Bury the Lede by Gaby Dunn & illustrated by Claire Roe
"Twenty-one-year-old Madison T. Jackson is already the star of the Emerson College student newspaper when she nabs a coveted night internship at Boston’s premiere newspaper, The Boston Lede. The job’s simple: do whatever the senior reporters tell you to do, from fetching coffee to getting a quote from a grieving parent. It’s grueling work, so when the murder of a prominent Boston businessman comes up on the police scanner, Madison races to the scene of the grisly crime. There, Madison meets the woman who will change her life forever: prominent socialite Dahlia Kennedy, who is covered in gore and being arrested for the murder of her family. The newspapers put everyone they can in front of her with no results until, with nothing to lose, Madison gets a chance – and unexpectedly barrels headfirst into danger she never anticipated."
I was really excited for this graphic novel to come out when I first heard about it. And overall I was really happy with the representation in the story. There were a lot of POCs and the main character is explicitly bisexual, and while she doesn't say it, I would guess polyamorous as well. And the art in this was amazing and engaging.
The story was a bit confusing to follow. There were a lot of character names thrown around before we're introduced to them and it became difficult to remember who all was involved, or why they were being brought up. I was really disappointed with the scene where the MC roofies someone, and nothing really comes of it. It didn’t make sense, it felt like she hadn’t gotten any information she didn’t already have out of the experience, and there were absolutely no repercussions of her doing it which is absolutely not ok. The end was kind of predictable in the way that the MC character puts her job before and at the expense of literally everything else in her life.
Overall, I found this entertaining but not my favorite story from Gaby Dunn.
Genre: graphic novel, lgbtqia+, mystery
Representation: bi, queer, BIPOC
Content Warnings: Sex, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Murder, Drugging, Sexual Abuse