Originally published in French in 2016 and published in English for the first time this year, Invisible Differences is the nonfiction story of Marguerite, a 27 year old woman who slowly discovers that she is on the autism spectrum with Asperger’s Syndrome.
Mademoiselle Caroline and Julie Dachez’s book was pretty good. As you’d expect, it’s informative about the condition and gives you a good idea of what life’s like for someone with autism. Not a whole lot happens though, particularly in the first half which just repetitively shows Marguerite’s life, awkwardly not fitting in with her work environment and her boyfriend’s social life and wondering what’s wrong with her.
It also reads a bit like an illustrated pamphlet on autism in the second half, rather than a natural story, with all the information about the condition coming out in one info dump after another. But it’s an interesting condition so reading about it wasn’t that dull and it’s easy to see why it’s been such a difficult condition to classify and why so many people are unaware of what it entails to the person who has it.
I really liked Mademoiselle Caroline’s art which reminded me of other brilliant French cartoonists like Dupuy and Berberian and Penelope Bagieu. The use of colour was clever - the first half is largely black and white with some harsh reds and then, after her diagnosis, you see more colour appearing in the second half until, by the end, everything’s in colour, showing the reader Marguerite has realised a happier, fuller life through understanding who she is.
It’s not the most exciting read but Invisible Differences isn’t boring either and has some very appealing art throughout. Worth a look for anyone wanting to know more about Autism Spectrum Disorder (which is what Asperger’s was renamed in 2013) and/or enjoys slice of life comics.
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