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A review by floralfox
Fetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home by Nicole J. Georges
4.0
This was a sweet graphic novel about a young woman's love for her mostly-unfriendly, skittish, and troublesome pup.
Nicole Georges gets this dog in the hopes of healing the wound of her young boyfriend, who had a broken heart from the time his dog was given away by his stepfather. Unfortunately, although Nicole had gotten permission to gift this dog by his parents beforehand, they backed out, and she was left with the ill-behaved dog.
Through thick and thin (i.e., dog attacks, pet deposits, vet bills, pet accidents too far into the dog's adult life, and no-pet-leases) Nicole LOVES this dog. Nicole and Beija protect each other, but sometimes they veer into the territory of letting nobody else in, of being too cagey and distant and territorial. Through the story of Beija, Nicole tells her own story of growing into herself--as a dog owner, a feminist, a bisexual woman, a neglected child, as well as a person who comes to recognize that being comfortable with toxicity in a relationship is not a healthy character trait.
Mostly, I like Georges' graphic style, but there were some things that tripped me up: all of the human noses looked too similar and sometimes when someone had a similar hair cut, I couldn't tell who was who and I had to put effort into figuring it out. More often, though, I couldn't tell who was saying what dialogue in what order, or which panel the caption went to. I read several pages more than once to decipher this.
I was going to give this 3 stars, but then, as most dog stories do, Beija passed away in the end (at the old age of 15, thankfully), and I cried into my pillow holding onto my own little nugget and worrying about the day I will have to go through that, too.
Nicole Georges gets this dog in the hopes of healing the wound of her young boyfriend, who had a broken heart from the time his dog was given away by his stepfather. Unfortunately, although Nicole had gotten permission to gift this dog by his parents beforehand, they backed out, and she was left with the ill-behaved dog.
Through thick and thin (i.e., dog attacks, pet deposits, vet bills, pet accidents too far into the dog's adult life, and no-pet-leases) Nicole LOVES this dog. Nicole and Beija protect each other, but sometimes they veer into the territory of letting nobody else in, of being too cagey and distant and territorial. Through the story of Beija, Nicole tells her own story of growing into herself--as a dog owner, a feminist, a bisexual woman, a neglected child, as well as a person who comes to recognize that being comfortable with toxicity in a relationship is not a healthy character trait.
Mostly, I like Georges' graphic style, but there were some things that tripped me up: all of the human noses looked too similar and sometimes when someone had a similar hair cut, I couldn't tell who was who and I had to put effort into figuring it out. More often, though, I couldn't tell who was saying what dialogue in what order, or which panel the caption went to. I read several pages more than once to decipher this.
I was going to give this 3 stars, but then, as most dog stories do, Beija passed away in the end (at the old age of 15, thankfully), and I cried into my pillow holding onto my own little nugget and worrying about the day I will have to go through that, too.