Review: Sisters by Raina Telgemeier

Sisters by Raina Telgemeier

Series: Smile, #2
Release Date: August 26^th 2014
Publisher:  Scholastic
Format: eArc
Genre: Middle Grade – Graphic Novel, Memoir
Source: NetGalley
Author: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon | The Book Depository
Add it: Goodreads

The companion to Raina Telgemeier's #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling and Eisner Award-winning graphic memoir, SMILE.

Raina can't wait to be a big sister. But once Amara is born, things aren't quite how she expected them to be. Amara is cute, but she's also a cranky, grouchy baby, and mostly prefers to play by herself. Their relationship doesn't improve much over the years, but when a baby brother enters the picture and later, something doesn't seem right between their parents, they realize they must figure out how to get along. They are sisters, after all.

Raina uses her signature humor and charm in both present-day narrative and perfectly placed flashbacks to tell the story of her relationship with her sister, which unfolds during the course of a road trip from their home in San Francisco to a family reunion in Colorado.

*This book was provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Sisters is a companion novel to her first memoir Smile. Sisters follows Raina, her mother, sister, and brother on a road trip from San Francisco to Colorado for a family reunion. All Raina wanted was a sister to play with so when her parents tell her that they are having a baby that’s all she can think of. She is a little disappointed when she sees a baby come home that she can’t play with yet. Once her sister Amara is old enough to play she figures out that she is very cranky and prefers to play by herself. This pretty much gets worse over the years.

I feel bad for Raina. Her sister isn’t just cranky, she is just plain mean. Now I have a little sister so I know how they can be and this is just a glimpse into Raina’s childhood but her sister seemed to do stuff all the time just to be mean to Raina. This includes getting a snake all because her sister doesn’t like them, and then accidently letting loose in the van. The road trip to Colorado is the perfect place it insert some flashbacks of Raina’s childhood and to show how their family acts now. Once they get to Colorado Raina realizes how much everyone has changed since the last time she has seen everyone. She feels totally left out. They also realize that something might be wrong with their parents relationship and that really slaps them with reality and they realize that they must figure out how to get along.

I fell in love with Raina’s artwork and story in Smile and I knew I had to get my hands on sisters as soon as I was able. Thankfully I was granted access from NetGalley! Raina has made her way to my auto buy list. I can’t wait to pick up more books by her and I will definitely be on the lookout for the Smile boxset to add to my bookshelves.

Review: Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me by Ellen Forney (28 Days of Reviews #5)

Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me by Ellen Forney

Release Date: November 6th 2012
Publisher: Gotham
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Genre: Adult - Non Fiction, Graphic Novel, Mental Health
Source: My Collection
Author: Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon | The Book Depository
Add it: Goodreads

Cartoonist Ellen Forney explores the relationship between “crazy” and “creative” in this graphic memoir of her bipolar disorder, woven with stories of famous bipolar artists and writers.

Shortly before her thirtieth birthday, Forney was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Flagrantly manic and terrified that medications would cause her to lose creativity, she began a years-long struggle to find mental stability while retaining her passions and creativity.

Searching to make sense of the popular concept of the crazy artist, she finds inspiration from the lives and work of other artists and writers who suffered from mood disorders, including Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O’Keeffe, William Styron, and Sylvia Plath. She also researches the clinical aspects of bipolar disorder, including the strengths and limitations of various treatments and medications, and what studies tell us about the conundrum of attempting to “cure” an otherwise brilliant mind.

Darkly funny and intensely personal, Forney’s memoir provides a visceral glimpse into the effects of a mood disorder on an artist’s work, as she shares her own story through bold black-and-white images and evocative prose.

 This is a graphic memoir written my Ellen Forney about her life with bipolar disorder. In this book she show her ups and downs, her troubles with finding the right prescriptions, and her fear of losing her creativity. This book really shows what life is like for a person with bipolar disorder. The book is very thorough with what she is feeling. There are some funny parts, sad parts, and just really all over the place. It is a really really good book. This is coming from a person that doesn’t read memoirs.

This is definitely an adult novel so keep that in mind. There are a few different scenes with drug use, nudity, and just sex talk in general. Other than that it mostly just shows how her emotions are all over the place. She has the banter between her and her psychologist, who isn’t very friendly by the way, and her obsession with crazy artists. Ellen is terrified that if she takes medication that she will no longer be creative. It takes her a long time to figure out that she can still be an artist while taking meds.

The artwork was my favorite part in the entire book. It is fantastic. Because there are a lot of up and down periods the drawing is all over the place at some times. There are some graphics that take up two entire pages. There are also pages that look like pages torn out of her journal or sketchbooks of drawings that she has done. It is just simple black and white throughout but I think that is perfect for the book.

I really recommend picking this book up for multiple reasons. If you are suffering from bipolar disorder or something similar then I think this would be a good motivational read for you to see that everything can work out in the end. If you are into memoirs then I can’t recommend this one enough. Also, just if you like graphic novels in general. I totally bought this book based on the cover and I am super glad that I did.

My Rating: