Space Story

by Fiona Ostby

Overview

A quietly powerful graphic novel of hope, separation, and perseverance in the journey to reunite with those you love.

"Set in a near future of apocalyptic threat and space colonization, Fiona Ostby's debut graphic novel, Space Story, is a queer love story full of wistful longing. . . Refreshingly, most characters are women or nonbinary and are matter-of-factly represented as queer. Many particularly touching spreads create parallels: a left-hand panel in red, opposite one in blue, show Leah and Hannah in separate beds, facing each other across an impossible divide. The simple layouts and focus on relationships turn a cosmic dystopia into something universal."
—Shelf Awareness, featured as one of the Best Books of the Week

"This is a story filled with bitter-sweet moments (but with a happy ending), and I am in love with it."
—BookRiot

"Economical and poignantly told, Ostby’s debut graphic novel sets a queer family’s separation drama against an apocalyptic backdrop. . . This is a touching love story for hard times."
—Publishers Weekly

Two women fall in love and start a family on a dying Earth.

Only one escapes to space.

Her family is still on the planet.

They won't give up until they find each other again.

From debut author Fiona Ostby, Space Story weaves an interstellar tale of discovering love and finding strength, courage, and hope—even in the darkest moments.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781513128757
Publisher:	TURNER PUB CO
Publication date:	07/12/2022
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	1,070,534
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Lexile:	HL370L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 Years

About the Author

FIONA OSTBY is an illustrator and comic artist with a PhD in illustration from Tokyo Zokei University. Their work focuses on atmosphere, feelings, and the experience of growing up LGBTQ+. Space Story is their debut book, a graphic novel that explores those themes. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Fiona currently lives in Tokyo, Japan. Visit her at FionaOstby.com.

Editorial Reviews

05/23/2022

Economical and poignantly told, Ostby’s debut graphic novel sets a queer family’s separation drama against an apocalyptic backdrop. In yellow-hued flashbacks, Hannah and Leah meet in school and begin a shy romance. Their planet’s ailments are unnamed, but earthquake-like “Events” are common and their friends await passports to escape to a space station. The present-day narratives are split in two: Hanna has jetted ahead of her family, and in her blue-toned scenes she adjusts to life in space with only strangers for company, contrasted with Leah’s bright red pages, in which she and Hanna’s daughter Bird try to engineer a path to space. If there are sociopolitical reasons behind who escapes and who stays, Ostby doesn’t explain them, choosing instead to focus on difficult choices and mental endurance. Val, an older butch barber at the station, gives Hannah a packet of seeds and says, “Ya gotta have somethin’ to keep you alive when you don’t wanna be.” Drawn with simple, sure strokes, Ostby’s characters sport thick limbs and body hair, bringing warmth and imperfection to the coldness of space. Juxtapositions pack a punch, as when Hannah’s tiny blue plant grows across from Leah’s red launchpad. This is a touching love story for hard times. Agent: Matt Belford, Tobias Literary Agency. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Space Story is a simple but earnest story about a family fighting against the odds to reunite and survive. It’s a classic, universal plot, and one that works well here. . . it’s an enjoyable story to read in an afternoon and a great example of one that effortlessly includes queer women. And (spoiler alert) it has a happy ending, to boot! Space Story put a smile on my face and makes me hope Fiona Ostby will have the opportunity to keep drawing and creating."
—Multiversity Comics

"This is a creator who I want to find more, to read more, I can’t wait to see what’s next. . . I hope it gets the recognition it deserves."
—Graphic Policy

Praise from booksellers for Space Story:

"This graphic novel combines three different storylines, each designated by one of the primary colors. There is a story of love, a story of loneliness, and a story of longing. Ostby's unique use of color perfectly mirrors the emotions expressed within each storyline, and the manner in which they are intertwined feels like fitting puzzle pieces together."
—Grace, Foggy Pine Books (Boone, NC)

"Space Story is, in many ways, exactly what it says on the time: a story about space, and about how love can bridge it. Fill it. Make all that space worthwhile. Told in 3 primary colors across 3 different time periods, Space Story is the very definition of 'deceptively simple.' Are you looking for a quick-reading comfy lesbian love story set in the near-future with characters who are aren't stick-thin for once? Fiona Ostby's got you covered. Are you looking for a story that will settle in your ribs and warm your gay little heart? Space Story is for you. Ostby's world-building is sparse and character focused—a doomsday in microcosm—which makes it easy to overlook everything that goes carefully unspoken. How intensely hopeful is the love that drives a couple to have a child mid-apocalypse? What does it mean to be an elder dyke after the end of the world? Space Story is a rarity among graphic novels: I read it in an hour, but I've been thinking about it for weeks."
—Terrance, Epilogue Books (Chapel Hill, NC)

"Space Story captures the feelings of the characters so vividly that as a reader I could feel their emotions jumping off the page and embedding themselves into my own heart. The use of the colors to tell the POVs and the deeper meaning of them that gets revealed at the end was a fantastic aspect of the story."
—Hannah, Bookery Manchester (Manchester, NH)

From the Publisher