TITLE: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do But You Could’ve Done Better
AUTHOR: Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell
GENRE: Nonfiction
FORMAT: Ebook
PAGES: 150
PUBLISHED: January 10th 2017
PUBLISHER: Animal Media Group
Amazon // Book Depository // Goodreads
Anonymous break up stories from men and women, old and young, serious and silly and the cartoons that inspired them. Author and artist Hilary Campbell turns the painful into the hilarious, validating emotions from forgotten middle school tragedies to relationships that ended only hours ago.
Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and cartoonist. Her films have won top prizes at Slamdance, SF IndieFest, and more. She was the co-illustrator of Jessica Bennett’s critically acclaimed Feminist Fight Club.Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, But You Could’ve Done Better is her first book of cartoons.
WHAT I THINK
I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review
This book started out so strong! I mean the dedication in the first page says: To that one dude, for being such an inspirational dick. And honestly I’m that kind of a horrible person that I tend to laugh for other people’s struggles. Damn, I even laugh for my own struggles. I know, that’s awful and I’m spiteful. But there I was, thinking that this book is the book that would make me laugh, it says it’s supposed to be hilarious.
But that was not the case. While I was reading this book I was furrowing my brows and grinning. Most of those stories had people who seemed to be more crazy than dicks! Here’s one example:
I needed to break up with my girlfriend. It was time: we were young, and it was just not going to last.
She kneed me in the balls. I fell to the ground. She stormed into her house. I got up and climbed into my car to drive home. She ran outside and jumped on the hood of my car, begging me not to leave. I got her off my car and drove home.
She started calling my cell phone nonstop, then called my parents’ landline, thinking I might be there. My father, whose voice is very similar to mine, answered. She thought he was me and threatened to commit suicide.
So yeah, none of these made me even smile. I shook my head, grinned and furrowed my brows so much it made my face and head hurt. It has been over 10 years since my last break up and that was bad one but I don’t think that this would have made me feel any better even if I had just broken up with someone. There are break ups that make me smile and then there are the ones that are better off being separated because the other one is crazy. But who am I to say this won’t help someone else who has just broken up?
HANNA READS 