CONFETTI REALMS

A sentient puppet transports four teenagers to another dimension and tasks them with a grim mission in Shammas’ YA graphic novel.

On Halloween night, Marissa, Ty, and Garrett are in a diner making plans to go to a cemetery and answer age-old questions: Do ghosts exist, and can they get drunk? Marissa’s former friend Radwa shows up after a concert, and the four proceed together to the graveyard. While there, they end up in a mausoleum that houses a giant puppet, described as a “horrifying dimension-hopping mechanical spider.” On a candle the spider holds is a sign that reads, “To all the dreamers who seek what is lost: make a wish.” Radwa suggests that they do what the sign says, and after they each pretend to blow out the candle, the artificial arachnid, named Tom, comes to life and whisks them away to a place he calls Confetti Realms. Tom tells them it’s the night of “the transfiguration” and he’s short four teeth to pay for his entry into the ball. To return home (“More or less,” Tom says cryptically), the teens must collect those teeth for him. When the group finds out the truth about transfiguration, the idea of staying there and leaving behind their real-world problems becomes increasingly compelling. Karnessa’s full-color illustrations employ brightness and warm tones to create a vivid fantasy world with a layer of creepiness underneath it. The teens appear diverse—each of the main four has a different skin tone, and Ty, who uses they/them pronouns, is implied to be nonbinary. The many characters they encounter during their quest are fun and creatively imagined, from gambling frogs and dancing bears to fantastical talking birds with the power of mimicry.

A well-illustrated comedic and sometimes eerie tale of friendship, identity, love, grief, and confronting one’s fears.