Adulthood Is a Gift! - Sarah Andersen - ★★★★.½

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AUTHOR: Sarah Andersen
SERIES: Sarah's Scribbles, #5
GENRE: Sequential Art Novel
PUBLICATION DATE: October 1, 2024
RATING: 4.5 stars.


In a Nutshell: The fifth graphic novel in the Sarah's Scribbles series. Standalone. Hilarious. Much more relatable to me as this is about thirty-plus-aged adult introverts rather than younger adults. Half the book contains comic strips and half contains her journey as an artist. Recommended.


Whether you know the artist Sarah Andersen or not, you might have seen at least one of her comics somewhere on the internet. Many of her comic strips have been turned into memes. And as she often writes about topics that are relatable, the memes too end up hitting the right spot between factual and funny.

Each book in her Sarah's Scribbles series contains a collection of her comic strips based on some dominant theme. Of course, the comics only partly cater to the main theme as they also cover some funny universal truths. This time around, the theme is the facts of adulthood. As you can guess, it's a bittersweet book. 😆

The first half of the book contains comic strips, not just talking about adulting issues but also covering her usual topics: dogs vs cats, disagreements between body organs, introversion vs extroversion, and a relatively new theme: millennial vs. Gen Z. For the last one, I truly appreciate how she doesn’t poke fun at Gen Z. Rather, she brilliantly documents how our millennial generation is sandwiched between those who came before and those who came after us, with both those sets looking at us as the weird ones. 😅

The second half of the book changes direction. This book marks ten years of Sarah's Scribbles, so the artist takes us down memory lane, walking us through her sketching process, her initial comics, and her approach towards Sarah’s Scribbles over the years. I didn't expect this content to last for half the book, but I’m glad it did. It was so good to read! The entire writeup is heartfelt, helpful, and hopeful.

While I have enjoyed almost all the books of this series, I think this is my favourite because she finally spoke to my age. Many of the comics are so grounded in reality that they felt like a slice of my life rather than the artist’s.

Funnily, the first book in this series is titled "Adulthood is a Myth." Life seems to have come a full circle for the author as her latest title has turned adulthood into a "gift". What do you think? Is adulthood a myth or a gift? Or something else altogether? 🤔

Definitely recommended to fans of the genre, and also to those looking for a hilarious set of realistic comics.

This was a library read.

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