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lbarsk's review
4.0
What a way to finish this year’s Goodreads Challenge... a really comprehensive, fascinating blend of personal memoir and overall history of lesbian and gay identity in the UK. Because of the author’s identity it isn’t filled with much trans, bi, or POC representation, but certainly doesn’t ring TERF-y. It’s fascinating how the author’s personal growing up so thoroughly tracks with modern queer history of the UK, and the art style and way the pages are laid out is really vibrant and wonderful.
fishfish's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
The most complete queer history I've read thus far, proof to me that we've always been here and always been fighting, showing our victories, our rage, our losses, our HISTORY. it should not take so long for us to all learn this stuff. I wish I could have read this when I was first coming out or when I first started to fear for my rights in the systems that exist. But I've read it now, and thank goodness I have.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia
orcinus_olive's review
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
The novel is mostly separated into an autobiographical story of Kate Charlesworth's life and informative collage pages explaining historical events and people.
I don't have much to say about the biographical part of it. It is nice and there are some interesting beats to it. But it mostly serves to ground the informative pages into a world, so that you can understand their significance more easily.
A problem that arises in these pages is that we often jump several years or even decades into the future or past, seemingly at random. Even text boxes like "Three years later" or "1986" become increasingly more rare. This paired with the fact that we often get dialogue only in fragments or with heavy dialects can make it hard to understand what is actually going on.
The info pages are nice but often give only small insight into each individual topic. This novel is a good introduction to gay history but it expects you to do further research on your own if something interests you.
It is also important to mention some flaws of them - which the author however is very aware of and warns you about in the very beginning. The novel mainly focuses on British LGBT+ history and celebrities from the 1950s to around 2019. This means that the information in it is scewed heavily towards white people, most of them lesbian or or gay. People of color, bisexual people and trans people are rather rare. Anything else is not or barely mentioned at all.
These pages can also get a bit disorienting in their layout, but it is less of a problem here because most text boxes stand for themselves and don't tell a larger story.
Another problem that arises in autobiography, plain information and from the interplay of the two is that the novel throws a lot of names at you and it's hard to tell which ones are necessary to remember.
Sometimes people are mentioned again 50+ pages after they've been introduced for a few panels. Or we are told of people who only much later get an info page to tell us who they actually were. By that time you may have forgotten they came up before in the first place.
Especially since there are three different Jackies, two of them moderately important.
As an introductory text to queer history it fulfills its job but you have to pay close attention, even when you read it only for entertainment.
I don't have much to say about the biographical part of it. It is nice and there are some interesting beats to it. But it mostly serves to ground the informative pages into a world, so that you can understand their significance more easily.
A problem that arises in these pages is that we often jump several years or even decades into the future or past, seemingly at random. Even text boxes like "Three years later" or "1986" become increasingly more rare. This paired with the fact that we often get dialogue only in fragments or with heavy dialects can make it hard to understand what is actually going on.
The info pages are nice but often give only small insight into each individual topic. This novel is a good introduction to gay history but it expects you to do further research on your own if something interests you.
It is also important to mention some flaws of them - which the author however is very aware of and warns you about in the very beginning. The novel mainly focuses on British LGBT+ history and celebrities from the 1950s to around 2019. This means that the information in it is scewed heavily towards white people, most of them lesbian or or gay. People of color, bisexual people and trans people are rather rare. Anything else is not or barely mentioned at all.
These pages can also get a bit disorienting in their layout, but it is less of a problem here because most text boxes stand for themselves and don't tell a larger story.
Another problem that arises in autobiography, plain information and from the interplay of the two is that the novel throws a lot of names at you and it's hard to tell which ones are necessary to remember.
Sometimes people are mentioned again 50+ pages after they've been introduced for a few panels. Or we are told of people who only much later get an info page to tell us who they actually were. By that time you may have forgotten they came up before in the first place.
Especially since there are three different Jackies, two of them moderately important.
As an introductory text to queer history it fulfills its job but you have to pay close attention, even when you read it only for entertainment.
catheriner23's review
5.0
I loved this so much! It's introduced me to a host of British queer figures that I'd not previously come across and now need to go away and find out more about!
It's always nice to see older queer women writing about their lives - it reminds me that they do exist, and exist happily. I've not always had older queer role models, so this book is a real beacon in that sense.
It's always nice to see older queer women writing about their lives - it reminds me that they do exist, and exist happily. I've not always had older queer role models, so this book is a real beacon in that sense.
morriganivy's review
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
3.75
This book does a fantastic job at giving you an over look of western queer history over the past 60ish years. It's all done through an amazing art style that gives further insights and details. I'd recommend this to anyone wanting to learn more.
It also shows the story of the author coming to terms with her own sexuality. It's deeply personal and was extremely interesting to read. However, it does jump around the time line and I did find myself being a tad lost at moments. Which is whats stopping me giving this book a solid 4 stars.
However, the biggest highlight to me is the art style. It is fun, interesting and still easily consumed. The author has amazing artistic talent and I could spent hours looking at some of there work
It also shows the story of the author coming to terms with her own sexuality. It's deeply personal and was extremely interesting to read. However, it does jump around the time line and I did find myself being a tad lost at moments. Which is whats stopping me giving this book a solid 4 stars.
However, the biggest highlight to me is the art style. It is fun, interesting and still easily consumed. The author has amazing artistic talent and I could spent hours looking at some of there work
thebookboy's review
5.0
I'm fairly new to the graphic novel genre, but already I think this is a perfect example of one done right.
Packed full of history, charm, wit and humour, Kate Charlesworth's ode to the queer lifestyle is a poignant, autobiographical look into living a life off the path of ordinary and also a highly educational piece of work that really delves deep into UK queer culture.
I especially liked learning some basic Polari and seeing how this coded language developed by the gay subculture was integrated into our language today. It was also great to learn about some of the pioneers of our times who were also queer icons - I basically learned so much from reading this that it felt like a history lesson, but one delivered in an enjoyable, digestible way.
Funny, meaningful and beautifully animated - this is definitely one to pick up for anybody who wants a solid look into queer UK culture and who wants a moving life story to go with it.
5 stars.
Packed full of history, charm, wit and humour, Kate Charlesworth's ode to the queer lifestyle is a poignant, autobiographical look into living a life off the path of ordinary and also a highly educational piece of work that really delves deep into UK queer culture.
I especially liked learning some basic Polari and seeing how this coded language developed by the gay subculture was integrated into our language today. It was also great to learn about some of the pioneers of our times who were also queer icons - I basically learned so much from reading this that it felt like a history lesson, but one delivered in an enjoyable, digestible way.
Funny, meaningful and beautifully animated - this is definitely one to pick up for anybody who wants a solid look into queer UK culture and who wants a moving life story to go with it.
5 stars.
jc_wb's review
It’s the author’s personal story of coming to terms with her sexuality intermingled with a comprehensive history of the struggles and legal issues for LGBTQ people.
alspacedout's review
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
4.0
I can't give it Lower than a 4 stars what with the quality of the content/art, but God reading this was a slog for some reason!! Perhaps the layout?