I love graphic novels and the illustrations in this one were beautiful! However the story was a mixed bag. I feel like this graphic novel was having an identity crisis - it couldn't decide if it wanted to be a dry history textbook or a memoir or a love letter to New York City. The story felt a bit disjointed because of this and every few pages felt like it was a different book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press for the advanced copy!

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Liked it, fun while I was reading it
This is a beautifully illustrated graphic memoir is about how a city can save you, namely New York City. There were parts more disjointed than others but all in all an enjoyable read.

Thank you to Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press, NetGalley, and author Kay Sohini, for providing me with a digital ARC copy of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review. This Beautiful, Ridiculous City is out January 28, 2025.

Interesting if brief graphic memoir of the author, inter-folded with a sort of memoir of NYC itself as an often exported cultural concept. The artwork is is intriguing, a mix of photos and clear drawings that privilege architecture and food with detail while using a rather detail-free approach for people. TW for domestic violence and suicide attempts should be posted, although how does one trigger warning ones own life?

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.” - James Baldwin

This graphic memoir begins with one of my favorite James Baldwin quotes and that quote is one I have seen and felt over and over during this very tumultuous week. It felt like I had been waiting to read this book for this moment.

As I turned the pages, I felt so connected to the author because Kay Sohini’s connection to books and reading mirrors my own. Regardless of time and space, I found so many similarities between us among our differences because that is what the human experience is all about. Sohini shares her life, the light, the dark, and everything in between, in a raw and striking way. Her strength and prose are equally inspiring.

I am a South Jersey and Philly girl who, ironically, counts The Great Gatsby as one of my top classics and How I Met Your Mother as my favorite show of all time and both of these are pictured on the same page of this book. There are bookstores, like the full-page-worthy Strand, in the city that stole my heart from the moment I stepped inside. Sohini is right: “Everybody— visitor, native, and transplant alike— has their own New York.” Even though I am not always a fan of books where New York City becomes more of a character than a setting, I recognize what NYC represents in literature, publishing, culture, and dreams and I deeply understand the feeling of being haunted from afar by what we read. Anyone who reads this will feel its effects long after they put it down.

The art in this graphic memoir is stunning and works in tandem with the words on the pages to bring the author’s story to life. Just as NYC dazzled to the people she read about and to her, the art dazzles the reader on this journey in India and America. Incorporating some family photographs was also a wonderful touch.

As someone born in the mid-90s who either did not exist or was not old enough to comprehend its complexities, I also appreciated the history embedded in the story to help me learn about India and contextualize what I already knew about the country and the world at large during this decade and going into the new millennium. In terms of colonization, consumerism, culture, economics, education, globalization, identity, industrialization, politics, relationships, and more, I have a greater understanding of the time because of Sohini’s story. All of the more current information spoke to my own experience as a late-20-something just 100 miles from NYC and the experiences I know of others, too. The mix of “at-large” and “close-to-home” in this graphic memoir makes it both a window into a time period and into a specific life. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

“This Beautiful, Ridiculous City” is a gorgeous book! Kay Sohini’s beautifully rendered illustrations show the people, food, architecture, and other aspects of New York off to its greatest advantage. This graphic novel is both her personal story, and the story of a city that has lured artists, writers, creatives, and so many others, over the years. She attempts to explore her love for a place that can be forbidding in so many ways—she offers statistics that explain why living there is so challenging—and acknowledges how sometimes things about the city simply defy explanation. When I finished reading her words I went back to look at her graphics, layout, and illustrations again. I loved reading her illustrated memoir and I know that others will too. Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC and the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Kay Sohini’s This Beautiful, Ridiculous City was a well written and well illustrated graphic memoir. It was not what I was expecting, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The art is downright gorgeous though!

This was a well written and well illustrated graphic memoir. The illustrations were beautiful and very well thought out. I felt like the way it was all put together was almost genius. The story it self felt very personal and I’m glad I got to read it.

I really loved the themes of new beginnings, food as love, and finding a home of yourself. The last few chapters where the author talks about her relationship with the changing New York made me very emotional but it was lovely to read. I love memoirs like this that encapsulate a section of a person's life but are so cohesive in theme and reflection.

This was not what I was expecting, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It felt less like a graphic novel or comic and more like an illustrated memoir essay. The art is beautiful, particularly the colors, and all the drawings and descriptions of food made me hungry. Young people who are getting ready to leave their hometowns, particularly those who have experienced abusive relationships, will find a lot to relate to and learn from.

This memoir in graphic novel form leaves me feeling conflicted. There are things I loved in here: the art, and the author's use of colour. The profoundly human story. Certain incredibly affecting moments. The raw vulnerability of it. And yet it was definitely an imperfect product: the writing, especially in the beginning, skews heavily academic, which makes it drag and feel impersonal (the last thing you want in a such a personal memoir). I wish this aspect had felt more balanced, because the information the author was providing was actually very valuable, but the way it was presented made it feel boring and didactic.
Kay Sohini really shows off her mastery of the graphic novel form in this memoir in comics; I have seen few artists play as she does with the structure itself of the genre! A must read for anyone studying & writing comics.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

The art style in this book is beautiful and unique! A beautiful love letter to New York City.
Thanks so much to NetGalley for letting me read this.

This Beautiful Ridiculous City is Kay Sohini’s graphic memoir, which focuses on her relationship with New York. The book talks about their childhood in an India which is opening up to the whole world, their family life in suburban Calcutta and an abusive relationship before they move to New York. The second half of the book largely focuses on their relationship with New York.

All the feeling and thoughts about New York and walking the same steps as some of the most celebrated artists and writers is something that definitely made one want to go to the city. As a person who has always lived in a city almost equally romanticized as New York, I can understand some of these feelings. However, a lot of the other writing seems a bit chaotic or scattered for me and I lost a bit of interest in the book in between. A few stories or thoughts felt incomplete to me and that’s one of the main reasons I didn’t like the book.

The colour work, especially in the New York scenes, is very well done.

Thanks NetGalley, Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press for the book.

A well written and illustrated tale of cultural osmosis and assimilation. The storytelling can be a bit disjointed at times, but over all a poignant story of being on the outside looking in, only to reach until you clasp the branch that seemed just out of reach.

ARC provided by NetGalley & Clarkson Potter/Tenspeed Press

Great story! Art was great, coloring was great, and the depth of the story was quite amazing! New York City does seem like that type of place where there might be something for anyone. I can't wait for another book by this author!

A stunningly illustrated and written memoir/love letter to New York City. Kay Sohini is remarkably talented at visual storytelling. Her love of NYC, books, and food comes across so strongly. This book reminds me just how powerful graphic nonfiction can be.

There was a lot I enjoyed about this graphic memoir. It was set up as a bit of a love letter to New York, and spends the entire time orbiting it through her decision to move there and actually living in the city. I really loved the incorporation of photographs amongst the illustrations, the artwork was just generally all very beautiful. I feel like the timeline got a bit muddled and hard to keep track of, but that sort of works with the dreamy vibe the overall narrative created. I do want to say I'm not sure I really felt like I ever really got to know the narrator individually beyond the love of New York and her assertion that she's still very anti-social. We're told about some of the events in her life such as the death of her grandfather, her abusive ex, and the multi-generational home of her childhood, but I don't truly feel as though I was given the opportunity to connect with her as a person. Despite this being categorized as a memoir it isn't so much about Kay Sohini, it's about connecting with the feeling of New York's pull and loving it through all its many flaws. In this, I believe the work does the job well.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this ARC.

The art in this book is incredible. I enjoyed every page. The color scheme was perfect. This being said, I had a bit of trouble following the overall concept of the story. It seemed it was going in one direction and on the next page it shifted to a different topic or timeline. I was always on my toes trying to understand the overall plot and what the focus of it was going to be.

I learned a bit more of the intricacies of living in a city that mesmerizes me as a tourist, and that inspires many books and movies. It gives us a bit of confirmation of what I thought about New York. It is beautiful and magical, but ugly, hard, and dirty at the same time. As someone who has never been to NY, I want to go even more and finally understand the magic that can sustain all of it.

In my journey on learning about comic book editing, I revived my #NetGalley account and requested a few #galleys of kids comics, and this graphic memoir (my first). Kay Sohini writes about her fascination with New York and how the circumstances of her childhood roots lead her to live in NYC.

After reading #ThisBeautifulRidiculousCity, I am in a state of awe. The visual storytelling is warm and vibrant, and the narrative hits home. We come from similar backgrounds; Ms Sohini being from India and I from Pakistan. Our traditions and culture follow a similar path. The era she reiterates about-I saw my country go through the same thing, face the same consequences, but our current situation is very different to India’s.

Thank you NetGalley and Ten Speed Graphic for giving me the opportunity to read this reflective and insightful story.

The graphics on this one are absolutely gorgeous! 5 stars for the wonderful art and illustrations. The cityscapes and food were truly breathtaking. Unfortunately, the prose just did not match that level for me. It was an interesting subject, but I found the writing to be a little bit dull. I wanted to be invested in the memoir, but it took me several days to finish because I just could not engage with the writing.

Thanks to Kay Sohini, NetGalley, and Clarkson Potter for the chance to read and review! Just because this wasn't my cup of tea, doesn't mean it wouldn't be yours. If nothing else, it is worth picking up for the outstanding art!

A feast for the eyes, this gorgeous graphic novel won me over in the beginning with its literary tour around NYC. Once the mood was set, I followed the life story of this writer, who has such a powerful and relatable story. Her descriptions of food and family were so descriptive, and it broke my heart a little when she talked about how her grandfather died the year before it would have been easy to take great pictures of him. In the end, she doesn't want to leave the city she came to chasing her dream, and I didn't want to leave the book. Thanks so much to NetGalley for letting me read this.