A 2015 Top Ten Great Graphic Novel for Teens
Katie, a talented chef, is about to make one of her biggest dreams a reality with the opening of her own restaurant. Everyone at Seconds knows that she's leaving, but she's feeling kind of stuck between two places - between Seconds and her new place, between being a young adult and a real adult. After an accident that she inadvertently caused happens, Katie, feeling awful, half-remembers a dream of a mysterious figure sitting on top of her dresser telling her that if things go wrong, don't forget, before the figure jumps into her dresser drawer. Taking a look inside, she finds a small box containing one mushroom, a notebook, and a set of instructions on what to do for a second chance. She decides to try it, and while sleeping, she has a dream about the evening before where she makes all the right decisions and keeps the accident from happening. She's even more amazed when she awakes to discover that the accident never happened in real life. Excited by the thought of being able to do things over, Katie finds more mushrooms and begins using them whenever things go wrong, despite the warnings from the mysterious figure. Soon her world is practically unrecognizable and becoming more and more unstable. Can she fix it in time, or is she doomed?
Seconds is a fantastic story, and Bryan Lee O'Malley manages to capture that angst about getting older that seems to hit twenty-somethings perfectly in Katie. Her insecurity about her future and the decisions she is making is what drives her to keep using the mushrooms. And who wouldn't? Seconds is a much more serious story than Scott Pilgrim, but it's not without humor (Katie's constantly responding to the narrator, often out loud, which confuses the others). O'Malley's chibi-ish style is even more chibi here, as Katie is drawn almost comically petite compared to some of the other characters (especially waitress Hazel and ex-boyfriend Max), and there's a heavy dose of red in the coloring that almost makes the art glow. It's a good story about change and how second chances can be nice but can also make things worse.
(Read as part of YALSA's Hub Reading Challenge.)
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