Member Reviews
I follow Cassandra on Instagram and love her little comics. This is a collection of those about anything really. They are super relatable, I loved that every single page I could remember and exact moment that the same thing happened to me. Also, it was consistently hilarious and the art style was beautiful. My only complaints are that most of the comics I have seen before on her Instagram account and they are in a random order, they don't make a story all together, which is the point I guess but I wanted like a story/for it to make sense together.
I know the key word is "monetize – monetize – monetize" but can we have a moratorium on people dumping comics online with the aim to get a book deal, thus forcing their biggest fans to see everything a second time in order to find some new content, and thus forcing the rest of the world to wonder what the heck the fuss is about? Or can we at least have a moratorium on doing so for the great majority trying it (on) who don't have the quality and talent on offer here? For this was a real surprise, considering its origins.
There's a great talent on these pages – yes, the main character can look a little Nemi-eyed at times, but the quality in the illustration here is generally a heckalot better than expected. And it's not all 'look at me, I like duvet days' introspection, either. The wordless comics about the character's cleavage are guaranteed laughs, as are some regarding her on-going bad hair issues. This is someone whose worst nightmare is seeing a spider, and having it vanish while fetching her boyf to remove it, and whose will-power is such that she will take an age to crumble a bit of sushi in her chopsticks, rather than deign to ask for cutlery. She's small, she can seldom find clothes that fit, she's possibly too damned cute to get the sympathy some of this is requesting, but of all the examples of this kind of book – sparsely-worded, three-panel yucks in plotless formation – this is the one I would most happily revisit. Four and a half stars.
I swear I felt like these comics were written for or about me! Thick curly hair that has a life of its own? Yep! Nearly 30 and still loving Harry Potter? Absolutely. There are so many funny and relatable comics that you just feel seen. Check these out if you need a laugh! Thanks for the advanced copy NetGalley.
This was so cute! Would make a great gift for a female in their late 20s. So many of these had me laughing out loud. I thought it was really relatable, and a nice touch that it seemed like it was progressing in a timely order. Would recommend.
I've been following Cassandra Calin's Instagram account for a while now. Her comics are hilarious and relatable; besides, the art is really good so the stories are highly enjoyable.
With this book I expected to see comics that hadn't been published before; and even though there were some, I was expecting more. And I have to admit I felt kinda lost sometimes because the pages didn't have a title. When you see her comics on her social media accounts, she adds a caption to help you understand the context. However, in this book I found none and I can understand why some new readers are confused.
Overall, I still recommend this book. I'd love to see a full graphic novel by Cassandra in the future, but I still think this collection of comics are worth a read.
This was so delightful! Calin's comics are funny, relatable, and downright real. I will definitely be checking out any future work from her and following her on social media. Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read this title before its release date.
I absolutely love these short comic strips from everyday struggles from a girl with curly hair. Cassandra Callin does a fantastic job of showing everyday life in such a hilarious light, it's an uplifting read for all of us at home and serves as a motivation to find joy and something fun in the small moments of everyday life.
Thank you Netgalley for letting me see this book ahead of time
To the author: keep making more books illustrating your everyday life!
I loved this so much that I pre ordered the finished copy before I even completed the ARC.
The art style is so freaking cute and every comic is so relatable. They depict mostly mundane but incredibly relatable moments of the life of a young woman and her partner. I think everyone will be able to identify with at least something here regardless of gender identity. I want to hang pretty much every page on my wall and will be giving copies to many of my friends as gifts. I can definitely see this being one of those comic collections that I return to again and again for smiles and laughs.
Many thanks to Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I found this adorable book of autobiographical comics so utterly relatable. It was so enjoyable! Thank you for giving words (and beautiful illustrations) to experiences, big and small, and making others feel seen!
I know Cassandra from her tumblr and Instagram page. I love her works, her style and I think she is funny and easily show everyday problems. It illustrates well the life of youth adults, the lives of introverted people. I recognize myself in several pages.
I laughed out loud when I read this book. I really enjoyed it, it made my day!
This is such a fun, relatable, funny and really amazing book based on the depiction of the author's everyday life. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful and it makes me want to read and take in more works from this author. I've actually seen her drawing before on social media and I thought it was super relatable and by off chance, I saw this book here and I knew immediately that I had to read it. So glad that I love it as a whole too. Reading this book made me realise just how much I love to read comics/graphic novel that are simple yet still captivating just like this one.
Looking at the cover, I immediately recognized the author from some of the shorts online, so I was excited to see some new ones.
My honest rating is 3.5/5. While the style is cute and funny and some comics were relatable to me, it comes down to the fact the the author and I don't have enough in common, so some comics were a "oh, okay", instead of "oh, yes, yes, me too!". However, I'm sure that many people will find a lot of things they can relate to in the book, it's just down to how different all of us can be.
I would have liked the book to be a bit more structured - maybe a common theme for the full book or thematic chapters, as it felt a bit chaotic. Also, I sometimes felt that the 4 panels were just not enough for some situations and adding just 1 or 2 more would have made it a bit nicer.
Overall, fun and a nice read.
*Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a free digital copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.*
Thank you to Netgallery and the publisher for providing me for a digital arc for my honest review.
Soooo, happy I got a chance to read this comic. After reading the description I knew it was going to be something that I just had to have. I had never heard of the artist Cassandra Calin, before reading her comic " I Left the House Today!" However, after finishing her comic, I just had to look up her Instagram account. All of the illustrations were soooo relatable, especially in the age of Instagram when unrealistic beauty expectations are just a click away. If you have never heard of her, I say drop what you're doing and go look her up you won't regret it.
Jess <3
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I'm a massive fan of Cassandra Calin's online comics and her book is just as funny. A whole collection of her wit that I had never read. I loved it.
4 stars for this.
I laughed so much at the illustrations, there were so relatable and too cute.
I could relate to it so well. How we feel staying at home.
We always want to look like the expectation version but actually realty hits us harder i guess.
haha! Highly recommend this cute book await to pick up more from this artist.
Rounding up from a 2.5, because i felt rounding down would be too harsh.
While this isnt my absolute favorite comic style book, it was still pretty cute, and the author is incredibly talented. I found certain parts highly relatable (especially the expectation vs reality pages), and some parts actually made me laugh a little. But there were also ones that I didnt feel evoked any emotion, thus a lower rating than what I typically give these types of books.
Overall it was good, but I didnt feel like I connected with the comic as much as I would have liked to.
I love this collection!
It's so damn relatable! And yes, I have been waiting for this collection for years!
The artist is familiar to me as I have been following her on Instagram for a long time now. So many instances in this collection are relatable and funny when it's illustrated like that. I just wish it was more elaborate and at least 200 pages long. When a comic book is good, this always happens: I want more! *Highlights:
🧦 Relatable everyday 'I-am-me' moments
👠 The its-so-not-working-on-me moments
🤸 I-am-who-i-am moments
💕 The couple moments
💯 The being-a-woman moments (I had to go through many second hand embarrassing moments while reading this 🤭) I am so going to reread this collection over and over again because this kind of relatable comic collection helps me calm down when anxiety hits unexpectedly. I am so glad I got this copy of #ILeftTheHouseToday through #NetGalley
Thank you so much! I really needed this! *This collection is coming out in June!
I Left the House Today by contemporary artist Cassandra Calin is charming, witty, laugh-out-loud comic that is the perfect cure to Covid-19 blues!
Cassandra Calin presents a collection of hilarious renderings of completely relatable everyday life where idolized expectations are met with the humble realities of how things actually pan out! I relate to this comic on so many levels and often found myself thinking "this is so true" accompanied by a hearty belly laugh. There were strips that reminded me of things I have said, done, felt or cackled about with a friend. There is sure to be comic in this collection for everyone! 4 hoodies out of 5!
Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing in trade for an honest review.
Unfortunately I no longer have the right program to download and read protected pdfs. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book.
This is a hilarious, accurate and relatable collection of comics. I absolutely loved reading this and it could even be a cute gift for someone.