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A review by earlgaytea711
Hardcore Anxiety: A Graphic Guide to Punk Rock and Mental Health by Reid Chancellor
emotional
funny
inspiring
fast-paced
3.5
I recently remembered Humble Bundle, a website that bundles books, games, and software into groups to sell cheaply and then donate profits to charities of your choosing, has book bundles. It used to only be video games so I often forget this fact. I was rudely reminded when Facebook showed an add for the “Unfuck Your Life” bundle and I cursed them out for knowing me too well because I clicked. Hardcore Anxiety was one of the books in that bundle and I have some rather mixed feelings about it.
I loved how raw and real it was. This was Chancellor’s very heartbreaking relationship with anxiety and punk rock. First and foremost, it is emotional and vulnerable. It’s also very relatable for me and many others who also deal with anxiety. I enjoyed how he linked his emotions to music since that’s something I also do though I don’t tend to listen to Punk.
Chancellor also includes trigger warnings within the text for sensitive parts around depression and self harm. It was thoughtful and I wish more authors did this. It was unmissable on the page and helped prepare me for reading the heavy content I was about to consume.
I also really enjoyed the mini history lessons about different punk bands and the role their mental health played in their music. I never realized so many punk bands helped fight the stigma surrounding mental illness and addiction.
Now for all that I liked it, there are some major problems with it for me. These mostly stem from needing a better editor and proofreader I think. There were quite a few glaring typos or grammar mistakes. There were a few sentences that just didn’t make sense unless you could figure out what Chancellor was trying to say in the typos.
The story itself is also all over the place. It’s split into 4 parts but these parts are broken up in weird places and don’t help format or structure the story. It also jumped back and forth from the mini punk history lessons to Chancellor’s experiences with no rhyme or reason. Sometimes the mini lesson linked up with what Chancellor was experiencing in the next scene but not often.
It was a good read and very informative but there were some obvious mistakes that kept me from really loving my read. It is an independent publisher so I’m not as harsh on the rating as I could be but these two major issues kept me from enjoying it to the story’s full potential.
I loved how raw and real it was. This was Chancellor’s very heartbreaking relationship with anxiety and punk rock. First and foremost, it is emotional and vulnerable. It’s also very relatable for me and many others who also deal with anxiety. I enjoyed how he linked his emotions to music since that’s something I also do though I don’t tend to listen to Punk.
Chancellor also includes trigger warnings within the text for sensitive parts around depression and self harm. It was thoughtful and I wish more authors did this. It was unmissable on the page and helped prepare me for reading the heavy content I was about to consume.
I also really enjoyed the mini history lessons about different punk bands and the role their mental health played in their music. I never realized so many punk bands helped fight the stigma surrounding mental illness and addiction.
Now for all that I liked it, there are some major problems with it for me. These mostly stem from needing a better editor and proofreader I think. There were quite a few glaring typos or grammar mistakes. There were a few sentences that just didn’t make sense unless you could figure out what Chancellor was trying to say in the typos.
The story itself is also all over the place. It’s split into 4 parts but these parts are broken up in weird places and don’t help format or structure the story. It also jumped back and forth from the mini punk history lessons to Chancellor’s experiences with no rhyme or reason. Sometimes the mini lesson linked up with what Chancellor was experiencing in the next scene but not often.
It was a good read and very informative but there were some obvious mistakes that kept me from really loving my read. It is an independent publisher so I’m not as harsh on the rating as I could be but these two major issues kept me from enjoying it to the story’s full potential.