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

emotional lighthearted sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I really wanted to like this graphic novel, especially since I had heard so many good things about it. It really missed the mark on a lot of stuff. 

The positives:
Freddy is in a toxic relationship with Laura Dean. Laura Dean cheats, lies, is flaky, gaslights and manipulates her. These are all terrible and don't sound positive at all, but bare with me. It's nice because we get to see Freddy break free from such a toxic relationship and find love with herself and those who do care for her. I feel like we don't get this enough in LGBTQ+ literature. Also! Tons of rep and lesbian main characters.


My issues:
Freddy isn't very likable in my opinion. She's extremely flaky on her friends, and constantly ditches them for Laura Dean. There's really only one instance in which Laura Dean manipulates Freddy to ditch her friends, but the rest of the time she was actively choosing to bail on plans with them to go see her instead. To be honest though, my real problem with this book is the subplot with Doodle. Doodle gets groomed by an older married man she met through dnd. She ends up pregnant because of him, and everyone acts like it was just a mistake that she slept with him instead of statutory rape. It never gets addressed how wrong the whole situation was, and instead we get to see Doodle blaming herself for the whole thing. This completely turned me off to everything else about the story.
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