This novel is a carnival of grotesqueries and I've never read anything like it. The story finds its center in a very original voice—that of a teenage Roberta Rohbeson. Roberta’s account of her experiences made me both gasp and laugh out loud several times, which rarely happens when I read. It is very unsettling, funny, gross, and beautiful all at once. It's a wild ride and you will feel everything along the way. The illustrations included are pitch perfect in conveying glimpses into Roberta’s grim, confusing world. This book is full of terrible people in terrible circumstances, but you will feel strangely compelled to understand all of them. It’s also very refreshing that, for once, we read about a truly unattractive girl and not the stereotypical “plain, but still pretty” image that is so prevalent in the coming of age genre. Everyone asks about her busted-up face and her dad calls her Clyde. But this is all nothing when compared to the true ugliness and horrors around her.

Has anyone even heard of this book? I feel like everyone should’ve suggested this to me a long time ago, so shame on you all. But now that it’s over, all I want to do is seek out every single thing Lynda Barry writes and illustrates. What a brain, what a treasure.