Holy smokes.
This was so good. It had me cringing and feeling uncomfortable, but of course in a good way. Highly recommend!

Wow. This book was intense. I don't know what I was expecting, but whatever it was, this exceeded my expectations. This book gave me anxiety. In a good way. This book made me uncomfortable. In a good way. Will def check out more from this author in the future.

I’m so confused about what I read after finishing this. It didn’t make sense to me, but I enjoyed the creepy feeling it gave. The illustrations were disturbing and gruesome, there were a few adult images here and there. I loved the idea behind this, portraying the negative sides of social media… but the book itself didn’t make sense to me.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with access to read this book!

3.5 ⭐️
From being In love to being completely deranged, this graphic novel tell us the story about Carolanne and the perfect life that she desires. After an unfortunate loss, she gets obsessed with control over herself, making her a completely different person.

I really really like this graphic novel, it was very well done and I literally couldn’t stop reading, still , I found the ending a little bit predictable cause I’m used to these type of books.

I would total my recommend tho, cause I felt all kind of emotions reading this, mostly I felt very disturbed which I think is the goal of the book.

Oh man, this was a really tough read. Beth Hetland’s debut graphic novel is about the negative effects of social media, and how trying to “keep up” with societal expectations can prove to be our undoing.

Carolann wants the kind of perfect life that she sees on Instagram. With no immediate romantic prospects, she engineers a relationship with a coworker, which quickly turns into marriage (complete with perfect wedding day Instagram pictures). But when the couple unfortunately lose their baby, Carolann’s relationship crumbles, and a period of horrific self-destruction begins.

Tender is such a heartbreaking book. Social media has given us the impression that things just fall into place for some people, and it can feel demoralizing when your real life isn’t post-worthy. I’m sure a lot of women will relate to Carolann’s struggle, and how exhausting it can be to constantly perform many different roles.

Hetland’s visceral images are incredible. Although there is a lot of body horror in here, I found the pictures of Carolann “rehearsing” for her social interactions the most terrifying.

For anyone who mistakenly thinks comics/graphic novels are for kids, I urge them to read this. Tender is relevant, relatable, moving, and important.

Wtf did I just read? And why? Why did I put myself through this? This was so disturbing and not in the fun way. I finished it in one sitting, but I don’t know why. It was compelling, but extremely disturbing. Idk what to even rate this one. 3 is my go to for when I’m in the middle on my opinion. I hated this book but enjoyed reading it anyway, somehow… wouldn’t recommend this to anyone, though. Unless it’s someone who loves to feel uncomfortable and uneasy and violated.

Spoilers:

Also, I don't get the ending. If she's the one in the window from the beginning, who's the one who saw her in the window?

grotesque but captivating. The imagery is not for the squeamish but I appreciate a graphic novel that can make me shudder.

I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time. Really well done and disturbing body horror.

Caroleanne is obsessed with trying ti curate a picture perfect traditional heteronormative life: marriage + baby + happy homemaker. Everything seems to be going perfectly until a horrible tragedy destroys her perfect life.

It’s tough to say more without spoiling the plot. The authors drawings are so dynamic and show how Carolanne devolves. The artworks is incredibly cool, yet sometimes incredibly gruesome and hard to look at.

TW:
Body horror
Animal death
Stillbirth
Self-harm
Cannibalism

There is much to appreciate here. I like the drawing style and the looming, scrawled blue that overtakes the panels in moments of shame, embarrassment and mortification. But the underlying story is a little too familiar and the main character not uniquely defined enough to feel properly moved by the gruesome ending. Certainly worth reading, but not a book I would return to again.

Hooooooo, shudder.
Very chilling and stylish, much like last year’s Pet Peeves setting us up with a cozy and sweet situation only to peel back the layers (literal and figurative, shudder again) and reveal something much darker and nightmarish. Only negative is that the protagonist is unlikable for most of the story, but she still makes a good antihero.

Tender is a graphic novel that is perfect for my fellow body horror girlies. I thought this was such a refreshing take on body horror because rather than being misogynistic and sexualized and written by men, this one is very obviously written by a woman, for women.

Tender is about Carolanne, a woman who cares a lot about how others see her. We see her progression through what she expects to be her dream future (work, boyfriend, marriage, husband, etc.), until something veers her off course and sends her spiraling.

This was a quick read and hard to look away from. I found myself physically cringing at some of the illustrations, but in a the way that we want to be disturbed by this type of story.

Tender was entertaining and explored women's societal expectations, female empowerment, motherhood, and more.

*Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review*

CONTENT WARNINGS:

Body Horror
Animal Death (mostly off page)
Stillbirth
Divorce
Minor infertility

From an office romance to marriage, Carolanne and Lee are in love. With her pregnancy confirmed, Carolanne leaves her job to be a homemaker - it is picture-perfect! Only Carolanne’s vivid, disturbing nightmares beg to differ. And soon, the truth is revealed to the reader. Carolanne is obsessed.
Her single-minded pursuit of womanhood turns everything into a performace. Her friendships, her marriage, her pregnancy, and her choice to quit her job to become a perfect housewife: everything is a means to escape from her low self-worth. It feels fake and unnatural.

Thoughts:
Beth Hetland’s Tender caught me off guard. It began as a relationship drama and became a psychological thriller rich with body horror, taking you to dark places. While the unusual cover ensured that I wasn’t expecting domestic bliss, nothing prepared me for the wild + disturbing turn it took.

The realistic portrayal of mental health was impressive. It brings home the truth of how we push uncomfortable feelings under the rug: the alienation in marriage, postpartum depression, grief, and unrealistic social pressures. Instead of talking it out, we let it rot and fracture our relationships. We escape into self-depreciating tendencies rather than confronting the injustice.

An eerie hint of witchcraft. It started with disturbing nightmares, the imposing presence of the black cat, the glowing eyes, and the strangest, burning fake wedding invites the night of her marriage, almost like casting a spell.

The artist reveals the story through art rather than dialogue. The comic medium allows a visceral and visual inspection of societal expectations of women, peer / social media pressure, performative perfection, psychotic spiraling, and the irrational frenzy of jealousy, hopelessness, and need for control.
The color and lines skillfully illustrate Carolanne’s shifting mental state. The artist increasingly replaces the pink panels and clear lines with shaky-ethereal-bright blue lines and haphazard dialogue boxes, depicting Carolanne’s complete psychosis. The illustrations of picking were unsettling, eliciting a physical response. The self-mutilation and its intensity were haunting, leaving lingering feelings of discomfort.

The way things spiraled out of control, the mosaics of panels, and the increasing derangedness of her perceptions and actions, everything gave me goosebumps, the scary kind. The minuscule self-deprecating compulsions soon escalated into acts of self-harm, and her obsession with a perfect life snowballed into madness. The color usage and the intrusive panels hit you with force. It is so powerful it creeped me out. It made me realize that body horror is not my thing. It was so successful in its representation I want to forget I read it. There’s a high chance I won’t.

Content warnings: self-harm, body horror, gore, animal cruelty. The body horror verges on warning. It shook me to the core. Gory and eerily so.

Vibes: psychological thriller, gore, body horror, social commentary, performative perfection, eerie, self-harm, realistic portrayal.

I thank NetGalley and Fantagraphics Books for the eARC of this graphic novel.
This is one hell of a graphic novel!

Absolutely nuanced, graphic and disorienting; I would definitely have enjoyed it more if it was longer.

Tender by Beth Hetland was such a fun surprise to read. Hetland’s story was unique and her writing was phenomenal. When people get their hands on Tender, it will no doubt leave a mark. I look forward to reading more of Hetland’s work in the future.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the book. I don't feel like it was a unique concept or storyline. It lacked depth.

Wow. I devoured this book (pun not intended) within the span of 2 hours. I knew going in that this would be a psychological thriller with a ton of body horror, but I didn't expect to feel so invested in Carolanne's downward spiral. The plot slowly builds up to a sharp peak, and the collateral damage done while everything comes crashing down is devastating. The blue shading that the author used in certain panels was very clever -- I didn't really pay mind to it until the very end, and then I went back to skim from the beginning before I realized what it meant. The art style overall was simple, but clear and easy to digest (this time pun fully intended).

This book is not perfect but I'm giving it all 5 stars because it got a huge reaction out of me. I didn't expect to be first sad and then devastated and then horrified and disgusted.
I don't always like extreme body horror, because it seems to just be trying to get a reaction. However, this story made sense, within its own rules and guidelines. I really felt for the main character, and then I just wanted to look away.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

An eerie work of extreme body horror. Carolanne wants nothing more than to have a picture perfect family life, and when that isn't working out, she goes to extreme lengths to maintain the illusion. Often gross, but quite good.

Didn’t expect this to be a graphic novel, still ominous and scary horror. Thanks for the arc! I thought it was cool 😁 and the self cannibalism is a flassic but great tool

Viscerally upsetting, I cringed multiple times. Carolanne is a woman is a woman so obsessed with fulfilling her vision of a perfect life that she'll do anything (except talk to people or go to therapy I guess).

Intense body horror.