Love and Gravity - (Always Human) by Ari North

Book Synopsis

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 of 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 to follow her own dreams of space exploration? The wonderful ending to this story celebrates the complexity and beauty of what makes us human.

Review Quotes

A young woman debates taking her dream job, though it would mean separating from her girlfriend, in the graphic
novel Love and Gravity.
Sunati and Austen are students in a future, spacefaring, Earth-based society. They're also falling in love with each
other. Facing school difficulties caused in part by a condition that prevents body modifications, Austen considers
changing her course of study, but she doesn't want to feel like she's giving up. Meanwhile, Sunati is confronted with a
different choice: whether or not to accept an exciting job offer that would require a year-long stay on Saturn's moon
Enceladus. Though these seem like insurmountable problems, there just may be solutions.
Though it takes place in striking settings featuring advanced technology (there are space elevators and deep-space
colonization) the story is intimate-grounded in emotions, relationships, and life decisions. Sunati and Austen
navigate universal questions about love, career, family, and happiness with wisdom.
The book's cast is diverse; Austen's parents have a boyfriend, and a variety of skin and hair colors are on display.
Rendered in beautiful pastels, the art shows manga and anime influences, but with its own stylish storytelling tweaks.
A "soft focus" appearance to the backgrounds gives the book a pleasing, dreamy quality, while the captions and word
balloons, which are color-coded for each character, allow for easy narrative flow.
Love and Gravity is a sweet, futuristic graphic novel in which young women make hard, adult choices in their lives.-- "Foreward Reviews"

Healthy relationships and healthy conversations unfold in a sweet slice-of-life story, the second in a series that launched on Webtoon.
Possessing much of the same charm of the first book, this sequel, set in a futuristic world where people can modify their appearances using technology called mods, introduces readers to new challenges in the lives of Sunati and Austen. A good portion of the book is focused on friendship, specifically Rae and Sunati's. It starts with a flashback to 10 years earlier, when Sunati first came to Kaku City and felt scared by how overwhelming everything was-until she found Rae, suddenly had a friend, and wasn't alone anymore. The story returns to the present, when the two young women work together. Sunati has an exciting new job opportunity, but she isn't the only one: Rae gets her dream job, but it means she'll be moving far away. Conflicted-wanting what's best for her friend but also not wanting her to go-Sunati finds solace in girlfriend Austen. Ultimately, the two best friends work it out. The book includes a positive mention of therapy and a frank conversation about sex, consent, and waiting until you feel ready. 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"

About the Author

Ari North is a queer cartoonist who believes an entertaining story should also be full of diversity and inclusion. As a writer, an artist, and a musician, she wrote, drew, and composed the music for Always Human, a complete romance/sci-fi webcomic about two queer girls navigating maturity and finding happiness. She's currently working on a second webcomic, Aerial Magic, which is about the everyday lives of the witches who work at a broomstick repair shop. She lives in Australia with her husband.