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Miniature Monday #7

Every Monday, I’ll be posting a small batch of mini-reviews for graphic novels, comics, poetry collections, short stories, and other miscellaneous items that may be too short for a full-length review post. This week, I’ll be reviewing one poetry collection, two graphic novels, and one illustrated nonfiction title. Depression & Other Magic Tricks – Sabrina Benaim “i held hands with my sadness, sang it songs in the shower, fed it lunch, got it drunk & put it to bed early.”...

The Roanoke Girls – Amy Engel

Spoiler-free review! “Roanoke girls never last long around here. In the end, we either run or we die.” I don’t have a lot to say about The Roanoke Girls, because I think this is one of those stories where it’s best if you go in knowing as little in advance as possible. When I picked this title up, all I knew was that it was an adult mystery fic, and that it involved a woman going back home to investigate her...

What I Lost — Alexandra Ballard

Elizabeth is proud of the forty pounds she's lost; after a lifetime of seeking her figure-obsessed mother's approval and failing to find it, she feels like she's finally what her mother has always wanted - even if she's not what her ex-boyfriend wants anymore. The ride is only beginning, when Elizabeth is packed up and sent off to a treatment center for girls with eating disorders. At the center, she must learn to come to terms with not only her own ghosts, but those of her beloved mother, as well. Things aren't all bad, though - Elizabeth finds new friends, comfort in her therapist, and most unexpected of all, packages from a secret admirer.

Paperweight — Meg Haston

When Stevie is admitted against her will to a rehab for her eating disorder, she sees it as nothing more than a temporary setback. Her loving father and the hippie shrink, with all of their good intentions, aren't enough to take away the fact that there are only 27 days left until the anniversary of Stevie's older brother's death. There are only 27 days left until the anniversary of the night she killed him.

There are only 27 days left until she repays that debt with her own life.

All the Bright Places — Jennifer Niven

When Finch and Violet meet one another on the ledge of their school's bell tower, it's a mystery who saves who; though Finch talks Violet down, she can't be seen as "the girl who almost jumped after her sister died", so Finch takes the fall, and Violet is a hero. It doesn't matter to Finch, though; he's met the first person he can relate to in a long time, and now he's determined not to let her go. A school project brings them together: a task to wander their home state of Indiana, to find all of its Hoosier Wonders. As Violet begins to heal, though, Finch finds himself torn between the joy of puppy love, or the ache of the storm inside his own head.