Why Are You Like This? - Meg Adams - ★★★.¾

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AUTHOR-ILLUSTRATOR: Meg Adams

GENRE: Graphic Novel
RATING: 3.75 Stars.

In a Nutshell: Pretty funny, though not outstanding. Matches the vibe set by the title. Includes quite a few serious/thought-provoking panels as well.

Meg and Carson, a married couple, are a case of ‘Opposites attract’. This collection of comics explores their lives as a couple, with extroverted Meg being weird and vivacious, and introverted Carson trying his best to understand his wife. Adding further spice to their lives are their two dogs Boedy and Luna, who have their own personalities.

As a “couple comic”, I thought that these would be similar to the work of Catana Chetwynd, who also chronicles and sketches her life with her “opposite” John. However, while Catana’s books have a more millennial new-couple kind of feel, Meg’s work comes more like that of a couple who already know each other well and have already learnt to accept each other’s eccentricities.

Furthermore, the focus is not just on Meg and Carson as a couple, but also on them as individuals. Even the two dogs get their own comic strips. Thus the result is quite a mix of comics. There are a few themes across some pages such as Meg’s passion for Halloween, but most comics are quite random. This could work against readers who are looking for a unifying theme across the collection.

The comics themselves are quite funny. Meg’s sense of humour, as is the case with most comic novelists, comes from being able to laugh at herself, and she doesn’t miss an opportunity to pull her own leg. Many of the comics were quite relatable.

A few of the panels focussed on social problems such as body shaming and animals affected by fireworks and so on. These appeared randomly in the book and were in the same art style as the funny strips. While I did love these serious topics (sometimes, even more than the funny ones), I think they took away from the voice of the book. When we are in a humour zone, seeing something serious breaks the flow of the fun.

I did not earlier follow this artist on instagram so I was not aware of her art style. Sorry to say that the artwork left me with mixed feelings. The drippy-looking noses in about one-fourth of the panels were very distracting for me. (But my daughter, who read the book along with me, found them cute! So I guess this can be put down to individual taste.) At the same time, I loved how realistic the women were. No stick figures but curvy and proud of it.

All in all, this is a good one-time read. It didn’t stay in my mind after the last page but it offered enough fun while it lasted.

3.75 stars.

My thanks to Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for the DRC of “Why Are You Like This?”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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