Hello, friends! I’m back with a blog tour review for Meesh the Bad Demon by Michelle Lam. Special thanks to the TBR & Beyond Tours team for organising the tour and including me in it!

Thanks to Knopf Books for Young Readers for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Click here or on the banner above to check out the rest of the fantastic bloggers on tour!

TL;DR: The minute I finished Meesh the Bad Demon I immediately wanted more! I loved this illustration style so much. All of these characters were ridiculously adorable and it made the story even more fun to read. Meesh was an adorable demon who simply wanted to be good and I loved following her as she journeys beyond her world to save her home, makes unexpected friends along the way, and learns to love who she is. This is a story about being yourself, not judging others based on differences, and most importantly, it’s a story of friendship. It’s a funny, heartwarming and hopeful read!

First of all, I need to talk about the illustrations. I’ve never heard of or seen any of Michelle Lam’s work before but now that I have I want to read everything she’s ever illustrated because I absolutely loved her style! It’s freaking adorable and I loved the way she was able to so clearly translate all the emotions through the character’s expressions. It was this expressiveness that made it easier to connect and empathise with Meesh, Nouna, and even Xavier!

Meesh is an adorable young demon who loves flowers, the faerie TV show called Princess Nouna, and simply being good. She gets bullied in school for being a ‘bad demon’ because she’s unable to do all the things a demon should be able to do. Thankfully, she had a really wonderful relationship with her grandma whom she lived with. Their relationship was so heartwarming and supportive, and I loved how grandma encouraged her to just be herself regardless of how others will think of her at school. She’s such an easy character to root for as she’s shouldered with the responsibility of finding help to save her grandma and her home.

Things get off to a rocky start when she encounters Princess Nouna in the faerie realm but not everything is as it seems with the perfect on-screen princess. Nouna was an interesting character who also had secrets about herself that she kept from the public. Meesh and Nouna weren’t perfect but I love how they tackled the preconceived notions they had of each other and by overcoming these differences, they formed a beautiful friendship full of positivity and encouragement. It’s not a conflict-free friendship either but they don’t hesitate to step up for each other when the time comes. Xavier was also an interesting character as the bully because we see his own insecurities get exposed (although that’s obviously no excuse for bullying). I do wish that his bullying was addressed rather than ignored due to what happened in the demon realm though but I’m looking forward to seeing how his character will change as the story progresses.

There were some moments where I felt the story jumped around a bit when it came to the world-building and particularly the history between the faeries and demons. Although I can sense that the tension between these two races will have a more prominent role in the story moving forward, it did feel a little shoehorned in as the history is only introduced halfway through the story rather than at the beginning. That said, I’m really looking forward to seeing this history explored more in the future and I can’t wait to also see how it might connect to other storylines that were touched upon in this book.

Overall, I thought this was a great introduction to a new MG fantasy graphic novel series. I’m excited to see where Lam will take the story and how these more serious themes will be explored in the series and I can’t wait to follow Meesh and her friends on their adventures ahead!

Have you read Meesh the Bad Demon or is it on your TBR?

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