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.