Graphic Novel Review: How to Baby: A No-Advice-Given Guide to Motherhood, with Drawings

Title: How to Baby
Author: Liana Finck
Genre: Graphic Novel; Humor
Publication Date: April 30, 2024
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group

A wryly personal and deeply relatable graphic memoir skewering the “traditional” parenting book to chronicle the absurdities, frustrations, and soaring joys of new parenthood--from the acclaimed New Yorker cartoonist and author

How do you know if you’re ready to have a baby? How do you know if you might be pregnant? And how do you deal with peeing all the time and being hungry all the time and fielding well-meaning but kind of insulting advice and finding a doula and being dropped by your old friends and learning why it’s called mom brain and not dad brain and the tyranny of the milestones you’re not meeting and negotiating boundaries with in-laws and realizing that your heart now exists outside of your chest and in the body of this tiny little being whose entire existence depends on the quality of your care?

To tackle these questions and many others, award-winning cartoonist and memoirist Liana Finck began illustrating her early years of motherhood, giving images and language to her insecurities, frustrations, and wild joy.

 Rating

*I received a copy of this book digitally for free and am leaving this review voluntarily*

Hello Fellow Readers,

Finck's book is not only extremely funny, but it's very relatable for me. In case you're wondering (Probably not) I am a mother to a toddler. That's what consumes my life right now. I didn't know that I needed to read (along with drawings) someone else to show me that they go through the same thing, it makes the loneliness of motherhood feel not so stifling. I really enjoyed the drawings in How to Baby, while not the most detailed it added to the ridiculousness and humor of it. 

Finck talks about all things baby, from conception to birth, to the insane pressure society puts on women to fit into the mom bubble while praising fathers for the bare minimum (or to simplify 'The Double Standard). It's all done in a very tongue-in-cheek way. This book will make you laugh and nod a long while constantly thinking 'That's exactly how it feels' 

Overall, a delightful book for mothers or future mothers (or people who maybe just want to laugh at motherhood?)

 

Graphic Novel Review: Let There Be Light by Liana Finck

Title: Let There be Light
Author: Liana Finck
Genre: Graphic Novel; Religion; Retelling
Publication Date: April 12, 2022
Publisher: Random House
 

In this ambitious and transcendent graphic novel, Liana Finck turns her keen eye to none other than the Old Testament, reimagining the story of Genesis with God as a woman, Abraham as a resident of New York City, and Rebekah as a robot, among many other delightful twists. In Finck's retelling, the millennia-old stories of Adam and Eve, Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob and Esau haunt the pages like familiar but partially forgotten nursery rhymes―transmuted by time but still deeply resonant. With her trademark insightfulness, wry humor, and supple, moving visual style, Finck accentuates the latent sweetness and timeless wisdom of the original text, infusing it with wit and whimsy while retaining every ounce of its spiritual heft.

Let There Be Light is proof that old stories can live forever, whether as ancient scripture or as a series of profound and enchanting cartoons. The Book of Genesis is about some of the most fundamental, eternally pertinent questions that we can ask: What does it mean to be human? What is the purpose of our lives? And how should we treat one another? The stories that attempt to answer these questions are an immediate link with the people who first told them. Unable to fathom the holiness and preciousness of that notion, or put it into words, Finck set out to depict it. The result is a true story of creation, rendered by one of our most innovative creators.

 

Rating

*A Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this. This is my honest and unbiased review*

 

Hello Fellow Readers,

 

I honestly did not know what to think of this book, because I have a bit of a hang up when it comes to the bible. This mostly comes from childhood which has to do with a religious family. Once I got over my hang ups though it was very interesting to see the book of Genesis told by someone else. 

Finck's art did take me a little while to get use to, but once I did I actually enjoyed it very much. The art complimented Finck's story very well. I love the alternative God that Finck explores, and the first two sections of the book was very interesting, but the third and last section sort of lost it's stride and I did not enjoy it as much.

Overall, a very interesting retelling about the Book of Genesis