I appreciate when coming-of-age stories show people continuing to learn and grow through college and beyond, and this month, I read three graphic novels in that vein: two college stories and one memoir. All of these stand-alone books feature adults but are appropriate for young adult readers, and all of them are lighthearted. Bunt! StrikingRead More
A Celebration of Sapphic Love & Loss: Something, Not Nothing by Sarah Leavitt
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Something, Not Nothing (September 24, 2024) is a stunning graphic memoir by cartoonist and educator Sarah Leavitt (she/her). In April 2020, Leavitt’s partner of twenty-two years, Donimo, died with medical assistance after years battling chronic pain. After Donimo’s death, Leavitt turned her immense grief and lossRead More
Messy Roots: a Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American by Laura Gao
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Messy Roots is Laura Gao’s memoir of her childhood and coming of age, first in Wuhan, China, then an early move to Texas, and finally through her choices of college in Pennsylvania and a job in the Bay area. As a Chinese American immigrant,Read More
Identity in Transition: Us by Sara Soler
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Growing into one’s queer identity is often more a journey of discovery than a destination, and loving someone through the discovery phases takes one on the journey as well. Us by Sara Soler is a graphic memoir of love in motion. It follows twoRead More
Susan reviews My Alcoholic Escape From Reality by Nagata Kabi
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link Nagata Kabi is back with My Alcoholic Escape From Reality! The mangaka behind My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness and My Solo Exchange Diary returns with another memoir, this time about being hospitalised for acute pacreatis resulting from her alcoholism. My Alcoholic Escape From Reality feels a lot moreRead More
Sheila reviews Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link “I suppose that a lifetime spent hiding one’s erotic truth could have a cumulative renunciatory effect. Sexual shame is in itself a kind of death.” Trigger warnings: death, suicide, parental death, divorce, sexual assault, war/military As a queer woman, I have spent a large portion of my lifeRead More
Danika reviews The Secret To Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel
Amazon Affiliate Link | Bookshop.org Affiliate Link Fun Home is one of my favourite books, which will come as a surprise to absolutely no one. It’s a deeply introspective graphic memoir about books, coming out, and lesbian books. What’s not to like? While Fun Home is suffused with literature references, though, Are You My Mother?Read More
Danika reviews I’m a Wild Seed: My Graphic Memoir on Queerness and Decolonizing the World by Sharon Lee De La Cruz
I’m a Wild Seed is a short graphic memoir exploring the author’s exploration of her identity. It’s about how her “coming into queerness,” but it’s also about her relationship to her racial identity and decolonizing gender and sexuality. Because this is so short, it often reminded me more of an in-depth essay than a graphic memoir–that’sRead More
Danika reviews Kimiko Does Cancer: A Graphic Memoir by Kimiko Tobimatsu, illustrated by Keet Geniza
Kimiko Does Cancer is about about a queer, mixed-race woman getting breast cancer. This is a short book, only 106 pages, and it moves quickly: the first page is about Kimiko finding a lump above her breast, and then it moves through her diagnosis, treatment, and the aftermath. Tobimatsu explains in interviews/articles that she wantedRead More
Audrey reviews Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash
Mild spoiler warnings–nothing you wouldn’t get from reading the jacket copy, though. Reading Honor Girl is painful in the way that reading your old diaries is painful. Not the “Wow, I was stupid-shallow” parts, but the moments of earnest hope where you can see the younger you before your first real, crushing heartbreak, before youRead More