Reviews

The Pervert by Remy Boydell, Michelle Perez

madskbae's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

rean1mat0r_'s review against another edition

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4.0

4.5/5

Wow. Wow wow wow. So beautifully drawn and framed and refuses to censor the very real lived experience at all. Melancholy and identity and love and hope and dreams all mixed up together. I wish it was longer.

mattyg2231's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad

5.0

trywii's review

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2.0

A bit of a letdown- I was recommended this by someone as a messy queer story for adults. I would agree that’s a good description, but the story itself is lackluster.

There’s no actual ‘plot’, it’s more of a series of moments the protagonist is going through until the book ends.
There’s an implication of resolution at the end as if the protagonist has reached a grand finale of a character arc, but there’s not really an arc, so there isn’t really a resolution. The protagonist is more or less the same as she was in the beginning, and there isn’t any sense that her life is changed in any significant way by how things end.

The biggest transgression of this graphic novel that made me drop this from a 3 star to a 2 star review is the odd usage of trademarked characters throughout.
I’m not sure why Clifford the Big Red Dog is doing micro-aggressions on the protagonist or why Charlie Brown is slinging slurs. Is it for comedy? Like ‘haha, these kid’s characters are being cruel to the protagonist’? If it’s for comedy, it’s in bizarre and poor taste. If it’s just to make a reference to a recognizable character, then…why use it like *that*? I have no clue what purpose these cameos serve and it takes me completely out of what I assumed to be a serious and brooding story about a sex worker struggling.

The best thing going for the GN is the art, which fits the mood and I do enjoy the original character designs throughout. Other than that, it’s not much of a story.

sunbat5001's review against another edition

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3.0

This is really not a happy book. It's short excerpts from the life of a trans woman studying to be a nurse, doing sex work to get by and living in constant fear. She goes through extreme poverty, relationship breakdowns, discrimination at work and gets a lot of verbal abuse from various people in her life. It comes across as heart breakingly honest and maybe this is unfair, but I really wished there was at least one positive friendship or a more upbeat ending.

[Free ARC from Edelweiss+]

ellieml's review against another edition

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fast-paced

4.0

sonofachipwich's review against another edition

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Honest and messy. Better art than story. Engaging but unsatisfying. More interested in seeing more art by Boydell than stories by Perez.

theraquizt's review against another edition

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5.0

I've been waiting for this book to come out since the first short ran in Island. It was immediately my favorite comic and I couldn't wait for the full edition. The final product exceeded even my wildest hopes.

The Pervert is an incredibly moving and relatable portrayal of being transgender, sex work, and loneliness. It's like nothing else I've ever read. I can't recommend this comic highly enough.

earsore's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

skellybones's review against another edition

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2.0

2.5 stars, I think. I appreciate that this comic exists, but it jus kind of flopped for me. It's less of a connected story, and more like disjointed vignettes with some pieces missing. Another reviewer described this book as "guarded" and I think that's accurate. Despite the deeply personal and intimate topics, I felt like I learned nothing about the main character. And then it just... ended.