Month: July 2018

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts are my own.

“From acclaimed artist Brett Wagner comes a book about the tall tales that parents tell their kids in the hopes of getting them to do something—eat, sleep, apologize to their sibling, or learn to do something the right way. Fun, heartfelt, and a little bit weird, Lies We Tell Our Kids exposes the not-so-great generational parenting tactic of lying to your child for the greater good!”

Okay so now that I’m thinking about it, I am definitely not the correct age demographic for this little comic book. I don’t see why I couldn’t have enjoyed it then, seeing as I’m an old soul.

I honestly thought this was so dumb. I try to not be too harsh but holy smokes. I really was annoyed while reading it. I get that he was trying to be silly but I don’t think lying to your kids to make your job easier is very kind at all. Obviously, tiny white lies are fine, such as pretending to like your child’s joke, but some of these were just stupid and cruel and could really scare your kid, which then causes more problems. Probably not the best way to go about things.

I, of course, am not a parent myself, and maybe this was supposed to be satire, expanding on the whole ‘lying to your kids’, but I just thought it was ridiculous. Nothing funny about lying. I’ll also add the art was kind of ugly.

Okay that’s enough ranting.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts are my own.

“Through campy pop culture rhymes and beautiful oil paintings, the narrator of our book guides you through a list of things you CAN grab while offering more poetic ways to refer to a woman’s genitalia than the word “pussy” that Trump so vulgarly used. As the narrator goes on, she lets you know more about her relatives (a reclusive aunt with a lazy eye) and her interests (Justin Bieber’s Instagram) while never losing sight of her mission to make the President as uncomfortable as possible. We think that the President, not to mention men in Hollywood, Wall Street, the news media and beyond, can benefit from reading our book. No matter who you are, or how dumb you are, you’ll be able to understand this book’s simple message: Hands off my pussy!”

Okay, great. Right up my alley. I hate Tr*mp and I love stuff that makes fun of the atrocious things he’s said.

Man, I wish this was better. I think one of the main things that turned me off is how vulgar it is? Which is like, Hannah, you watch Game of Thrones, what are you talking about, but hear me out. It’s not exactly the nicest visual to have your vagina referred to as a “crusty crustacean”, a “yogurt factory”, and a “meat locker.” GROSS. It made me sO uncomfortable and I can’t even tell you why. I just felt…violated, I guess? Wasn’t a good feeling, I know that.

Okay, you say, Hannah you should’ve expected something like this going into a book with pussy in the title. Which is a fair point. But what’s the point of reading if you don’t give things a chance, even if you aren’t sure if you’ll like them or not. I tried, and I didn’t like it, but I stepped out of my comfort zone, which is something.

This is a super short comic/graphic novel, but it got to a point where the repetition of “you can grab this political reference, but don’t grab my vag” was becoming boring. I also thought the art was super ugly.

But it could’ve been worse and I added a star, totaling 2, just because it’s against Tr*mp, lol.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts are my own.

“Sharky Malarkey follows the adventures of Bruce, a washed-up shark actor, and a colorful assortment of dysfunctional people, animals, and inanimate objects.

Bruce is equally outlandish and relatable—he’s vain but insecure; hotheaded but cowardly; craves attention but fears intimacy—his over-the-top antics are all too human.”

Oh. My. God. This collection, based on the webcomic, WAS SO GOOD. Holy shit, man. The title and cover had me pulled in immediately and I was hooked from page 1. I laughed out loud throughout, and my 13-year-old brother even loved it. I’ve been telling all my friends about how hilarious it is, and I can’t stop gushing!

The art is beautiful and silly, the humour is slightly political and hard-hitting, but done in a really classy way. I loved how real it was, while still being about an actor shark. I cannot wait to see what’s coming next from Megan Dong; whatever it is, I want to read it.

Sharky Malarkey comes out September 18^th, 2018, and I highly recommend you preorder or pick up a copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts are my own.

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do is a collection of anonymous break-up stories, accompanied by cute cartoons.

It’s a fairly short graphic novel, so I suppose it could be classified as a comic book. I thought some of the stories were funny, and I really liked the drawings to go along with them, but the slut-shaming and fat-shaming didn’t sit well with me at all. I also didn’t find this as funny as it was marketed to be. I’m finding it almost difficult to write this review because my feeling are so “meh” about it. There were definitely a few of them that made me smile but all in all, I didn’t love it and I didn’t hate it. Just meh. I wouldn’t recommend it though; some of the stories were rather frustrating, sad, and downright mean.

Hello everyone!

June was my best reading month so far, clocking in at 11 books total – 7 graphic novels, 1 middle-grade, and 3 novels.

The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West. I LOVE Kasie West so I wasn’t surprised when I got completely obsessed with this story and the characters. Definitely recommend.

Save the Date by Morgan Matson. I really, really wanted to love this book but it was just a major snore-fest. I received an eARC of this book. Review here.

Lone Star Unicorn by Sloane Meyers. I really only read this to fulfill Book Battle criteria. Better than expected.

Riverdale volume one. Read this for Book Battle too. About as good as the TV show so…not great.

Sink or Swim (Whatever After #3) by Sarah Mlynowski. I really love this MG series but I found this one a bit less exciting than the others. Still a good read though!

The Stereotypical Freaks by Howard Shapiro. I received a digital copy of this book to review (it was released in 2012 but they want more reviews). I enjoyed it but I found the dialogue to be super irritating and juvenile. Review here.

Breaking Up is Hard to Do…But You Could’ve Done Better by Hilary Campbell. This was also a digital copy for review and I quite enjoyed it. I found myself chuckling at bits and feeling sad by other parts. I almost gave it 4 stars but I feel like there were problematic pieces that I couldn’t get past.

Sharky Malarkey by Megan Nicole Dong. I LOVED THIS GRAPHIC NOVEL SO MUCH. I want everyone to read it. I laughed so much throughout. There were real, relevant messages in with the hilarious drawings, and I thought it was beautifully done. (I received an eARC and I highly recommend everyone buy it when it comes out.)

Please Don’t Grab My P*ssy by Julie Young, Matt Harkins, and Laura Collins. I’m down for anything that has to do with what a disgusting person Tr*mp is, but this was disappointing. I thought it was boring and didn’t make me laugh or change my life in any way. But it was hella short, so whateves. Good boost for the GoodReads challenge. (I received an eARC.)

Lies we Tell our Kids by Brett Wagner. I…didn’t have any expectations but I was still somehow disappointed? I just thought this was highkey problematic and kind of gross. (I received a digital copy for review.)

Sister BFFs by Philippa Rice. I received an eARC of this and I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it. I was underwhelmed and pretty annoyed at the amount of bickering between the sisters. I guess sibling rivalry is funny to some people, but it’s definitely not my kind of comedy.

 

Total books read: 11

Page count: 2,065

Stars: 33/55