Blog Archives

Website

Tender

Here I was, all set to rave about this as an absolutely stellar debut graphic novel (which it very much is, don’t get me wrong) only to discover that I’d reviewed one of her minis 15 years ago (The Legend of Johnny Rocker, and hey, at least this gave me the opportunity to clean up the text and the link). So it’s not like she’s brand new to comics, it’s just that this is her first hefty comic book. Yes, that’s my preferred term for graphic novels, and no, of course it never caught on. Yeesh, I’m rambling, and if any readers are wondering, yes, this is indeed why I don’t usually post reviews after a couple of drinks. But I just finished this, and I can’t put it onto my bookshelf without getting some thoughts out. This will be tricky to talk about without giving anything away, so be warned: I’ll try my best, but I unreservedly recommend it, even though you’re pretty much guaranteed to be disturbed by it. This is the story of a young woman (Carolanne) who had a crush on a guy at work and dreamed of a perfect life. Beth chose a fascinating structure for the book, starting with the ending (the tone changes completely once you’ve finished and know what’s happening in those opening images), followed by her successful relationship that preceded it, followed by her pregnancy and her taking time off of work. All relatively normal so far, even benign at times, outside of a dream(?) sequence that hints at the horrors to come. The flashbacks continue, as we see Carolanne in the utter mundanity of her life before she landed what she thought of as her dream boyfriend and eventual husband. I’m glossing over this quickly, because this is going to be on all kinds of “best of” lists by the end of the year and you’re all going to read it anyway. Right? Anyway, we eventually end up back in the happy stage of the relationship, with her pregnant and taking maternity leave from work, before something absolutely devastating happens. Is that a bad place to stop telling you what happens next? Oh well, that’s all the specifics you’re getting out of me. What happens from there was something that could have gone predictably in a number of ways under lesser hands, but there were all kinds of surprises all the way through the end, and anybody trying to predict things would have at best only guessed at the level of disintegration of her life, friends, and self. This is terrifying, deeply disturbing stuff, and I can’t wait to see what Beth does next. $19.99