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short_circuit's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
"you're a shitty girlfriend. but also when i'm with you i'm a shitty friend. so i'm breaking up with you."
our main character freddy is dating popular girl laura dean. the problem? laura dean keeps breaking up with her. and every time, laura dean manages to win freddy back. it gets to the point where freddy is neglecting her friendships in order to spend time with laura dean. and laura dean's no peach, either. she makes fun of freddy's interests, repeatedly neglects freddy, and openly flirts with other girls. at one point, laura dean texts freddy about a fake emergency simply out of spite, all because she didn't like freddy prioritizing her best friend above her girlfriend.
eventually, freddy's friends all get tired of being pushed aside, and they rightly call her on her shit. i'm lucky enough to never have been in a toxic relationship, but i have had moments where i've put my partner above my friends. freddy's friends calling her out on her shitty behaviour is something i think i sorely needed when i was younger.
my favorite part—and this may seem odd—was freddy comforting doodle after the latter's abortion. it's such a tender scene between two friends who have drifted apart, but who are reconnecting. freddy, for the first time, puts someone else above laura dean. and i think this is why, when freddy does finally break up with laura dean for good, it feels so fucking satisfying. we love to see a girlboss winning!
overall i think this is an excellent story. it handles all its issues well, i love the diversity of characters, and i love freddy's emails to anna vice. four and a half stars!
(unfortunately, there is a throwaway joke about elliot page that, for obvious reasons, hasn't aged well.)
Graphic: Abortion, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Homophobia
camaraoqueimado's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Toxic relationship
Moderate: Abortion and Sexual content
Minor: Transphobia
courtneyfalling's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
There is one annoying part where it buys into a pretty common issue in contemporary queer discourse and media representation... assuming people, especially dependent children, need to come out to 'live authentically' even at significant risk. (There's a good YouTube video about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ayN79gVxtY.) It's only a few pages but I just could've done without that at all.
Graphic: Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Vomit
Minor: Alcohol, Sexual content, and Homophobia
pitythechild's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Toxic relationship
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Homophobia
Minor: Abortion, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, and Lesbophobia
laurenleigh's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Toxic relationship and Abortion
Moderate: Vomit and Sexual content
invaderlinz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Abortion, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Homophobia
lookingmuchimproved's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The art is really beautiful, in a limited color palette of black, white, and pink. I loved the diverse cast of queer characters and sense of community. (Though the author still explores different attitudes within that community and how sometimes people can feel isolated even around people who share similar life experience.)
Highly recommend.
Moderate: Abortion, Infidelity, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Homophobia and Sexual content
starlightsong's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I know it can be hard to break out of toxic relationships when you really feel like you're in love, but there's usually something nice the toxic partner does, or a positive quality they have, that the other person will use to justify the toxicity. I don't see that in Laura Dean beyond their very first meeting, and... maybe the fact that she's good in bed, I guess? It's also common for some people to cling to an emotionally abusive relationship because everything else in your life is falling apart, but the bits of Freddy's home life and school life that we saw seemed... fine? She has a happy family and friends that she cares about. Idk, maybe it was done like that on purpose for whatever reason, but it didn't work for me. It was just frustrating because I didn't feel connected to any of the characters. They felt too flat, their relationships too rushed. I didn't get upset when Freddy was being a terrible friend to Doodle because of Laura Dean, I didn't get happy at the ending when Freddy finally reached her breaking point and broke up with her, and I just... didn't particularly care.
Going back to my point about communication, I 100% did not want Freddy and Laura Dean to get back together and knew they never would, but I did hope that when Freddy went to break up with Laura Dean at the end, she would at least attempt to initiate a healthy conversation and explain why they were breaking up. She... kind of did, but just barely. It was literally: "I'm breaking up with you because you're a shitty girlfriend and I'm a shitty friend when I'm with you." "Okay, then fuck you" and that was it. That's not communication. Freddy does, admittedly, learn that she should try harder to reach out for her friends, so I'll give her that at least.
I also couldn't stand how Doodle acted during the abortion subplot, and how it was just... never addressed, from what I could tell, that Doodle is definitely not old enough to sleep with a married man and it's extremely not okay for him, being the older party, to have done so. I mean, okay, earlier in the story Doodle brings up that maturity and age differences are a bit subjective and that "you can be a really mature sixteen year old or a really immature twenty year old", and Freddy then says that the age of consent exists so that adults can't take advantage of younger people. I'm personally a bit in the middle of these two viewpoints, where I think people have to consider context like where they are in life and the experiences they've had, but I also think a line has to be drawn especially when you're young and still in high school, and if Doodle is roughly the same age as Freddy then this married man has gotta be too old for her! Especially considering that at one point there's a conversation between Freddy and Vi that goes along the lines of "how old are you?" "oh I am WAY too old for you!" "so like, 25?" "I'm 18! now go do your kid stuff!"... yeah, because an age difference of one year (potentially even less, given that different birthdays are a thing) is way too much. All 17 year olds are immature babies one minute and then turn 18 and magically become super mature adults the next minute, right? In the state I live in you're literally still considered a minor until 19! Meanwhile all that's said of a high schooler sleeping with a presumably much older married man is basically "you keep going back to your cheating girlfriend so you can't judge me" and it's treated like a mistake she made even though she was essentially groomed and made pregnant through statutory rape. Both of these things combined just felt hypocritical and weird and possibly a result of the story just trying to cover too many things at once, which in my opinion also made all the things it tried to cover feel rushed. Everyone's relationships and characterizations and situations were just rushed.
Also, this is a much smaller criticism than the rest, I suppose, but I was... really confused by the thing about her toys and keychains talking. How did that work? It wasn't explained well and didn't seem like it added a single thing to the plot since they didn't talk TO Freddy or her friends, just had random conversations amongst themselves (again, literally how?!). Also gotta say as a bisexual person it bothered me that Laura Dean was, given her interest in dating both men and women, apparently bisexual (yes, some lesbians date men before realizing they're lesbians but the story didn't bother to address this if that was the case) and the only bi character in the story. The emotionally toxic cheater. I shouldn't need to explain the problem with that sort of stereotype.
I think rushed, a word I've used several times in this review, is the word that pretty much summarizes this graphic novel for me, and it hurts because I had high hopes for it. I will say that it had a strong beginning, and even though I criticized the abortion subplot I appreciated how
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Abortion and Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Biphobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Vomit
empathephant's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Anyway. This was a book full of ideas I wish I had exposure to when I was younger. I loved my happy ending romance books, but the reality of young adult life involves so much confusion about actually navigating those relationships, and I’m glad this book say with that. I also love that it was an unabashedly queer book that wasn’t about how hard it is to be queer. God, I wish I had had that. I want to go to Gertrude’s Organics. I want to hang out with Freddy’s friends. This is a work where being queer and authentic is comfortable and inviting and I love it.
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Abortion
Minor: Sexual content
This is emotional and sad, so be prepared, but also it’s sad in the way sad music feels nice to help you process things if you’re ready.kirby's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
The positives:
My issues:
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Abortion