A raw, refreshing, heartbreaking, sweet, touching, and beautiful story about teenage relationships, and it is queer AF. Seriously, it is one of the best LBGTQ graphic novels ever made in how effortlessly it normalises queer people and relationships, as it is normal. It is life. Nearly everyone is queer here.
I'm heterosexual and I had no trouble relating to the characters and the events in this coming-of-age narrative. Everybody has had their heart broken, and anybody can have it break time and time again, especially in their messy, hormonal adolescence. Anybody can be stuck in a toxic relationship and cycle, unable to leave it on their own.
Being deeply in love and being in a healthy kinship are not the same thing. 'Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me' showcases this phenomenally.
Seventeen-year-old wallflower Frederica "Freddy" Riley collects and makes her own little stuffed animals and bric-a-brac, works at a proud lesbian-themed café called Gertrude's, is best friends with the bespectacled and equally shy tabletop game player Doodle, and she is the girlfriend of Laura Dean, a very popular and very confident and sporty tomboy in her high school. Freddy would consider herself very lucky indeed.
Except that Laura is also very unreliable, and she keeps breaking up with and cheating on Freddy. Thus adding to her anxiety and self-esteem issues. But Freddy always ends up back together with Laura, much to the confusion, concern and annoyance of her friends.
It could be that Laura is into a polygamous relationship, with Freddy as her number one girl (taken for granted), and she should be more open-minded about it, even though Laura has never explicitly stated she wanted polygamy. After all, hasn't the gay community fought since for ever to have different kinds of relationships, as heterosexuals are socially allowed to have? And shouldn't the LBGTQ community be allowed to fuck up in life too, without judgement and assumption?
Or it could be that the problem lies with Laura Dean being a bad girlfriend, and Freddy is in a toxic, abusive relationship which she finds very difficult to navigate and escape from, confused about how these things work as she is.
Freddy's obsession with Laura is effecting her friendships as well, including her one with Doodle, who needs her now more than ever...
'Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me' is a graphic novel with a protagonist with a heavy heart. That bleeds into every gorgeous panel in black, white, and pink; capturing what it's like to be a teenager in love, and how it might effect themselves and others around them, darn near perfectly.
The book features many modern day issues, each handled so wonderfully I wanted to cry. They include abuse, teenage alcoholism, teenage depression and anxiety, married life (this concerns Freddy's parents -how adorable and supportive they are!), friendship (ever creeping and made more apparent and prominent as the story progresses), friendships possibly evolving into something more, and *spoiler* abortion *spoiler end*. Any homophobic behaviour is either implied or placed infrequently in dialogue on the sidelines.
The colour scheme could be emblematic of the Pride Flag, in part.
Fantastic diversity rep can't be overstated. Freddy is mixed-race, half-Asian/half-Caucasian; her friends Eric and Buddy, who are also a couple, are POC; as are her café coworkers; and her new friend Vi and her own sapphic, POC nightclub pals (one of whom, Mo, is implied to be nonbinary). The advice column that Freddy emails to throughout the comic, to an agony aunt Anna Vice, specifically helps queer people. Plus, not everyone is thin.
I can't recommend 'Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me' enough. It is life-reflecting and life-affirming. Along with everything else, the dialogue is also achingly realistic. It is helpful not only to teenagers but to anyone of any age, for love affects us unexpectedly and inadvertently in multifarious states no matter how mature we get. It is strong, hopeful and beautiful; it shouldn't have to be called life-changing, important or brave, yet it is, in the society and reality that we are living in.
Remember, in love, wanting/craving/addiction, and needing, are different. Which love hurts you and makes you feel bad about yourself, and which love makes you feel happy, secure, whole, equal and respected? Which is better for you?
Bless you, Mariko Tamaki. You are a blazing, shooting star on the horizon in the comics industry.
Final Score: 5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment