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This book is the first salvo in Barbour's and RealBuzz Studio's war for the teen girl's soul, an "inspirational manga" about a blue-haired troublemaker getting a new chance in a new high school filled with relentlessly positive, mature, focused Christian teens hell-bent (sorry) on Serenity's salvation. Serenity is foul-mouthed, combative, a thief, and a slut, but this only makes her new classmates want to help her even more.

l confess right now that any Christian manga would probably have to be From Hell (sorry again) quality for me to give it an enthusiastic review. I don't care for many American attempts at manga art stylings (Kwon, a Rutgers graduate, has a flat, generic style) and more importantly, I'm uneasy about pushing any religion on impressionable youth. From the first few pages, I knew I would have no ethical quandaries here, though, because the book just isn't good.

The trouble with pushing stuff that's "good for you" is that it also has to be good. My kids take an anti-allergy syrup with a "fun fruit flavor" that makes them shudder. I'm reminded of Rod McKuen's chestnut, "the medium is the message" here, because the creators seem to think that all you need is a wretched sinner surrounded by wholesome kids and you've got yourself a good story. But no, Serenity is a cipher who is ironically still the most appealing character because at least she has some personality traits. The prayer group kids around her have nothing, especially not the doubts and uncertainties and temptations that most teens have. Just because it's Christian, does that mean the school has no cliques, no grudges, no romantic rivalries? There is a brief moment of conflict where one of the students wants to give up on Serenity, but she's talked back into it on the next page, since God doesn't give up on us, and there appears to be a bit of jealousy on one girl's part when her boyfriend pays attention to Serenity, but he's so dull and one-dimensional it's hard to really consider this a love triangle. Dixon tries the rarely-successful trick to be hip with the kids by making up scads of made-up slang ("frados," "scoochie") but forgets or is unable to create a rich enough story or characters to carry his many messages. When not quoting Scripture, the kids have nothing to talk about, nothing to distinguish themselves from each other or to approximate human beings and not Biblebots. And some of the messages, like divorce never being acceptable, or that listening to empowering talk from an unmarried, Liberal, dykey teacher like Ms. Baxter is a temptation to lesbian Hell, are honestly rather frightening. Ironically, Baxter is the only character to actually listen to, and encourage, Serenity, but since Dixon's zeal far outweighs his confidence in his writing, he has to use a footnote to "not the spelling" when Baxter says "womyn", in case there was a danger readers might see her as sympathetic. It's later revealed that, off-panel, Baxter gave Serenity some condoms.

To actually be inspirational, art must somehow relate to someone's life or how they see the world, and it must fire the imagination. The Christian-themed The Lord of the Rings has enthralled millions since its publication, and many of those millions are not Christian or have no idea the themes are Christian at all. Likewise with the more overtly Christian The Chronicles of Narnia. But Tolkien and Lewis were authors--artists--who drew from their beliefs to create new tales on enchantment--art. If the talent isn't there, it's just a tract, and Serenity isn't far from that. Serenity's guilt and eventual return of some money she stole from a donation jar at the school is handled pretty well at the end, but ultimately it's not enough to save the book.

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