those adults who were a part of the scene and is perhaps a bit of a balm to current young adults who are feeling untethered.

920London is appropriate for readers 18+ due to explicit drug use. It is enjoyable to readers of Remy Boydell’s first graphic novel, The Pervert.