Coco Moodysson

So this book really wants you to think it's fantasy and then it's like "SIIIIKE I wasn't, I'm about depression"! I guess some books or horror movies could pull that of, but this isn't one of them.

Honestly the first 30 pages or so I really thought this was gonna be good, there was some sort of darkness lurking around, but then nothing creative was done with that at all. The main character was EXTREMELY unlikeable and rude, and I don't think any of the supporting characters were any better.

Worst of all are the adults, they're all genuinely terrible people. And irresponsible, in every way. I know it's meant to be written from the POV of a 14-yo but at the same time, what the fuck?

Also the dog just disappeared. What the fuck. It just left. I guess that was a good decision for it but fucking still.… (mere)

This autobiographical graphic novel was just turned into a film which seems rather adorable from it’s trailers, so I picked it up on a whim at the library. It was a quick read, and well worth it. It’s set in 1982, when a trio of girls on the threshold to their teens decide to start a band. Coco, Klara and Matilda are discovering punk just as the first Swedish wave is ebbing out. All the hip kids are moving on and they have a distinct feeling of being born too late. Their parents are losing their seventies leftist ideals and start to embrace the slick, egotistical eighties. And as if that wasn’t enough the crappy macho blues band are constantly stealing their rehearsal times at the young centre (where every grown-up is wearing hysterically peppy t-shirts saying stuff like “KIDS ARE AWESOME”), and both Klara and Coco are falling for the last punk boy in town and making out with him behind the other’s back.

This was a fun, quick read. Didn’t much like the art, and I’m not sure how much of it will linger, but especially for someone who (although five years younger) grew up loving Swedish punk bands that had long since disbanded, there is also a fair bit of nostalgic pleasure to get here.… (mere)