Anyone helping the cause of mental ilness to be more understood is admirable. This cause touch me very much, there`s so much people suffering and this graphic novel is a great way of making people more sensitive about a subject they don't understand.

This book is very important for people who struggle with literally everything this book stands for. Not only does it explain things that people with these issues can not speak but it also gives you a little humor to get through the rough times. This books helped me to understand that it's not bad to have the feelings you have, you just have to understand them. Understand how to deal with them and do so with a little humor. One behalf over everyone like me, thank you.

Funny, sad, honest, and all too often, stunningly relatable - Elliot's comics and commentary offer sharp and frank insights into a life with mental illness. In a wonderful combination of lighthearted and very serious observation, Elliot brings the reader on a journey and offers an underlying message of acceptance - in addition to providing several laugh out loud opportunities that will draw the reader in with relative ease. In fact, it's the author's willingness to share such open and personal reflections that endears the reader to her story, and perhaps even helps them to heal as well. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

I went into this expecting a light, funny graphic novel, and was surprised when I found a very real account of the struggles of depression. Ruby meets the reality of mental health head on and doesn't sugarcoat anything. She has a talent for finding the comedy in things and the book is scattered with such accurate portrayals of life experiences that I found myself chuckling while feeling sad at the same time.

I would recommend this book as a great resource for mental health. It is full of truths and deals with heavy subjects but you leave with the knowledge that it's all absolutely fine. Sort of.

Dry, witty, raw, honest and hilarious!
Ruby Elliot is a talented artist and observer of all the absurdities of life. Totally relatable and comforting that day-to-day problems which you can think you're crazy for not being able to handle are difficult for lots of people. Encourages a sense of community and normality, this book actually helps me to feel normal.
Lots and lots of respect for Ruby.

I absolutely loved this book! I'm just so thankful that this book exists, thank you Ruby Elliot!

The drawings were so funny and so relatable! I think I've come across a few bits of Ruby's art on Tumblr but I never really knew who she was until I read this. She gives such an accurate representation of what's it like to live with a mental illness, bad self-esteem, bad body image issues, a bad relationship with food (she had bulimia, I do not but still could relate to what she said) and she also explains how she overcame her issues. When I read books, I highlight things that resonate with me in some way and I pretty much highlighted the entirety of this book! Plus she's absolutely hilarious, she puts things in hilarious terms, this book is laugh-out-loud funny!

I would 100% recommend this. It's brilliant. I would read more by Ruby Elliot in a heartbeat!

*I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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"If I don't feel real then why would I bother feeding myself as if I were?"

"But this was different; this was as if an actual steamroller driven by a crazy grinning idiot had trundled through the door and flattened my entire life into a sad pancake of nothingness."

"No one wants to be permanently on the edge of bawling because their reality is one of life being utterly futile and pointless."

"Then there's neglecting to shower or eat or go to bed before 5 a.m. because you can't quite bring yourself to look after you properly even though you know it's what is good for you."

"So actually, scraping yourself up off the floor and asking for some assistance even when every inch of your brain is screaming at you to lie there alone in your pile of brain melt is BLOODY HARD and the acts of someone who is brave."

"My brain is wired to run on tangents and "what if's," and has a horrible habit of taking something small and snowballing it around the insides of my skull until it's twelve times its original size."

"Whenever I meet someone with a strong personality I balk, because working out what I am is hard. A combination of shit self-esteem and adolescence entirely subsumed by illness left me spat out feeling like an unfathomable question mark of a person in a world full of self-assured humans who appeared to know exactly what they were doing. It's been painstaking trying to slowly escape enough bits of me back together and build new ones that I can use to anchor and contextualize myself and present to the outside world as being Mine. I've got a few, and relatively speaking I feel more of a Person than I used to, but that doesn't stop the emptiness from lingering like a clingy unwanted bastard that it is, poking holes in my certainty from time to time with its jabby little fingers and making me feel like a sad nubbin of Swiss cheese."

"What happened to me from quite a young age, and certainly as I got older is that my brain decided to use my body as the focal point from which all my value as a person had to be measured."

"...my procrastination and avoidance is not often borne out of laziness or being a useless bastard; it's the result of over-whelming fear and very low self-esteem."

4 helms

Please follow me on my blog :) Review originally posted on Vellum Voyages (www.vellumvoyages.com)

Randomly requested this when I got trigger happy on Netgalley and what an eye opener to mental illness this was! Such an honest, darkly funny look at the everyday ups and down a person with mental illness may go through and Ruby portrays it simply yet effectively. Don't let the funnies and simple drawings fool you, as there is a highly educational and effective message also conveyed.

I'm grateful to have had a chance to have an insight into her life and be a smidgen closer to understanding the struggles she has had to face through her daily life while battling her various issues of body image, anxiety, bulimia etc. This definitely is not an easy road and thank you again, Ruby, for sharing some of your experiences with us and allowing us to be a part of your life.

*Thank-you Ruby Elliot, Netgalley & Andrews McMeel Publishing for the ARC.

Ruby Elliot writes and draws about her own experiences with depression, eating disorder, self harm that has a perfect mix of seriousness and humour. Ruby is so open and honest about her experiences. I laughed out loud several times reading this. If you liked Hyperbole and a Half, then you'll enjoy this book.

If you know someone who is depressed and you simply cannot understand them, this is the book for you. The author shows through words and very simplistic drawings, what you feel like when you are depressed. Although, seeing how she really feels might frustrate people who have never been depressed. But please know, we know our thoughts aren't rational- often times, that doesn't help stop thinking them. No one really wants to feel like they are horrible and no one likes them.

For me, it was a bit too close to home.

This was a really enjoyable book dealing with a serious subject. No, I do not suffer from anxiety myself but do have close friends that do. This book described mental anxiety pretty much the same way as my friends, but with the added benefit of drawings. For someone with anxiety the book is great as a way of knowing that you aren't alone and that there is nothing wrong with you. For people who aren't suffering from anxiety (like myself) this is a great book to get some insight into what people with anxiety or other mental disorders are dealing with every single day.

10/10, an amazing read!

Badly drawn, not at all engaging, boring, terrible comics.

I’m familiar with Ruby through her tumblr. Her quick sketches are funny and relatable and get lots of attention. This wasn’t necessarily marketed as a self-help book, but I absolutely love the way Ruby chose to write this. Yes, there are jokes and humor. Yes, there are relatable and silly comics. But the tone of this book is not just about acknowledging and laughing at depression and pain. She writes chapters within these comics to explain her own journey with depression, self-harm, therapy, bipolar disorder, and the way she talks about her life is so open and honest that it’s inspiring.

This book at first glance looks like a few other “quirky depression comics” out there, but I honestly enjoyed the writing more than the comic story lines. Don’t get me wrong, I still want a lot of these comics as magnets on my fridge.

Filled with Elliot's slice of life illustrations and surprising insights, It's All Absolutely Fine gives a humorous but honest portrayal on mental health and life in general. This book comes more from the experience of mental illness rather than advice on it, and I'm sure many people will empathise with this. It covers depression, bipolar disorder, body image, eating disorders, anxiety and self-esteem from the author's POV and anyone can easily identify with her as she describes not just mental health but problems everybody faces in life, especially when they feel down. I can definitely see the humor and the accuracy in the drawings but would have liked to see more worded responses from Elliot. I did feel that the book ran a little long with all the illustrations and some of them could have been more relevant. It's honestly a little depressing as well, but I think that's the whole point, what with it being honest and all. It does end off with a positive note though and I'm glad Elliot has found help and is in a better place than she used to be.