It's All About the Story: Manga, Comics & Graphic Novels

  Not Your Idol is not what I thought it would be.  Nina is a girl who chooses to dress in the "boys" uniform rather than the skirts the other girls wear, and is seen as "less than" by most of the school.  I thought, from the blurb on the back of the book that this would be a girl attempting to BE a boy novel, but it isn't.....Nina never denies that she is a girl, but has no desire to be seen as one, or at least not the traditional type.  The reasons for this are explored in this first book in the series, but even the back cover acknowledges that it is in response to an assault.  There is a lot of emotion in this book, and it explores the victim roles assigned to women, whether or not dress & attractiveness matter as regards an assault as well as what it means to be struggling with PTSD in the aftermath (although it is never actually said that way).  Some things are focused in a distinctly Japanese way (duh....manga from Japan); but some ideas are universal