This book was super charming! I’ve read Pénélope’s book Brazen, and Layers was obviously very different as a graphic memoir instead of being about historical figures, but I definitely did enjoy this a lot. Would recommend to anyone looking for a quick, poignant read. The formatting of the text did suffer a little from being translated, so just keep that in mind.

<i>Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.</i>

This was alright. There were some interesting and relatable bits but as a whole, it lacked cohesion and was sometimes hard to follow. I would have preferred if the author scaled down the number of stories included, and then further elaborated on those. A very middle of the road read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

Was trying to get into more graphic novels...enjoyed it, but also wasn't my favorite of the year. Will continue on my journey of graphic novels!

This graphic memoir pulls incidences straight from the author’s diary which lends itself to a wide variety of vignettes, including truly hilarious ones and very tough ones. These fifteen stories will each effect the reader in a different way, but there will definitely be readers who connect with them all.

TW: This is an autobiographical graphic novel. She is assaulted at least three times in her life, twice while young and once as a young adult. It is not explicit, but you know what happened.

I don't think books by French authors, non-fiction or otherwise, work for me. All I got from this was that the men in France were predatory, at least towards this woman, and lots of angst/despair.

The artwork wasn't bad, but the story as it was portrayed didn't do anything for me.

Yes, yes, I know, this is an AUTO-biography. It's someone's LIFE. It doesn't have to be entertaining. I would argue, that if it is being published, then it should at least be entertaining as well as educational. Reading, for me anyway, is an escape. I am always leery when reading an autobiography, because it's either filtered so much the MC is a perfect person who does no wrong, they are self-loathing and you only see their mistakes or they are so full of themselves, they open their mouth and show that they are a pretty horrible person.

This was maybe heavier on the "only seeing mistakes" and...I don't think I've read anything by a French writer that doesn't have under/over tones of despair and slightly nihilistic.

This wasn't what the cover made it seem it would be. I'm sorry the author went through those horrible experiences that men pushed onto her and I hope she has healed from the callus actions of others. No one should ever have to experience what she went through.

2, this just didn't do it for me but I can see it being helpful for others, stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and First Second Books for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

Bagieu taps into universal experiences of girls and women while staying unfailingly personal and very charming.

A bold, humorous, sincere, and frequently poignant graphic novel memoir authored by one of my favorite artists.

Sharing the same age as the author, I found many of her anecdotes and cultural allusions highly relatable.

I would suggest this read for older teenagers and anyone who appreciates candid memoirs, particularly presented in graphic novel format.

If I were to raise one concern, it would be my wish for the memoir to be more extensive. Here's hoping that the author releases another volume in the future!

Not of interest. I had hopes based on her other work, but not everyone is able to do autobiography well. I didn't finish because I found it too disjointed, nothing new or insightful.

This book is very good. It has no color which I typically don't like in graphic novels. It didn't vibe with me, but I know lots of teenagers who would like it.

Summary:

Pénélope Bagieu's story is autobiographical and deeply compelling. Like many of us, she has hilarious, sweet, and bitter-sweet moments in her past, and now is her time to talk about it. To put her words to page, she first dug out her diaries, pulling them onto these pages for a refreshing take on her teen years and more.

Review:

Whew. When they promise an emotionally compelling read, they sure do mean it! Layers hits hard. It's beautiful and funny, so of course it hits hard. Pénélope Bagieu did a fantastic job here. Both the artwork and the story itself (her story) resonate.

I would probably urge a bit of caution when reading this one, as some of the events are, as I said, very relatable. If you're not in the right headspace to go through this journey with Pénélope Bagieu, take some time. You'll want to be in the right place for this one.

Highlights:
Biography Memoir
Emotionally Compelling

Trigger Warnings:
Grief
Animal Loss

"In high school, I was secretly in love approximately 16,000 times . . . sometimes just for twenty minutes."

A collection of vignettes tell the story of Bagieu's early years - tales that we can all relate to: favorite pets, first loves, break-ups, make-ups, and the death of a loved one. Her memories are both hilarious and heartbreaking. and a genuine pleasure to read.

This book was....fine? While there are lots of relatable parts about being a woman, adolescence, loss, etc., it didn't feel very cohesive and the stories themselves ended in a "there's no big takeaway here" (she actually says something along those lines at the end of at least one story. I will admit it took me a while to get through this one, though it isn't very long, so my memory is failing me a bit). I think it's relatable enough, but in a way that I get from scrolling through Instagram every other day. It doesn't leave me wanting more or feeling really anything about the characters. I definitely think that, as a librarian, there are other GNs I would recommend ahead of this one.

this story was very touching. it covered a lot of things that we don’t really talk about often but we know happens. i enjoyed this so much.

This memoir funny while still touching on some serious topics and experiences. I enjoyed the art style, just feel the flow of the memoir needed some work.

I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are my own opinions.

It's very fun and relatable. It's kind of fun that teen0agers have similar experiences worldwide. Right down to favorite Mortal Kombat.
Highly recommend.

I really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, I thought the storyline jumped around too much making it hard to follow. There were certainly lots of great 'coming of age' sections, but the overall narrative was to jumbled for me to enjoy.

Thank you so much for letting me read this graphic novel. The author shares some events of their life with the reader. I liked the artstyle and some of the scenes are very relatable.

I… don’t know how to review this book.
To start, the ARC I received was missing about 10-20% of the pages. Half of the stories were incomplete. Or at least, I think that’s the case? Every handful of pages, there would be 2-3 blank pages. Maybe that was purposeful and was separating complete stories? The stories didn’t seem complete, so I’m not sure.
I read what was… confusing and seemed to have no through-thread, nothing tying it together.
This was a connection of short anecdotes of Penelope Bagieu’s life told in graphic novel format. I’ve enjoyed many a graphic novel memoir, but the whole time I was reading this I just kept thinking… what is the point? There was nothing special about any of these stories. They were pedestrian, typical, and had no real overarching story to tell.
My last complaint is the fact that this is YA. Why is this YA? In the majority of these stories Penelope is in her early—if not mid—20s. There are a couple stories of teenagerhood, a couple stories of young childhood, but it is overwhelmingly the stories of an adult woman. The stories themselves aren’t relatable to a general teenage audience, they deal with topics and themes and experiences that are still many years in the future for a 13, 15, even 17 year old. There were also illustrations of people having sex. Multiple of them, and said people were not obscured by blankets or anything. Cartoon or not, that was not something I expected in a novel supposedly for minors. The book is a translated work that was originally French, so that’s probably why, but it was still odd to me, especially because for every reason this book just makes no sense in the YA market.

A charming series of vignettes about her life. They aren't chronological but more thematic of how even as she's young she is still the same strange person. I love the illustration style, which is black and white and curvy that emphasizes youth, insecurity, and feminity. It's just warm and funny!