Summary & Evaluation: Dik Seong Jen, known as Dixie to her friends and classmates, has two monumental events to get through in the next couple of weeks--one, her crush, Adam, has invited her to his birthday party; and, two, the upcoming Hapkido martial arts tournament, which she and Adam will be participating in. Thinking that she has found the perfect birthday gift for Adam, Dixie gives him an expensive Hwarang warrior statue (using her money intended for the entrance fee for the tournament)--but Adam, clueless as ever, re-gifts it to his crush. Just before facing Adam in the Hapkido final, and torn about whether to throw the fight or not, Dixie is re-gifted the Hwarang statue and realizes that Adam doesn't care about her, leading her to defeat him in the tournament finals and begin dating Dillinger, the bad boy character that gave her the statue.
DC Comics' minx imprint intends to create graphic novels that appeal to a younger female audience and so far they've done a pretty good job, offering a unique and varied line of graphic novels. Re-Gifters is less cutesy than their past releases, because Dixie is a very aggressive character (her best friend says she's "as spiky as a porcupine") and a bit of a tomboy, but having such a character in the story shows that minx is not willing to stick to the norm. The story was enjoyable and I think that the re-gifting idea worked really well, with the sequence of givers and receivers driving the plot--and how embarrassing is it to get someone what you think is the perfect gift, then to be re-gifted it yourself? Perfect way of describing the awkwardness that is adolescence.
Booktalk Hook: If I were to booktalk this, I'd do it alongside either other minx offerings, or with other books that describe a similar situation, of love spurned. Or if I were doing it as a stand-alone booktalk, I'd have to start off by asking if they've ever re-gifted something, or if they've been the recipient of a re-gifted item.
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