Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me

I loved the art, I loved the story, I loved the realism of teen heartbreak, and I loved the queerness. Highly recommend!

A girl falls in love, but the relationship is not great for her. She's stuck in this circle of getting back together and breaking up because Laura has found something else she's interested in for a while. With support from her friends she gets some advise, later she has experiences in her life that give her perspective. With her going with Laura whenever Laura wants, she realizes she's not that great of a girlfriend and makes her into a worse friend.

Really great story, pretty much true to life in the way of not everyone will receive what you might think of as justice or proper follow ups. Laura Dean, upset at being rejected, later is still just as happy. Even though the father knew about Doodle's abortion, there seems to be no follow up? The DM, who was married, must have be older than her. Gross. Nothing with the police or reports filed at all. In the end, a lesson learned by our character ultimately makes a lasting impact for happiness.The color palette used in this book is great and well used. The art itself is also fantastic! My life goal is to be like that DM old lady fortune teller <3

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me is a beautiful graphic novel. The stunning art and use of color really drew me in and sucker-punched me with the story. Highly recommend this title to anyone interested in graphic novels and the quality content they can offer.

I think a lot of lgbtq+ fiction is lumped into two groups: joyful fluffy romance, and bleak hard-hitting stories about stigma and suffering. Obviously there is a need for both, and obviously the genre is more complex than that. Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me is a good example of this complexity.This graphic novel is about romance, but I wouldn't call it a romance. It's about dysfunction, but not to the extent of abuse or violence. It's a story about someone young and in love (Freddy) with someone flighty and selfish (Laura Dean), and how Freddy's attachment to Laura results in Freddy also being flighty and selfish. I found it oddly refreshing to read queer fiction with tense relationships but without stakes so high and consequences so horrifying. There were elements of the plot that didn't work for me, and I can see some not enjoying the book because they don't enjoy the characters. But I liked it, and I loved the artwork.The color scheme is both quaint and striking. The lines are crisp. It's detailed and precise but with swirling lines that give it whimsy. The facial expressions are clear, so a lot can be communicated wordlessly. I'd probably rate it 3 stars if I didn't like the artwork so much. This story wasn't life-changing, but it was visually stunning, and I think it does contribute something quiet but interesting to its genre. I liked it more than [b:Bloom 29225589 Bloom Kevin Panetta https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1528170930s/29225589.jpg 49462918], but less than [b:Check, Please! 37534577 Check, Please! #Hockey, Vol. 1 Ngozi Ukazu https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1524057162s/37534577.jpg 59136002] and [b:The Prince and the Dressmaker 34506912 The Prince and the Dressmaker Jen Wang https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1494400495s/34506912.jpg 46116413].