Mostly it is about his relationship with Malcolm Green, one of his flatmates, who is studying the fine arts (embroidery - how absolutely lovely!), and who has a long-distance girlfriend, Lottie. Slight spoiler, but Malcolm is a biromantic asexual.
Things definitely get complicated between Rhys and Malcolm (Rhys's face blindness is the least of it), as feelings stir and blossom, out of control.
Both lovely boys are at different stages of dealing with anxiety, as well.
Other players in Rhys's uni-story are: Oli Patton, who is his fellow biology and medical student, and new best friend (they are also nonbinary); his other flatmates Aanya, Holly and Fabian; and the seniors Fen (student rep) and Orla, who are girlfriends. Rhys's teasy but loving and supportive older sister Cari is also a laugh.
I knew basically nothing about prosopagnosia before I read 'A Smile Like Yours'. I had heard of face blindness, but not the scientific term for it. So it was great to read any piece of media, let alone a graphic novel, with a protagonist who has prosopagnosia - 'A Smile Like Yours' is told from Rhys's point of view, and we follow him and explore the world and life as he sees it; as he interacts with the people around him.
Which brings me to the artwork. It's cute and charming and I really like it. It's mostly white, with different shades of purple and lilac, but whenever Rhys searches for a person's unique indicators or "identifiers" that don't have anything specifically to do with their face, in order to recognise them, that person is in colour. They literally light up for him. This is a fantastic and accessible way for the reader to understand Rhys's perspective, through his prosopagnosia, and how he navigates life with it. How he processes people, even his family who he has known since birth, and how he makes new friends at university, by relying on identifiers, and context clues (the scene where he explains all this to Malcolm is bloody brilliant). He even has trouble registering his own face in mirrors and in photos, and what he looks like.
Colours are huge indicators in art, in establishing character and feeling.
And 'A Smile Like Yours' is certainly a feelings-type book.
The art also reminds me of the works of Nick Sharratt. How nostalgic!
Onto the negative critiques now:
The issue of how Rhys and Malcolm get together (not a spoiler, I'd say it's obvious) while Malcolm is in a monogamous relationship is, thankfully and appreciatively, handled better than I expected. It's still slightly iffy. It turns out I have as low a tolerance for cheating as apparently everybody else does, but this cheating storyline at least treats Malcolm's girlfriend, Lottie, as a character deserving of respect...except when she is once referred to by Oli as "The Girlfriend" with a capital T and G. Ugh! But Lottie is as lovely and likeable as nearly everyone else...then she conveniently disappears near the end of the book, after an off-panel official breakup. What a shame.
The only character I don't like is Fabian, or Fab, as he's called. He's the stereotypical laddish frat boy of Rhys's friend group: meaning, he's a sexist, horny douchebag, who goes through girls in his bed as quickly as he does his boxers. Or tissues. One of Fab's moments of bare-minimum decency is when he backs off flirting with a girl he just met when he realises she's a lesbian and already spoken for - no means no no matter what, you one-dimensional, one-track-minded, one-organ-functioning sleaze! What's worse is the obnoxious git is never called out for his comments and behaviour; at best his friends treat him like he's an idiot, which he is, but I wouldn't call him a harmless idiot.
It's 2026 - 2000s unchecked perverted frat boy Neanderthal-ism and so-called "locker-room talk" should not be tolerated anymore. Why are we still writing male characters like this? We know by now that, in both real life and fiction, they are not funny or charming; they are scum, misogynistic scum, even when they are not, higher powers forbid, rapey.
At least Fab isn't in this graphic novel much. Though it seems like the author had planned to do something more with his character at some point in development. For example, he is the first to discover Rhys and Malcolm's affair when Malcolm is still with Lottie, and he deals with the infidelity in an immature way and seems to have a bitter chip on his shoulder about it. But this is abandoned later on. Fab never says or does anything that furthers any progression in the story. He is inconsequential.
In one of the more touching interactions between Rhys and Malcolm, Rhys confesses that his biggest fear is not recognising his mum, as her STEM job takes her abroad most of the time. Whenever she does see him, she might have changed enough that the physical attributes that Rhys uses to identify her won't be there anymore, and he won't be able to recognise his own mother. It is a startling, heartbreaking and beautiful moment. And yet, at the end where his mother is home and he sees her, it is treated as nothing. There is no buildup, no anticipation, no special moment, no scene, period; Rhys's mum is suddenly just present and that's that, as if she'd always been there, along with his dad and sister. Did the author forget about the abovementioned scene? About that aspect of Rhys's character? About the mum being away for the rest of the year?
Rhys's love affair with Malcolm, and his studies, really take precedence over everything else in his life, don't they?
Rhys could have talked more about his prosopagnosia; as in, mention it at all to his friends, other than Malcolm, and Oli, Fen and Orla. From the beginning it seems as if he will eventually open up about it more to people, especially during the scene where he is talking about his day to his mum on the phone, about how he is struggling and becoming depressed and lonely. But then it is never brought up again. It's never made clear if the rest of his flatmates know about his face blindness. In fact, Aanya, Holly and Fab are kind of gradually phased out of the story near the end, sadly
In the scene where Rhys attends a tabletop gaming club/society with Oli for the first time, he says he has face blindness (this is after he told Malcolm), which Orla thoughtlessly dismisses, not believing it to be a real thing. Their conversation is interrupted before he can fully explain his condition - and hopefully educate her - and then it is never followed up on. It's gone from the book just like that.
Another character issue left unresolved.
And as nice as the artwork is, there are a few inconsistencies to it. For example, the Dean's Talk at the Fresher's Fair: the Dean's glasses disappear and then reappear in each panel she is in, as she talks on stage in the lecture hall.
There are other little moments that bother me, but only marginally.
'A Smile Like Yours' - Malcolm's smile is one of his identifiers, and it's the only facial feature that Rhys registers - its niggling, bumpy, wobbly flaws can't ruin its cakey whole, and it is a strongly recommended YA graphic novel from me. It's so sweet and charming
It is like 'Heartstopper', and Becky Albertalli's novels. It is one of the better LBGTQA+ YA graphic novels out there. Its diversity and inclusivity points are off the charts. Wide spectrum queer rep, race rep, disability rep, mental health rep, body positivity rep, it is all here
I haven't even talked about how much it reminds me of my own time at university in the UK - over ten years ago!
How things change and yet stay the same.
I am old. But 'A Smile Like Yours' made me feel young again.
It is guaranteed to warm your heart, and make you smile.
"It's often easier to let others recognize me first and go from there."
"It's surprisingly easy to blame yourself for the way you were born."
"It actually feels really good to say this out loud."
"I'm sure people would want to help make things easier if they could."
"I've never met a smile like yours before."
Final Score: 3.5/5
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