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clarabooksit's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
As someone who has depression, this book just made sense to me. As all of the people at conventions told Thorogood, this book is super “relatable.”
It’s messy, dark and often challenging as Thorogood’s mental illness sometimes makes her act—or not act—in selfish and self-destructive ways. The way her art bounced from thought to thought, from page to page and the desperate desire to stop thinking, to start over, completely captured how deeply pervasive depression is.
And it’s clear how talented of an artist she is as she utilized a variety of styles to convey her different mental states. I particularly loved the creepy monster that represents her depression and the weird, cartoony heads attached to realistic bodies.
Honestly, a lot of it is ugly in a way that perfectly mirrors the ugliness of mental illness: the self-doubt, the inability to do the things you know you need to do—that you should do—and the fear of never getting out of the vicious cycle.
Where the book didn’t always work for me is in the overall “plot.” The need for a story felt shoehorned into an otherwise solid representation of a stupid, awful, annoying thing that some of our brains do to us. The book is very self-reflexive and mostly self-aware as Thorogood often addresses the fact that she had no idea what to do with or how to write this book, which makes for a—again—relatable book, but not always a great one.
I would definitely recommend this to anyone who has depression or anxiety. You will feel seen. Having said that, I can imagine someone who has never dealt with mental illness would probably not get and not enjoy this.
It’s messy, dark and often challenging as Thorogood’s mental illness sometimes makes her act—or not act—in selfish and self-destructive ways. The way her art bounced from thought to thought, from page to page and the desperate desire to stop thinking, to start over, completely captured how deeply pervasive depression is.
And it’s clear how talented of an artist she is as she utilized a variety of styles to convey her different mental states. I particularly loved the creepy monster that represents her depression and the weird, cartoony heads attached to realistic bodies.
Honestly, a lot of it is ugly in a way that perfectly mirrors the ugliness of mental illness: the self-doubt, the inability to do the things you know you need to do—that you should do—and the fear of never getting out of the vicious cycle.
Where the book didn’t always work for me is in the overall “plot.” The need for a story felt shoehorned into an otherwise solid representation of a stupid, awful, annoying thing that some of our brains do to us. The book is very self-reflexive and mostly self-aware as Thorogood often addresses the fact that she had no idea what to do with or how to write this book, which makes for a—again—relatable book, but not always a great one.
I would definitely recommend this to anyone who has depression or anxiety. You will feel seen. Having said that, I can imagine someone who has never dealt with mental illness would probably not get and not enjoy this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Alcohol, Ableism, Drug use, Bullying, and Violence
Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Vomit, Animal cruelty, and Gun violence
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