Carol Tyler

graphic memoir (partly fictionalized/I'm guessing some details and names may have been changed) - 8th/9th grade Catholic girl's fandom of the Beatles in 1964-65 suburb outside of Chicago.

I read to page 148--more than halfway and probably another hour to go, but just couldn't bring myself to care. This is mostly for nostalgia, I guess--if you don't have any appreciation for that particular time, or for Catholic school, it is pretty dull since not a whole lot happens outside of Carols' obsessing, and her character is not that much fun to spend time with. It's also mostly text, as it's a reproduction of her handwritten journal from that time, though there are some drawings and (drawings of) scrapbook items--not really a "graphic" memoir, but sort of in that genre.… (mere)

I really need to start reading the back covers of graphic novels I scoop up at the library. If I did I would have known that instead of reflecting on Beatlemania in a general way, the author was literally adapting her 7th and 8th grade diary pages. Sure, the Beatles are front and center in her mind, but we are also subjected to every other boring ass thought that goes through a 13-year-old's head. Giant blocks of text and a slow, meandering progression toward the Beatles concert that serves as a finale make this a chore to read.

I also didn't like the order in which text blocks and full-page cartoons were placed. Frequently, the image came first, but made no sense until the following text block was read. Other times, the image came a couple pages after being mentioned in the text blocks. And basically, looking at the images just made me wish Tyler had delivered a full-on graphic novel instead of this tedious hybrid.

What did I like? Well, it was sort of fun reading through the Top 40 lists of pop singles that are included several times. I made a game of trying to see how many songs I could remember. And the red-inked recounting of a Beatles concert actually had some energy and sent the book out on a high note, even if it made for an abrupt ending that left all other plot lines dangling.

This is a hugely disappointing follow-up to Tyler's engaging [b:You'll Never Know: The Campaign to Understand My WWII Veteran Father: A Daughter's Memoir|25620790|You'll Never Know The Campaign to Understand My WWII Veteran Father A Daughter's Memoir|Carol Tyler|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1450616391s/25620790.jpg|45433187]. Please read that before you attempt this.

… (mere)