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A review by meepelous
Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
The art, as almost anyone who has read this book does mention, is very very good. My only negative feeling is from everyone doing the same black and white plus one colour thing, or at least everyone in queer comics (is this a Fun Home thing?) so it does feel a bit one note. But it's also used so much because yes it's very nice. I'm not sure why such a light pink colour was that one other colour though... The more I over think it the less I like it. But still the character designs, frames and page layouts are all very nice and keep things very enjoyable.
People who appear to be women are almost everyone in the series? While I don't think it's important to go into super detail with the identities of each of the side characters, I guess I would have liked them to be a bit more fleshed out. Or maybe I need to continue to find better ways to talk about these things. Otherwise I think that a lot of leg work is done visually to depict a very diverse group of friends along lines of gender presentation, race, body type and sexuality. I did not get any people mixed up.
While I do think that having so many different kinds of friends who generally seem to be in better places in their relationships does act as a pretty good counter point to the general badness of the Laura Dean and Freddy relationship. That said, Laura Dean being the most front and centre bi (or at least playing with bi) person does rub me the wrong way. The idea that bi/pan people are cheaters or can't be dependable is a trope that needs to die yesterday. I also felt like she just wasn't that well developed. What do we know about Laura Dean? She's "cool" or at least desperate for attention... Her mother is never around and an alcoholic - which again feels like a trope rather then meaningful to anything. Why don't the characters just dip their toes into polyamory?
More serious then the on again off again romantic drama, the abortion sub plot was handled really well IMHO. The inpregnator could have possibly been more judged, but that kind of fell outside of the focus of the book I think, so I wasn't too upset, although mileage may vary.
Racial diversity was present, although not the focus of the book. This is one of the strong points of more ensemble casts, although this story was still overly focused on Fraddy's narrative.
Class representation was small, but a huge improvement over This One Summer - where all the townies were incredibly crude. Vi, a character that Freddy keeps running into throughout the story, briefly touches on how she works so many jobs in order to afford college. Did I mention the rep was small? That said, Vi is a pillar of maturity and strength and good choices so there's that.
Ability and disability aren't really touched on I don't think?
And so here we are, I finally put my thoughts out. While I generally enjoyed the book, I do think it's a bit over hyped.
People who appear to be women are almost everyone in the series? While I don't think it's important to go into super detail with the identities of each of the side characters, I guess I would have liked them to be a bit more fleshed out. Or maybe I need to continue to find better ways to talk about these things. Otherwise I think that a lot of leg work is done visually to depict a very diverse group of friends along lines of gender presentation, race, body type and sexuality. I did not get any people mixed up.
While I do think that having so many different kinds of friends who generally seem to be in better places in their relationships does act as a pretty good counter point to the general badness of the Laura Dean and Freddy relationship. That said, Laura Dean being the most front and centre bi (or at least playing with bi) person does rub me the wrong way. The idea that bi/pan people are cheaters or can't be dependable is a trope that needs to die yesterday. I also felt like she just wasn't that well developed. What do we know about Laura Dean? She's "cool" or at least desperate for attention... Her mother is never around and an alcoholic - which again feels like a trope rather then meaningful to anything. Why don't the characters just dip their toes into polyamory?
More serious then the on again off again romantic drama, the abortion sub plot was handled really well IMHO. The inpregnator could have possibly been more judged, but that kind of fell outside of the focus of the book I think, so I wasn't too upset, although mileage may vary.
Racial diversity was present, although not the focus of the book. This is one of the strong points of more ensemble casts, although this story was still overly focused on Fraddy's narrative.
Class representation was small, but a huge improvement over This One Summer - where all the townies were incredibly crude. Vi, a character that Freddy keeps running into throughout the story, briefly touches on how she works so many jobs in order to afford college. Did I mention the rep was small? That said, Vi is a pillar of maturity and strength and good choices so there's that.
Ability and disability aren't really touched on I don't think?
And so here we are, I finally put my thoughts out. While I generally enjoyed the book, I do think it's a bit over hyped.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Infidelity, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Biphobia