Book Title: Adulthood is a Myth
Author:     Sarah Andersen
Number of pages:  109

Synopsis:

This book is for the rest of us. These comics document the wasting of entire beautiful weekends on the internet, the unbearable agony of holding hands on the street with a gorgeous guy, dreaming all day of getting home and back into pajamas, and wondering when, exactly, this adulthood thing begins. In other words, the horrors and awkwardnesses of young modern life.

(re: Goodreads @ Adulthood is a Myth by Sarah Andersen)

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Should this book be picked up? the tl;dr review:

– A comic for the awkwardness in all of us…or if you just want a laugh
– While wholly relatable; some may be geared more to females
– See the sample images in review for a taste of comics

Initial Thoughts

I don’t know how I found myself to be reviewing this book but here we are.

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Afterthoughts:

Premise

This is a story for the awkward in all of us. Full stop. It chronicles the pockets of time that just happen through any given day — and as we walk through life — and pokes fun at it with a stick, and with candor and honesty. Satire, I guess you could say.

While I am a fan of the comics I see from time to time in passing, the theme of the comics in this story was definitely one I could both relate to but could see why my female friends could appreciate the “girl problems” aspects of the story more. A situation was sympathy versus empathy.

I don’t think anyone could come into this sequential art comic with the hopes of it being life changing. If it is, great. But, for me, it delivered what I was asking of it: kill time and be highly re-readable.

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Setting

Uh…things felt…realistic (?) All I can say is that most/all comics had enough substance to get the message across in drawing.

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Narration

Simplicity is usually best for comic humor; especially true when it’s grounded in real life shit.

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Characters

There is surely character development in this book (as it reflects our own selves for self-imposed guilty-tripping growth) but it’s very subtle. I call it a reflective situation of “lol shit, that’s so me” and then you wonder the times YOU do things as mentioned in the comic. So then, when you’re out and about and living your life, if a similar situation arises, maybe you’d be more inclined to take a diverging path. The other side could be greener, but perhaps not as well.

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Overall

Sarah Andersen’s Adulthood is a Myth might seem tenuous and unsubstantiated but when you actually give it some thought: a lot of us exhibit the same tendencies as Sarah’s Proxy as we follow along in each comic panel, laughing at the relatability of it all. At it’s core, there is some version of the truth that’s being drawn, and whether its humorous or not, I can at least appreciate that it’s someone’s awkwardness [if not wholly mine as well].

Cheers,
Joey

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