Taproot

This is a story about a ghost and a gardener. It's a story in which death plays a large role. The artwork is lovely; I particularly liked how Hamal and Blue and the reaper were drawn. I can't really talk about the things I didn't like without spoiling the story, so I'm going to put the rest of my review under spoiler tags.

This story never quite went the places I thought it was going to go. When we meet the reaper, it knows that ghost Blue has been hanging out with a human (necromancer) that can see and communicate with ghosts, though doesn't know that Hamal is this person. This is perceived to be a Big Problem, and Blue is supposed to find out who the necromancer is for the reaper, but then there's no action after the fact - the reaper submits some paperwork and Hamal is just like, free to go once he's got a permit to communicate with ghosts? Plus then the reaper turns into kind of a Hello Charlie type of figure so that now gardener Hamal has to go bust some ghosts from around the community? I didn't necessarily like how it went from a sweet nature story and wistful love story between two people who can't be together, and then turned into a buddy comedy for Hamal and Blue?Plus, this part makes me sad and frustrated: Blue knows his time as a ghost is coming to its end when he meets the reaper, so he and Hamal and their other ghost friends go to the cemetery for Blue's end-of-ghosting ceremony, and everything is beautiful ... and then ... I don't understand how this happens, but Hamal puts a seedling plant into Blue's chest, and all of a sudden Blue is alive/human again? I didn't like that. Lost loved ones can't come back from the dead, no matter how much we want them to, and it took away from the beauty of the love shown in the beginning ... that you can still love someone once they're gone.