Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Book Review: "Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me" by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O'Connell

First of all, it's Laura Dean, not Laura Dern, lol. But Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me is a beautifully drawn graphic novel about how all-consuming relationships can be when you’re young.

Freddy doesn’t know what to do. Her girlfriend, Laura Dean, is cool and super-popular, and Freddy is decidedly not. And while things between them are great sometimes, a lot of the time Laura isn’t a good girlfriend. (Or that good of a person, really.) She routinely doesn’t show up for things, cancels plans on a whim, and has this penchant for kissing other girls.

Oh, and they keep breaking up. (Well, Laura keeps breaking up with her; Freddy just whines and complains to her friends.) But every time Laura decides she wants Freddy back, she comes running.

Freddy’s friends are tired of the whole thing, so she writes to a noted advice columnist. But in the meantime, she starts to realize that while she’s in a bad relationship, it doesn’t give her an excuse to be a bad friend and/or a bad person, both of which she’s been lately. And maybe Laura Dean is the cause of all of that.

Will she find the backbone to do the right thing? How will she know what the right thing is? Will Laura Dean wise up and treat her right? Will Freddy’s friends forgive her?

This was so enjoyable and poignant. It so captured the myopia many of us have had in the midst of an intense relationship, particularly when it’s with someone who might not treat you well. It also reflected that our friends may be fighting their own battles and we don’t even notice.

I’ve really been loving graphic novels over the last year or so, particularly LGBTQ-related ones. There’s so much talent out there!

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