A review by graveyardpansy
Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki

4.0

3.5 - I enjoyed this, but it isn't my favourite? I feel like I knew where it was going the whole time, and I was right, so the plot didn't do much for me. Maybe because I'm a radical, but the framing of this within gay history felt very underdone and somewhat odd. The framing of the narration through the advice letters was also kinda lost on me. It wasn't bad necessarily, but it didn't entirely land personally. The exposition felt both too fast and not informative enough. The last somewhat disappointing thing: there's an unresolved plotline between two side characters that I was actually invested in and didn't really get a conclusion on. The art style is beautiful and I love the greyscale/monochrome-pink colours. I also loved the integration of the lesbian diner and the nerd spot/arcade settings, but the latter felt a bit underdone: genuinely didn't know at first if they meant DM in the D&D sense or in the BDSM dungeon way, and it wasn't explained for a while so I just rolled with it. As a whole, cute but predictable; and enjoyable, but not super memorable. The lesson is good, especially for a YA audience, but it is also super obvious because of the advice letter format. Wouldn't highly recommend it, but if you like comics, romance, and/or the colour pink, then this might be for you!