Snotgirl

this is more of a 3.5 but goodreads continues to torment me with a lack of half star ratings

another supernatural millennial character piece from o'malley, trading video games and mushrooms for microblogging and fashion, and leaving the drawing to the talented leslie hung (weirdly: bryan o'malley doesn't draw the one comic of his where he could draw thousands of outfits???) the vibe is kind of the show "search party" meets frankie barnet's "gay for her", while doing enough different that it doesn't feel like a retread of either.

the social media stuff is good, but i wasn't really expecting it to be bad. it drags in a couple places for me, but it's thankfully unpreachy and doesn't let social media take over from the character work. lottie isn't the most likeable person, but she's likeable enough to root for. it doesn't hurt that she's surrounded by horrid people (all of whom i have met) and in the midst of a mystery with a body count (with a dramatic and necessary twist right at the end of the volume).

mickey quinn's colours are impeccable, and leslie hung's character art is similarly gorgeous. the backgrounds, though... i think the minimal backgrounds are a good idea and mostly work, but the backgrounds that are there are kinda... bad. and not intentionally so. still, there's a lot to enjoy here.

I've had Snotgirl recommended to me more times than I can count, and I love Image comics, so I was excited to have my hold come through at the library. I finished this graphic novel in an afternoon, and I feel really uncomfortable after reading it.

Volume 1 follows Lottie Person and her clique of fellow millennials who distract themselves from their own existential crises with fashion, blogs, apps, secretly hating each other, half-caf cold brew with almond milk and lavender syrup, allergies, trials for non-FDA approved allergy medication, and... murder? It's a really disjointed plotline with beautiful illustrations+ coloring, a lot of characters, but not a lot of backstory. But here's the thing: it's fucking mean.

When you're a guy, and you write satire that pokes fun at women and self-esteem, you have to toe a very, very fine line between good and thoughtful social commentary and some neckbeard-y "other girls" garbage. And I'd like to think that O'Malley intended to create the former, but to me, this graphic novel screamed "look at these millennial girls and their stupid cliques!! look at how vain they are, look at how obsessed they are with Instagram and their blogs and their image!! look at how they all secretly hate each other so let's hate them too!!" I wish O'Malley took the time to maybe satirize the society that's created this obsession with social media, instead of making fun of the individuals living within a society that tells them if they don't exist online, they don't exist at all.