Literally Me is a bizarre and sharp observational collection of darkly comic illustrated essays satirizing modern female identity. However, I was thrown for a loop going into this because I came expecting something along the lines of How to be Alive by Tara Booth, meaning a book full of illustrations with little to no text. So you can only imagine my confusion when I opened up the first essay, thinking it was nonfiction, parodying the unrealistic expectations brides tend to set for their big day, only to read this: “I would recommend doing a colonic an hour before walking down the aisle. I did, and my stomach was so flat it was basically concave.”
In the stories following, we have comically wild bits and bobs, including:
-The beauty routine of a deranged bride who aspires to be “truly without flaws” on her wedding day.
-What happens when Kylie Jenner has an existential crisis and can no longer “step out.”
-A journey to Coachella by the Four Horsewomen of the Apocalypse.
-The true dating confessions of a fembot.
-The terrifying description of Alice Staunch’s book How to Be a Perfect Feminist.
-The diary of Fiddle Ficus, a tree that lives inside a CÉLINE store, and much more.
Full disclosure: I thought I would get accustomed over time to the weird nature behind each story, but I never really did with my reading experience… So in the end, I just went ahead and let myself focus on solely soaking in the bold illustrations in Literally Me.
Same, but with those damned off the shoulder tops.
ARC kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication: October 24th, 2017
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