Suncatcher Book Review: A Heartwarming Tale of Harmony

Jose Pimienta's debut graphic novel, "Suncatcher," follows main character Beatriz as she navigates her relationship with music, friends and family.

Photo Credit: Leila Alarcon

It isn’t often Latinx characters are the main characters in media produced outside of Latinx countries. Growing up, most of the Latinx characters I watched were the “funny best friend” like Trish from “Austin and Ally” or Luis from “Ant-Man,” if there was even a Latino character at all. But “Suncatcher,” Jose Pimienta's debut graphic novel, not only features an all-Latino cast, but the main character is a Latina woman in the punk rock scene.

Released in May 2020, Suncatcher is set in the late 90s and early 2000s in Mexicali, Mexico where the main character, Beatriz, discovers that her grandfather’s soul has been trapped inside a guitar. To free her grandfather and let his soul pass, she must play his perfect song. The only problem is that her grandfather never wrote down or finished the song.

Music slowly takes over Beatriz's life, causing her to see and hear music everywhere all the time. Her obsession with creating the perfect song jeopardizes her band, friendships and health. Filled with gorgeous illustrations and a whimsical twist, “Suncatcher” will pull at your heartstrings as you follow Beatriz through her emotional journey of overcoming obsession and perfection.

Despite the novel being on the shorter end, Pimienta does an exceptional job of world-building and developing the personalities of each character through imagery and dialogue. Even the less frequent secondary characters had prominent personalities that directly contrasted or complemented Beatriz.

However, at times transitions between scenes felt abrupt or disconnected, causing some parts of the story to feel a bit rushed. Although with only 224 pages, some being dedicated to full-page illustrations, Pimienta was able to make the pace of the story complement the timing of Beatriz’s mental spiral. The quality of character development was not affected; instead, Pimienta used the visual aspect to develop characters further.

Using a limited color palette of oranges, greens, reds and purples, Pimienta conveys the characters' different emotions by using a specific color to single them out or to create the mood for each scene. Using particular colors for different scenes also helped make transitions more obvious, even if they were still abrupt.

Some illustrations were very detailed and held “Easter eggs.” On the last pages of “Suncatcher,” Pimienta included an index of references to Mexicali and punk rock culture made throughout the novel. Some of these references included Spanish slang words and the song titles of Mexicali punk rock bands. Upon first read they may not be noticeable, but during the second read, they make for a fun scavenger hunt.

The Spanish slang included as an “easter egg” was not translated during the story and was only defined on the index pages. This in itself felt like a nice “easter egg” for the Latinx community, a way to highlight the people with whom the characters share an ethnicity while allowing non-Spanish speakers to understand everything being said.

“Suncatcher” is great for music and graphic novel enthusiasts looking for a captivating fantasy read. Even if “Suncatcher” is fiction, it’s refreshing to read a story about Latinx characters that doesn’t feed into stereotypes. Jose Pimienta's writing shows that Latinx people have more stories to tell, that they are creative and that Latinx characters can be so much more than just the main characters' best friend.