devastating and weird. at times really hard to read and then suddenly you get these little moments of humanity and care and community that let you keep going. little tiny interactions are written with detail and care that I really loved. very beautiful and very dark. dystopic parts took me by surprise because when some of them first came up I earnestly thought it was just another real evil part of the incarceration system I hadn’t heard of before, until I realized details outpaced current real world tech. very short and hits very hard. 

might have to revisit a few parts again before returning this to the library - the writing is sometimes very quick and abstracted, & coupled with the fantastical powers doing unexpected things I could sometimes lose the thread of what was happening too easily. 

the library was so mad at me for having this book still so I will return to it another time lol

a very beautiful story about grieving people, places, community, “the way things were,” etc, that manages to not fall into irritating nostalgia (while still being nostalgic/dealing in nostalgia). very loving of Chinatown/Kensington & feels really actually rooted there. does this book track for people who haven’t lived in Toronto, & spent time in this area? it put such a lump in my throat so many times, both for the character’s story & the mention of so many places I recognized & know are gone now. the illustrations/comic section is lovely & a cool addition. also I like when a novel is written by a playwright and you can tell because they’ve somehow worked diagetic sound effects into the text, lol. 

weird and totally fascinating… alt history southern us fascist secession as the setup for alt history of contemporary (US) art. there are so many layers here, to the world & the characters. idk if I’ve read something like this before - really engrossing and dark and also imo very funny in a very understated way! like

“Brian Eno transitioned in this timeline”

is both very cool and extremely funny to me as a throwaway detail, as is

David Bowie calling out X for saying fascist sympathizer shit he said irl

… soo many implications to consider too - like

I’m literally just realizing that AIDS is never mentioned, & likely wasn’t a public health crisis at all in this world because of the drastic differences in politics happening here…!

really compelling characters; they are unknowable and mysterious in interesting real ways, they do things that make you wonder “why?” while feeling coherent & consistent. the (fictional & real) art discussed is actually interesting, & X feels like exactly the sort of artist you might have a complicated personal relationship with the work of. C is a good narrator - likeable but flawed, comes up short in ways you think about… and that you’re sure she’d think about too. I related to her kind of painfully at times tbh, yikes!!! she (& the author, in different ways) withhold answers very satisfyingly. slated for a reread sometime in the future & I’d love to read Catherine Lacey’s other stuff.

bonkers horny weirdo horror comic. beautiful gross scary art. read illicitly as a child and was soo darkly obsessed lol. glad to have revisited!!

good old fashioned pulpy early aughts indie crime sci fi comix. art really reminded me of Brian Lee O’Malley at times - very manga inspired while maintaining its own western comics style. fun vibe but nothing to really write home about

I wish all autobio comics were this good - Gabrielle Bell gets the dark humour of bad shit and the satisfaction of detailing the small things.

good characters who feel like real people who are unhappy and suck a little. great tense atmosphere. uses the medium soo well - lots of cool panel layouts and full page spreads and the first thought bubbles (!) I’ve seen in a while! I think some of this was lost on me bc I don’t really know much about Hollywood & movie guys so this will maybe get a reread with Wikipedia open for 1-2 sections

left at my mom’s house in ontario :-/

Boring excruciating thought it was cleverer than it really was