This book cleaned up at the 2020 Eisners, taking home Best Publication for Teens, Best Writer and Best Penciller, so I wanted to check this out to see what all the hubbub was about (bub) even though I suspected that I wouldn’t like it much - and I didn’t! I really, really didn’t like it at all.
BUT - I will 100% agree that this is a comic for teens and I did like Rosemary Valero-O’Connell’s art which was very pretty, appealing and skilful even though she chooses to randomly not draw character’s noses, which, at a distance is fine, but really jarring when it happens up close! I guess the only colour, besides the black and white, being pink is because pink has gay connotations? Woah. Art.
Best Writer - Mariko Tamaki? HA! God no. She’s a terrible writer and this comic is possibly the worst I’ve read of hers yet. There’s really no story. 17 year old Freddy Riley’s girlfriend Laura Dean keeps breaking up with her and it bothers her. That’s not a story, that’s a premise. I guess Freddy learns the importance of friendship and to stick up for herself but to get to that you have to read an entire book’s worth of nothing happening.
Freddy is a dull wallflower, Laura Dean is a one-dimensional douchebag (hey, even lesbians can be crappy partners! realised no-one after reading this because duh), and everyone seems to be a lesbian in this world (besides the ‘rentals for obvious reasons) because that’s realistic. The cast are such an uninteresting group of narcissistic, vapid idiots caught up in their dreary worlds of non-drama, which I suppose is an accurate representation of some teenagers and so might be compelling to read for similar dolts, but I couldn’t stand them and found it a real chore to get through this ultra-boring book.
Maybe if you’re into that tedious Tillie Walden pseudo-deep/naval-gazing-type crap you’ll enjoy Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, but for anyone else, I wouldn’t bother.
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