Bibi loves Peter. And Peter would love Bibi…if not for that pesky girl Peter was talking to in the school hallway! Bibi needs her out of the way, so she invites her new rival over for “a sleepover”. But instead of making sure the girl from the halls won't get in her way any further, Bibi enjoys a pleasant night with her new friend, Amy. As they fall asleep, Bibi wrestles with an unfamiliar and confusing feeling. Something must be wrong, because Bibi loves Peter…right?

I Love Amy has story and art by UNNI. Translation by AH Cho with lettering by Rebecca Sze. Published by Ize Press (November 18, 2025). Rated 8+.

Content warning: emotional manipulation, physical harm, mental illness and kidnapping

Erica Friedman
Rating:

If you read the synopsis provided for this story from the publisher, I Love Amy seems a bog-standard cute high school first same-sex crush rom-com. It is not at all that, not even a little.

Not to spoil the fun, but content warnings going in to this book for emotional manipulation, physical harm, mental unwellness and kidnapping are very much needed. Protagonist Bibi is not okay. We are told this repeatedly in this story, we can see it in the way she treats Amy as a tool, even when her emotions are shifting. Bibi's jealousy is pathological, her behavior goes right into criminal. None of this is cute and I ached for Amy throughout.

I have a long-time habit of wishing characters stuck in a bad story could be plucked out and deposited in a more pleasant story. I would pay actual money for Amy to be bodily lifted out of this story and put into a narrative where someone takes care of her. It does not help at all, that the course of this story is obvious and I am not at all willing to read another volume to find out the very inevitable ending in which characters will realize that they do love Amy. Because after putting Amy into emotional and physical harm's way for probably three quarters of the narrative I don't care if she's able to forgive…I am not.

I wasn't inclined to be generous about this story when, towards the end, we are privy to a conversation that is supposed to make us sympathetic to Bibi. I just shut down at that point. I know plenty of people who were robbed of a decent home life as a child and none of them stalked, manipulated or kidnapped anyone.

I was so happy that Ize Press decided to license a GL title, but wow, this feels awfully like poison in the well. There is so much better out there.