This book was clearly written for a very specific audience at a very specific point in time and now that it's almost 10 years since the first parts of this comic were written, the social commentary is a little grating and some of the humor feels a little dated. It's all stuff that I personally, and probably the artist as well now that we're farther into the future, find kind of cringe worthy. If I had read this back when it was being written, I probably would have loved it. Now that I'm older and the community and political views  I take part in and that are portrayed in this book have dramatically changed, it just feels outdated and unenjoyable.

Also, I'm not saying no one else can make a comic about a group of queer people who are all just buddies but also go to a lot of protests, but I read this while I was also in the middle of reading Dykes To Watch Out For and I really cannot help but notice that this feels like a worse version of that. If I hadn't read them so close together, I probably wouldn't even notice, but they just feel so similar.

EDIT
I made my boyfriend read this because I wanted someone to complain about it with and they pointed out that two of the weird takes on gender in this is actually a TERF talking point! A non-binary person being comfortable when they're perceived as male as opposed to uncomfortable when perceived as female is because they just hate women and are trying to escape their hatred of women/being a woman by transitioning. This is seen as an acceptable thing to say to another person and is not fought back against at all. Really just a "Wow, really makes you think" moment. Which is strange considering the word "valid" shows up on almost every page of this. I don't know what the intention behind this statement could be other than specifically to invalidate the other person's experience with gender.

There's a second part around Halloween where they go to some sort of gathering and see one butch dressed up as femme and immediately start talking shit about them, calling them sexist and insisting that butches dressing as femmes is inherently making fun of women. This is different from drag queens somehow, which they don't think is making fun of women. It's only making fun of women when masculine women do it. None of the butches ever say anything derogatory about femininity/womanhood, but that's because they are not given a chance to speak. Again, someone perceives gender non-conformity in AFAB people as inherently sexist and there is no room for argument.

Despite this comic having not one, but TWO TERF talking points, I don't really blame the author for writing it, (especially since it was written 10 years ago and I really want to think by now they don't agree with these anymore) Half of the takes in this book just kind of seem thoughtlessly parroted from whoever the author was hanging out with at the time with no real reflection on what any of it means or how it could affect the person you're saying it to, the person reading etc. 

Also, apparently in the foreword of the book, the person who commissioned the comic in the first place claimed that they wanted to make "a spiritual successor to Dykes to Watch Out For" and I must have been so distracted by how awful the actual content of the comic was that I forgot that was even in the foreword. Maybe I'm just too big of an Alison Bechdel fan, or maybe I just REALLY have a grudge against this comic. But saying you are going to make a spiritual successor to one of the most famous queer comics of all time written by one of the most famous cartoonists of all time is an incredibly bold, and in my opinion, self-aggrandizing thing to say. 

But whatever. Its just a stupid comic. 

I'm going to start out by admitting that I am apparently not a fan of romcom books. I love the movies, but it's really been a pain in the ass trying to find a book that I like. I was genuinely really determined to try liking this book, but it just was not happening. There was a brief period in the middle where I was having fun, but it quickly came crashing down because of how fucking insufferable the characters are. 

The set up was kind of ridiculous, but I really don't think that matters. It's a romcom setup. There were  just a couple of glaring holes in it that I genuinely could not get over.

Luc's boss threatens to fire him for baing a "bad gay" and when he threatens to sue her, she says "we don't have the money for you to sue us" and Luc believes that he cannot sue them. Bankruptcy just doesn't exist in Britain I guess? Also, Luc believes that he cannot get a job literally anywhere else. It's later explained that no one will take him because it would just be bad publicity for them, but he is literally the son of one of the biggest rock stars of the 80s and another musician who is still constantly cashing in royalty checks for her only album. And throughout the entire book, his father is having a giant comeback on reality TV. I just don't buy that he can't get a job anywhere else.

Luc was not a good main character. And I don't mean "He's a bad person therefore the book is poorly written," he's just an insufferable narrator. I hated reading from his point of view. Reading his self-deprecating monologues was just annoying. They start at the very beginning of the book and he's an asshole from the beginning of the book. A bad introduction leaves a poor taste in my mouth and seeing how miserable he is from the very beginning doesn't make me want to care about him or feel bad for him. I don't even care that he becomes better and stobs beign an asshole because he's still just so fucking annoying. He's a little self obsessed and paranoid and I don't think that necessarily makes him unlikable as a character, but I don't know, he was just so fucking annoying. I hate the witty narration and dialogue. It just comes off as Luc being a dick and like Alexis Hall watched a little too much Joss Whedon in their formative years as a writer. 

Alexis Hall seems to have a bit of an ableism problem as well. Almost all of the characters Luc isn't friends with are bumbling idiots and antisocial outcasts. However, when you read the book, the things Luc gets annoyed about 90% of the time are just... traits of autism. Characters take things too literally, they don't pick up on jokes, they don't understand social cues, they have one thing they're interested in and they talk about it forever, they're antisocial and don't know how to interact with other people, they're blunt and direct in their wording. It was just kind of jarring reading trying to read a book written in 2020 and seeing the main character be this aggressive to admittedly annoying, but very stereotypical autistic traits. And when they're not just showing traits of autism, they're so fucking stupid that it would be genuinely impossible that they survived this long. 

Oliver was a good love interest. I like his prioritizing of ethics (I may be biased because I also haven't eaten meat for about 8 years and I also hate Uber and love unions) and I love men that are a little mean. I'm 90% convinced that he's based on Mr. Darcy, but not Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. Specifically Mr. Darcy from Bridget Jones's Diary (I am fully aware that is a Pride and Prejudice retelling). They're both barristers, they both invite the main character to his parents' ruby wedding anniversary, they're both kind of mean. But I don't think that's bad it; it was just really funny watching Bridget Jones for the first time and picking up on it. HOWEVER,

I hated near the end when he all of a sudden turned around and decided he wasn't good enough for Luc and they only agreed to. It comes almost completely out of nowhere and, again, I just don't feel bad for him. I'm annoyed because I'm once again caught in a back and forth of characters being self deprecating and wallowing in self pity for plot reasons.

Aren't romcoms supposed to be.... comedic? I'm not saying it has to be constant jokes after jokes after jokes and I actually really enjoy romcoms that are a little more serious, but more of this book was just depressing and aggravating than funny or lighthearted. I hated most of the characters, I hated the protagonist and the narration, and I hated that

that got together for real in the last four pages of the book

. I can't believe I spent a full week reading this stupid fucking book.

the muppets did it better