Rusty Brown (by Chris Ware)

This was part of my challenge to read 10 physical books this year - this one is a 700-page comic and quite unwieldy so it was taking up a lot of shelf space! 

Ware's comics are beautiful depictions of depressed, toxic masculinity and sad people with circumscribed lives, this time set in small-town Nebraska. Mostly reading this was tiresome and unlike with Building Stories, which I loved, it wore out is welcome with me.  I think my favorite part was the novel-within-a-novel called Seeing Eye Dogs of Mars which, yes, is depressing and about toxic masculinity (and you don't want to know what happens to the dogs) but was inventive.

Sounds like damning with faint praise, doesn't it? I appreciate the achievement of Rusty Brown but it's definitely one that I'm passing along to the next reader, and don't need to keep on my shelf.  (Also this was my 10th physical book of the year! Although only 6 have left my house, so I'll try to read a couple more before the year is out.)  

The Final Girl Support Group (by Grady Hendrix)

This was my pick for the "weird horror" category in the Read Harder Challenge. I honestly don't know if it qualifies as "weird" horror specifically, but I'm not super familiar with the genre.  But as soon as I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. (Well, I kind of could, because it put me in a very weird headspace, but it is for sure a page-turner.) 

The premise of this one is fun too - it's a world in which slasher movie serieses (series? seri?) are based on true stories of women who have been the "final girl" to survive a slasher spree. They are all takeoffs on real series, so the "Dream King" is Freddy Kreuger, and the "Panhandle Meathook" series is Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  The names are little Easter eggs too, and if even I (who does not enjoy slasher movies) picked up on them, I'm sure a horror fan would love it.

Anyway, the Final Girls are all in a support group, trying to process their trauma. Our narrator has become severely agoraphobic and paranoid, and it's fun to be inside her unreliable and extremely (justifiably) paranoid narration.  Of course, then someone starts coming after the Final Girls. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you, after all.

You'll probably know if this one is for you or not but, if it is, I highly recommend it! 

 

Flamer (by Mike Curato)

I read this graphic novel for the RHC task "read a banned book and complete a task on Book Riot’s How to Fight Book Bans guides."  I checked out the ALA list of most banned books last year to find the book, then donated to the Freedom to Read foundation for my activity. There are lots of amazing ways to help, especially during Banned Books Week, coming up in October.    

This graphic novel is semi-autobiographical, set in the summer of 1995 when a boy who grew up Catholic but doesn't quite fit in goes to Boy Scout camp, worries about what lies ahead in his first year of high school, and struggles with some confusing feelings for a friend.  A very quick read but very moving and reminded me of what it was like for my (Catholic, effeminate, turned out to be gay) best friend growing up and struggling with these same feelings in this era.  

An important book that deserves to be read.