Sirius: Twin Stars

by Ana C. Sánchez

Dani's bright future as an elite tennis player comes to a sudden stop when, during a match, she has a heart attack. Her newly discovered condition affects not only her health, but also her relationship with her mother, as well as her career.
 
Wanting to get away from everything, she leaves behind the big city ⁠— and all her problems ⁠—  and goes with her cousin to a little coastal village. There she meets Blanca, a girl full of life and in love with astronomy. Blanca reminds Dani that life can be beautiful, and that she can shine again like stars do.

Genres: Manga, Romance, LGBT, Yuri, Young Adult, Graphic Novels, Comics

151 pages, Paperback

First published April 27, 2022

About the author

Ana Cristina "Anakris" Sánchez es una historietista y editora española de estética manga.

Reviews

[Анастасія ꒰⁠⑅⁠ᵕ⁠༚⁠ᵕ⁠꒱⁠˖⁠♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Така мила історія 😭😭😭

[laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

a beautiful story about loss, love (gotta love the wlw rep) and hope ♡ i loved everything about it. blanca and dani have my heart ahhhh i’m so proud of them
+ i’m a sucker for anything related to astronomy so i loooved the quotes with sirius etc

”if you just walk looking at your feet, you’ll miss a lot along the way. so i’m looking forward to the day when we can really gaze at the universe together”

[Juniper L.H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this a lot. The author managed to tell a surprisingly emotional and complete story with so few pages, and I honestly think that is quite the accomplishment. This is something that you can sit down and read on a coffee break its so short, yet it was really nice. I liked the characters, the art, the interpersonal dynamics between everyone. There was just enough suspense and plot to keep things interesting.

It was a bit fast, and a bit simple. The romance aspect was underdeveloped but at the same time it perfectly fit the role of a bite sized snack of a story.

Definite read.

[Lucille · Rating 4 out of 5]

C’était tellement mignon ! J’ai beaucoup aimé cette lecture 🥰

[Emma L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bravo les lesbiennes 👏🏻

[IvyInThePages · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 4.96 leaves out of 5
Characters: 4.85/5
Cover(plus art): 5/5
Story: 5/5
Writing: 5/5
Genre: Romance
Type: Manga
Worth?: Yes!

Hated|Disliked|Liked|Loved|Favorited

First want to thank Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this in exchange for an honest review. What a story! It is cute and from what I can see is just one book but the story is so touching. The way these two come to be and even at the end, what a way to warm up on a chilly day!

[Maëlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vraiment très mimi ! Les héroïnes, deux lycéennes qui se rencontrent en vacances, sont attachantes et l'évolution des personnages est crédible je trouve. En plus c'est un one shot donc on connaît la fin ^^

[Marty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mia nuova lettura comfort, è assolutamente una storia dolcissima 😭

" Andrà tutto bene. Finché ricorderai che sei la stella più luminosa di tutte."🥹🥹🥹

[Celia Añó]

Impresión durante las primeras páginas: no me esperaba para nada que así sería el encuentro entre las protas y lo tremendamente borde que es Dani (la quiero mucho).

Y luego he terminado llorando porque siempre acabo demasiado identificada en historias sobre sueños que se pierden y cuyo recuerdo todavía te acompaña, y de mirar el cielo y ver que a ti ya no te quedan estrellas y cómo vuelven a brillar.

Para ser un cómic tan cortito, lo cierto es que me ha revuelto para bien y me ha gustado mucho.

[Carmen]

It was always Dani’s dream to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a tennis star. Everything flies out the window when she has a heart attack during the tennis match that was supposed to launch her career. Now that Dani’s recovering, she’s been sent to her family’s vacation home to live with her cousin. Away from her home and her career, Dani feels lonelier than ever. She realizes that, at some point, she lost sight of her dream while under the extreme pressure that her mom placed on her. Dani feels like she lost her mom as well, since she feels like she disappointed her. Things start to change when she meets Blanca, a girl who lives with her head in the stars and dreams of becoming an astronomer. Through Blanca, Dani learns that her life isn’t over, and that her relationships can be repaired.

I read one of Sánchez’s other books and thought, hey. I wonder if anything has English translations since I last checked and discovered this book. I absolutely loved it. We follow Dani, a teenager whose life has been turned upside down, after she’s been sent to live with her cousin at the family vacation house. We see that Dani is crushed by multiple things, but the main ones being the loss of her tennis career and the sheer disappointment and loss of her mother.

One of the things I found interesting about this book is that we see Dani struggling with her family relationships. Her mom retreated into her own space after the heart attack, and Dani is struggling with the never ending feeling that she disappointed her mom. First, she disappointed her as a tennis player and now she disappointed her by having a heart attack. Dani believes she’s been sent to the vacation house not for herself, but because her mother can’t look at her, and that is a heavy burden for someone so young to go through. Her poor dad is trying to be the link between the two of them, but Dani isn’t interested in trying.

Things change when Dani meets Bianca. Of course, their first meeting is a disaster, but every meeting after that leaves Dani watching in awe. Bianca is full of life and is always talking and is very animated. She reignites that spark that Dani thought she lost long ago, and we watch Dani realize that she’s stumbled upon her first love at the worst time of her life. I loved the conversations the pair have that seem like just your average conversation on the surface while actually digging deep at times. It’s also nice to see Dani discover through Bianca that things aren’t over, and that sometimes you just need to look at things with fresh eyes.

The romance part of the book is cute. It’s fun to see the two fall in love and realize their feelings for one another. It’s even more fun to see the characters around them rooting for them even before they realize what anything means yet. It’s also nice to see both Dani and Bianca live in supportive spaces, especially since Dani already has a lot of doom and gloom in her life when the story starts.

All in all, it’s a beautiful story with wonderful artwork and a great cast of characters. I’m excited to see what Sánchez puts out next.

[Christina Close · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good fluff read. Yes, there are some tragic moments but in the end Dani gets to play tennis like she always wanted to with the help of her mom and Blanca. Dani having a heart disorder and being scared to continue playing tennis is so sad but with the help of the ones who love her she is able to get back to her dream.

I like that the relationship between Dani and Bianca isn't overly sexualized. It's a more realistic relationship in my opinion than other relationships I've seen in other manga.

[Hess · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book should have been a series.

What it's about: Dani is a pro tennis player who suffers a heart attack on the eve of her big debut. Her illness forces her out of the tournament, and she doesn't think she'll ever touch a racket again.

Dani doesn't know who she is without tennis. She feels like she's lost her purpose and connection to life, and part of her doesn't want to keep on living.

Then she meets Blanca, a girl whose passion for astronomy reminds Dani of what she's lost.

What I thought: Dani's story touches on a lot of BIG issues, but 190 pages is too short to do them justice. As a result, a lot of the manga felt rushed.

Then there's the PG yuri romance, which was really wholesome, but hardly central to the story. Further thoughts on this: IMHO Blanca's relationship with Dani, and her positive influence on Dani, would have been just as credible had Dani and Blanca only been friends. Aside from frequent touches and blushing, there's nothing in their conversations that goes beyond friendship. The fact that this book featured a same-sex relationship was awesome, but it didn't feel like the relationship had any actual substance. That said, the epilogue was lovely.

[Aleja Uribe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Estuvo tierna la historia de Dani y Blanca. Claramente como es tomo único y con a penas 3 capítulos no iba a haber un súper desarrollo de la trama, pero me gustó toda la metáfora con Sirius y lo que significaban la una para la otra, encontrar tu motivación de nuevo y volver a encaminar tu vida. Y la relación fue natural, aunque de nuevo, no fue muy a fondo por lo mismo, tomo único y eso. Igual, está muy cute y lo recomiendo.

[Gege · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este manga deja como mis libros de 5 estrellas como en dos.

Cada uno tenemos un "Sirius" y es importante encontrar cual es el tuyo

[Minharin · Rating 4 out of 5]

C'était adorable 😍

[Deb]

giga mimi

[Laura (crofteereader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wholesome manga about chasing dreams - and being gay, of course - SIRIUS: TWIN STARS brings devastated and closed-off Dani into sparkling and earnest Bianca’s orbit while both are on “summer vacation”. Dani’s pain is evident in every single panel where she’s the focus, using motifs of breaking glass, dark backgrounds, lots of negative space, and of course heart-pounding SFX to draw the reader into her mindset.

Bianca on the other hand is always talking. Every single panel she’s in has at least one line. She also feels very realistic (a perfect balance to Dani’s “this is definitely a manga character” situation); you get the sense she’s excitable and tends to speak without thinking but she also comes to be self aware over the course of the story.

I am a little concerned about how much moving around Dani was doing only 3 months after a major surgery but ehh fiction logic.

There is also an HP reference in the epilogue… which, unnecessary.

{Thank you Tokyo Pop for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review; all thoughts are my own}

[Soobie has fog in her brain · Rating 3 out of 5]

WOW! Da Alter ego il miglioramento è evidente. Davvero!

Mi son piaciute di più le protagoniste, anche se non avrei scommesso una lira su Blanca, e la storia è ben sviluppata.

Mai avuto niente da ridere rispetto ai disegni. La Sánchez sa disegnare!

Direi che leggerò altro in futuro di suo, sperando che continui a migliorare così.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dios Santo, me demore cosa de una hora y 20 minutos en leerme todo el tomo pero que historia tan bonita.

La adoré y Dani y Blanca son maravillosas.

Blanca y su pasión por las estrellas es maravillosa y toda la historia de Dani y cómo Blanca la ayuda es tan bonito.

Me encanto.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Dani’s dream of tennis stardom is crushed, she’s sent away to recuperate. But a meeting with the vibrant Blanca is about to push her forward in ways that she can’t begin to imagine.

Ana Sanchez wrote Alter Ego, a girls-love story in a manga vein, that turned out to be one of my favourite one-shots in the genre and the one I have re-read the most since it came out.

While accidentally discovering that she’s got a follow-up to that title coming soon, I also discovered that Tokyopop had brought this over as part of its line of all-stripes romance titles and decided to read it while waiting for Sanchez’ new work.

And I’m glad I did - Sanchez acutely grasps the essentials of how to tell a story that encompasses multiple parts, but fits neatly into a single volume. There’s no fat on this at all and, while that gives some aspects shorter shrift, there’s no denying the end result.

Dani has a chip on her shoulder and a literal scar on her heart after her mother went from parent/coach to high pressure monster, which lead to Dani having a full-on heart attack during the most important match of her life.

So Dani is broken and her mom blames herself, so much so that Dani is shipped off so her mom can recover from a nervous breakdown. Consequently, Dani feels abandoned and adrift with no dream to pursue.

There’s a lot of Noel from Alter Ego in Dani’s demeanour, the bitter girl who feels betrayed and can’t handle it, but Dani is less about lashing out than Noel was. She’s just defeated and has a world-weary exhaustion that belies her years.

Until Blanca tries to shake her down (after some drugging and goading by the village mean girls), that is, and Dani sticks up for herself and ends up putting herself in hospital briefly. It’s one of the oddest meet-cutes, but works because Blanca is such a softie that she crumples immediately.

And so it goes, with Blanca’s boundless enthusiasm for her dreams contrasting with Dani’s lack of same. Blanca is very, very into her astronomy and her design is quite well realized - there’s usually a star motif of some kind hiding out in her outfits.

The two don’t have too much drama beyond Blanca feeling like her energy for something she’s dreamt of is almost rude to rub in Dani’s face. And the usual immediate reaction of ‘situation bad, avoid’ that causes drama in manga like this.

There could be more, so much more to this, the side story with our leads’ siblings, the mean girls, more of the astronomy side, the parental fallout in Dani’s life. You can practically see a multi-volume series in the making.

So it’s a credit to the author that I wanted more but was very satisfied with what I got. There’s a quick summer connection and a romance after some hurdles and then we see what the future holds. It’s not quite elegant, but definitely economical in a way I appreciate.

And there’s certainly lots of interesting characterization to be found - Dani and her mother might be a little too alike, for example, in their desire to be the best. And when mother’s efforts are more than Dani can keep up with, they both pay the price for it.

Oh, it’s not perfect. The central imagery with the stars is good up to a point, but once Blanca talks about Sirius, well, the story’s pretty blatant about bludgeoning you with its meaning. Yeah, it’s very obvious about its symbolism, but I would rather that than nothing at all.

You could also argue that Blanca is a little underwritten compared to Dani, but not everybody has to be working through their own personal hell and she mostly feels like the right character for the job. And that implies their romance doesn’t work, but I assure you it does.

The denouement is terribly charming and Blanca does a good thing for Dani, though it could have gone really bad, and I do love the western sensibilities here. It gives it a different flavour than traditional yuri and that’s a really welcome change of pace.

Yes, fine, also those bikinis are so brutally on-the-nose they’re riotously funny, but I’ll let it go because that scene is really well done overall.

3.5 stars - a good story that warrants a rounding up because it gets the important stuff right. That’s two for two for Sanchez and I hope she continues to make comics at this level for a long time to come.

[Raaven💖 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review!

This was adorable. I’m crying over here. I was drawn to this by the cover and I was not disappointed. This is a story about chasing your dreams and finding the person who accepts you for all that you are. I can’t get over how much I loved Dani and Blanca. I want only good things to happen to them.

Dani has given up on everything when she has a heart attack during her tennis match and has to retire early from being a pro player like her mother. Feeling likes she’s disappointed her whole family, she goes away to stay with her cousin for a while. There she meets Blanca, who is traveling through town with her sister. Blanca is in love with the stars and dreams of being an astronomer. She shows Dani that she is still a shining star and that her dreams can still come true.

This was pure and sweet and full of moments that had me sniffling with happiness. I can’t get over how amazing the art is too. Everything about this was spot on. Definitely checking out more by this creator.

[Reading_seas0n · Rating 4 out of 5]

How do you continue when your dreams are no longer an option? For example, when your dreams succeeded in ruining your relationship with your mother, and your dreams almost killed you?

Thank you, Independent Publishers Group (LOVE X LOVE) and NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review this title, in my honest opinion!


We find out with this manga as we follow Dani as she grabbles with how to live when all she has known is gone, and the price she paid for it is worthless. It isn't until an unlikely friendship and then love begins that we see her begin to improve her mental state and vision for the future. And honestly, you can see her turn around her friends' life too.

"Sirius is actually made up of two stars that move together, connected by the force of gravity." That thought is the heart of this story, and how can you not feel something after that?!

[Tatiana Alejandra de Castro Pérez · Rating 5 out of 5]

La historia de Dani y Blanca me ha atrapado tanto que he tenido que leer el tomo del tirón.

Me encanta que tanto las protagonistas como la historia estén ligados a España y el frescor de los diálogos. Los temas que aparecen en la ibra están muy bien vinculados y la historia fluye con buen ritmo. Los personajes son una maravilla y el dibujo enamora. ¡Y encima toca la astronomía!

Si te gustan otras obras de Ana, ¡no lo dudes!

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good and quick little read. I really thought it could have been longer but it got a lot done in a short amount of time. The girls grow into adults who realized their dreams and ended up together! I wish we could have had more of a build up with their feelings and such but I’m glad they learned not be negative and to not think the worst in others.

[Élise Massé · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woow un vrai coup de coeur. Une belle histoire d'amour entre deux filles. Une ex-championne internationale de tennis et une passionnée d'astronomie. Le deuil d'une passion, la maladie et la relation toxique avec une figure parentale sont également des thèmes abordés. J'ai tout adoré de ce manga. ❤️

[Océane Le Roux · Rating 5 out of 5]

J'avoue avoir eu un petit coup de cœur pour ce manga, c'est une très belle histoire et comment ne pas s'attacher à ces deux filles et leurhistoiretrop mims 🥹, l'astronomie, les étoiles.. ça m'a donné envie de prendre le temps de regarder le ciel plus souvent ! Bref, je me suis régalée ✨️

[Ariadne Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Storia bellissima e super tenera, da persona che vive il 90% della sua vita in burn out è bel reminder di come anche nei momenti più bui è possibile ritrovare la passione in quello che facciamo, se solo ci concediamo di fermarci un attimo, alzare gli occhi al cielo, e trovare un po’ di luce 💙

[León · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esperaba algo más profundo, pero teniendo en consideración que es bastante corto entiendo que no le puedo pedir taaaanto. Para la longitud creo que lo hace bastante bien aunque sea una historia bien simple, personalmente lo que más me gustó fue que hubiera un timeskip al final.

[Marta · Rating 4 out of 5]

That. Was. So. Cute!

[Ocean · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I found Sirius in her eyes" t___t they're so perfect and complete each other i love themm such a comfort read 💌