RaveLibrary JournalYanow’s illustrations capture her [protagonist\'s] caution intensely with a few pen strokes, and her cityscapes are equally utilitarian while communicating a sense of place perfectly. Visually, there’s a hint of Tin-Tin-esque continental caper, but Yanow’s narrative also acts as a curious counter to Ulli Lust’s gonzo graphic memoir, How I Tried To Be a Good Person, about rejecting convention while criss-crossing Europe in the 1980s. The narrative emphasizes the squirmy discomfort of attempting to adhere to youthful ideals, finding them flawed, and holding oneself back from a world asking to be embraced in all its messiness ... Yanow’s voice is pointed, her cartooning delightfully specific without being precious or showy. This debut subtly, effectively challenges readers to dig into their own internal dissonance.
Vivian Chong
RaveLibrary JournalHer story is so horrifying that it would be easy to gawk and move on quickly. Instead, in this memoir, Chong\'s confident voice draws out the complicated reality of a debilitating medical condition with precision and purpose ... Chong\'s narrative conviction and artistic direction blended with Webber\'s wiry illustrations are all-enveloping, communicating her huge challenge without pathos ... A prime example of the graphic medicine genre, which illustrates medical conditions, often through lived experience, this work is engaging and informative but never feels teachy or preachy.
Lynda Barry
RaveLibrary JournalThe activities, drawn from Barry’s own magical classroom, are fun, flexible, and easy to follow, at once challenging and comfortingly familiar, often set to music, sometimes featuring self-styled superheroes. The guide has the textured collage aesthetic of the author’s recent works, and in the margins of the exercises, her nearly mystical voice reminds that an act of creation is about something bigger than perfecting a cute comic in neat boxes ... On its face, the style seems almost goofy, but the reality that art drives and sustains us, if we let it, is present on every page ... An engaging combination of how-to and why-you-must, perfect for Barry superfans, budding cartoonists, and anyone with a story itching to be told.
Eleanor Davis
PositiveLibrary JournalSensitive, intimate illustrations take the pulse of Hannah’s strivings beautifully, with Davis’s signature visual language of gentleness and strength doing much of the narrative’s emotional work. Although seen through one woman’s eyes, the work makes a broader statement about the radical act of hope that is caring deeply for others, and perhaps bearing a child into a broken world ... Davis’s subtle take on a major philosophical question is an efficient and affective read for anyone struggling to find purpose in trying times.
Kristen Radtke
PositiveLibrary JournalBeautifully written, this multidirectional memoir ties threads and minutiae from Radtke’s personal and family history and history writ large to create a tender, drifting reflection on the calamity life is often built on, the nothing it will become, and the breathtaking beauty of lingering between those forgone conclusions. Her illustration abilities are somewhat stilted—she’s a writer first and an illustrator second—but the art complements her flowing prose. A fantastic example of the graphic novel’s possibilities as a literary medium, this work is visually imperfect, lyrically beautiful, and unquestionably brave.
