It's All Absolutely Fine by Ruby Elliot

4 stars
Language (both US and UK varieties)

So having seen various of the comics online I was really looking forward to this.

Turns out I wish it had more prose and fewer comics... it ended up being the prose that really resonated with me.

Great read for anyone with body image issues, eat disorders, depression, etc etc etc

As long as language doesn't bother you.

Interesting quotes:

"Sadly I think I knew what a muffin top was before I knew what the term misogyny meant, so that says it all really."

"You can feel good about yourself but not before posting an Instagram photo of yourself sprinkling healthful protein dust onto a snot green smoothie with the caption 'just about to go for a seventeen mile yoga jog!'"
(I just really like the idea of a yoga jog.... makes me giggle)

"When I looked at myself and saw something 'incorrect' and not okay about my appearance then I was a bad person.  And bad person is a very understated way of saying 'a terrible... train wreck of a person.  Not 'a' terrible.  The MOST terrible.  Ever.  Of all time'... It wasn't just that I felt bad; I became the bad."

Adulthood Is a Myth by Sarah Andersen

(Sarah's Scribbles #1)
3 stars
comic collection

I enjoy seeing Sarah's Scribbles from time to time online, so I grabbed this one off a display at the library.

It just wasn't quite as cute as I wanted it to be.

And I guess it's just me, but a few of them made zero sense.  I'm clearly missing something.

It's a slim volume, so it only took about 20 minutes to go through, but next time I may just pass on the collection and stick with seeing them at random online.

It's possible that the best ones are the ones you keep seeing online anyway, because they're the ones getting attention.

If you've enjoyed her work maybe grab this one.  Just maybe don't have super high expectations.

I don't know, maybe it was just me.

If You Feel Too Much by Jamie Tworkowski

copy received for review

Sigh.

It's been a weird week.  And I know, I usually post about 9/11, but somehow this all feels connected right now.

See, I'd intended to post all week about suicide prevention, depression, and To Write Love on her Arms... including reviewing this book.

But what to say?

I don't feel like I'm in a mental place right now where I can put my own struggle out there.  I like the idea, but I can't find the words.

I've started so many blog posts this week.

I don't have all the answers.  Some days I'm not sure I have any answers.

But as Jamie says more than once in this book-- I'm alive.  I'm here.  That's valuable.

This book is honestly kind of an odd compilation of blogposts... bits and pieces of Jamie that didn't always make sense to me.

It's not nearly as much stories of depression as I thought.

You see, for all that this book is tiny, I was scared to read it.

Scared to open myself up to other people's pain.  Sometimes I internalize too much of it... and this balancing act of life is hard enough as it is.

But there was less pain than I expected.  And more than anything there was hope.

Hope and an affirmation that we're all in this together-- all writing our own important overlapping stories.

So.

I don't see how I can rate this book... how do you give out stars for a person's life?

I'm glad I read it.  I recommend it.

And at the end of the day, I like how it closes.... with the same words they're using for suicide prevention week this week:

We'll see you tomorrow.