I wasn’t planning to read this after the disappointment with I Am Not Okay With This, but I got a notification that my library hold was ready, and so I decided to make the library’s hold retrieval worth it. This ended up being slightly less disappointing. Yes, the show is still much preferable to the comic, but the comic has its own… not exactly charm, but draw, maybe. For one, the hardcover edition is just nice. And it’s a short read, as I read it on two bus rides over the course of an hour. Like the other novel, this one is dark and grim and veers extremely towards the nihilistic side of being a teenager. The protagonists, James and Alyssa, are both extremely broken individuals with not much to live for, except each other—and even this relationship is built on a gossamer web of lies.

I am biased from the show, but the show version of the characters will always be superior to me. Still, the comic versions weren’t bad either—their feelings, or lack thereof, were displayed quite clearly on the page. As before, the art style is nothing to win awards, but its simplicity makes the dark and disturbing scenes that much harsher to behold. I wasn’t a huge fan of the alternating perspectives; here, it isn’t always clear whose perspective it is, and sometimes after reading the section through, I still wasn’t sure. Because of its length, we don’t get an extended time to see Alyssa and James grow into their relationship, so some of the resolution feels a bit accelerated.

I did enjoy that the comic gives a somewhat different focus than the show, which ends up taking a kind of mystery/chase route. The difference between setting in the US and in the UK was also interesting, as I feel the comic depicts more of that working class/“white trash” subsection of America, which the show obviously doesn’t have (though it involves the class angle from another lens). This also has that plot element, but the comic makes sure to keep the spotlight on Alyssa and James as characters, as well as their emotional struggles. Their relationship and understanding of it is key to the whole thing, and I was glad to see that come through strongly in the comic as well. My takeaway from this one is that being a teenager sucks (of course), but it sucks slightly less if you have someone who gets you… and even then, it could be a sociopath.

Interestingly, this comic was first serialized as a mini-comic—I wonder if the original formatting suits this style better than reading it once through as a collection in hardcover.