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A review by reader_for_the_dead
Buni: Happiness Is a State of Mind by Ryan Pagelow
5.0
I've been rating too many books 5 stars lately. But I've just had such a great NetGalley haul!
Remember Happiness is...?
Well this book is also about happiness (and it features unicorns) but it's a little more....mature.
Don't read this review any further if dark humour and disturbing images get to you.
Alright. So I usually think about what to say in my reviews. I didn't really think here. I just felt. This comic is the funniest yet most charming stuff I've seen in a long time. It has the perfect balance of dark humour and the intricacies of life.It's basically me metamorphosed into a book.
So our protagonist(?) is Buni, an optimistic little bunny that just wants to love. Most of the time.
He's extremely naive, but he has his friends, Unnamed Bearded Prison Guy 1 (Who is a cynical, withered bunny) and Two-Legged Doggo, who is my favourite character of all time.
The illustrator turns tropes and popular sayings on their heads. And then some.
Sometimes I dislike Happiness is...because it really ignores that life can be shit (But sometimes that utopian view is needed). But this comic doesn't. It shows that life can be shit, but we can help each other grow stronger. Whether it's a two-legged dog or a man who just got out of jail, you can find love and acceptance.
And life doesn't have to be regular - it doesn't have to follow suit the so-called normal life. I can relate to this so fundamentally because my life has never been normal.
Conclusion
This anthropomorphic, dark-humour fuelled comic is genius and so relatable. I'd recommend this book to anyone who feels different and is in need of alternatives to cutesie self-help comics. There are hard truths about life in here, balanced out by an optimistic realist perspective, sprinkled with some jokes in-between.
I honestly wish I could put every page in my review, but you have got to go read this yourself. Here are some of my favourite pages: (I'm a vegetarian myself but the meat jokes killed me)
So kudos to Mr Pagelow for writing this gem. Here's my favourite comic:
received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
Remember Happiness is...?
Well this book is also about happiness (and it features unicorns) but it's a little more....mature.
Don't read this review any further if dark humour and disturbing images get to you.
Alright. So I usually think about what to say in my reviews. I didn't really think here. I just felt. This comic is the funniest yet most charming stuff I've seen in a long time. It has the perfect balance of dark humour and the intricacies of life.
So our protagonist(?) is Buni, an optimistic little bunny that just wants to love. Most of the time.
He's extremely naive, but he has his friends, Unnamed Bearded Prison Guy 1 (Who is a cynical, withered bunny) and Two-Legged Doggo, who is my favourite character of all time.
The illustrator turns tropes and popular sayings on their heads. And then some.
Sometimes I dislike Happiness is...because it really ignores that life can be shit (But sometimes that utopian view is needed). But this comic doesn't. It shows that life can be shit, but we can help each other grow stronger. Whether it's a two-legged dog or a man who just got out of jail, you can find love and acceptance.
And life doesn't have to be regular - it doesn't have to follow suit the so-called normal life. I can relate to this so fundamentally because my life has never been normal.
Conclusion
This anthropomorphic, dark-humour fuelled comic is genius and so relatable. I'd recommend this book to anyone who feels different and is in need of alternatives to cutesie self-help comics. There are hard truths about life in here, balanced out by an optimistic realist perspective, sprinkled with some jokes in-between.
I honestly wish I could put every page in my review, but you have got to go read this yourself. Here are some of my favourite pages: (I'm a vegetarian myself but the meat jokes killed me)
So kudos to Mr Pagelow for writing this gem. Here's my favourite comic:
received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review