Reviews

Familiar Face by Michael DeForge

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u_0's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I bought this at the Last Bookstore and had no idea what it was about. The cover and shape of the book sold me. Wow, this really spoke to how I was feeling at this moment in my life and how horrified I've been about the state and trajectory of the world (and America specifically). Reading this after the Memory Police definitely made me feel hopeless and numb and didn't help my depression or brain fog but I really valued this piece of art. The art style was so cool and abstract and fit perfectly with the themes being discussed. There was so much well constructed social commentary and I loved trying to read into the subtext of certain scenes. It's hard for me to express why I love this so much but I do.

lape's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.0

majesticbirdy's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

5.0

ghosttropics's review against another edition

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4.0

Another excellent book from Michael Deforge, to literally no ones surprise at this point. Although the art style and colour palette he chose for this book might not be my personal favourite If I were to choose from his huge collection, I do think story-wise this is amongst his most memorable and well written books yet. In fact, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since I read it a couple days ago.

Familiar Face is a sad and all too relatable tale of urban sprawl and the hopelessness of a world seemed bent on stripping away every bit of autonomy we have left, in the name of “progress” and automation.

As a fellow Torontonian, this felt to me to be Deforges most direct response to living in Toronto, a city that seems more and more intent on pushing out the artists crushing the human spirit, leaving many of its citizens with a strong sense of despair and futility. This is a book that not only asks “where do we go next?” but also “who the fuck even cares?!”