This is clever and dark and penetrating, and in some ways so realistic. Sometimes the dark humor came from how realistic it was. So many dark topics, so it's not for everyone, but it's truly an interesting and creative and memorable work. The pictures are odd but I wondered if it was because the subject matter was too real.

Kayla E. is a thoughtful and introspective creator -- brilliant and a person who makes use of visuals and words in provocative ways. I enjoyed the style of this book and love its possibilities for helping readers see into life in a different way.

I unfortunately did not finish this title. I read enough of it that I feel like I can give my opinion to an extent, but it was too dark for me even though I appreciate what the writer was going for, and their candor was very vulnerable and visually appealing in many places. This was colorful, imaginative, intense, brutal, confusing, abusive, disturbing. A multimedia shit show of someone’s inner workings and traumatic experiences made to look like comic book fashion in a way. It’s really interactive as you never know what’s going to happen and it has you turning the pages around. Every page is a new part of the story that is very separate and also cohesive. I was just not in the headspace to finish reading this, but I think it’s a unique graphic novel that people with similar trauma could relate to.

Thanks to NetGalley and Fantagaphics for the ARC!

Kayla E.’s "Precious Rubbish" is an artful memoir of a traumatic childhood. It is also unreadable.

Presented through the garish sheen of 1950s type and iconography, the book offers readers a memoir of domestic abuse, incest, alcoholism, religious fundamentalism, and emergent queer identity. Visually, it's excellent.

Kayla E. peppers the fragmented narrative with multimodal activities, willfully objectifying herself and her trauma so that readers are aware of their own complicity in consuming something so horrific. There are recipes, mazes, paper dolls, and word searches that repeatedly invite the reader to make a squeamish choice—participate, and learn more devastating details, or skip over the games for a more palatable, self-preserving read.

"Precious Rubbish" is so smart.

I also can’t, in good conscience, really recommend it to most readers.

The comic form creates just enough distance to anonymize the narrative, and when the author simplifies herself into a cartoon, she seems to perpetuate the dehumanization she writes about. Without a “real” person at the center of the book, it reads like trauma for its own sake, which ultimately lands as titillation. This problem is further compounded by an overarching, acerbic cynicism. With even the faintest glimmer of optimism, maybe the book would still feel purposeful, but it seems to revel in its aestheticized misery. There's a thin line between vulnerability and self-flagellation, and I think many readers will conflate the two and label this a "brave" and "incredible" book.

Maybe it is, but I am unconvinced.

I'll say this—the best memoirs feel like the natural conclusion of extended reflection. "Precious Rubbish" feels like an emotional work-in-progress—a therapeutic exercise that could eventually be an incredible book. As it stands, it’s a little too raw to feel complete for this particular reader.

This graphic novel was confusing and terrifying me at the same time. It was so dark and unhinged. Yet I kept reading, and at the end of the book, I was speechless because I truly had no word.
I could mostly understand the story through the illustrations, but I'm not gonna lie, I might have a nightmare or two from this book because the illustrations were so dark and scary.
I couldn't imagine how this is based on the author's true story. I might throw up twice.

Oof; this is brutal in its unflinching look at childhood trauma and abuse. Kayla E. excels at the graphic format and utilizes it so creatively to tell her story--her style reminds me of Chris Ware's.

My thanks to NetGalley and Fantagraphics Books for an advance copy of this new graphic novel/memoir that used the style of past comics, one that many remember from childhood, as a way of telling a story about a child whose life was anything but idyllic.

I have loved comic books and comic strips for as long as I have been reading. My taste has changed over the years, but I still love the idea of what comics can do, how they can tell any kind of story. I have always been frustrated by the fact that so many waste the ability of graphic story telling. There are plenty of superhero stories, plenty of horror, plenty of science fiction stories. I want stories about inner conflict, about interesting people who don't need masks to be heroes, they just survive, and in some cases thrive. Sequential art can tell so much about people, share emotional moments, traumas, inner pains, and show us that all the world isn't black and white, that there are more colors, and sadly a lot of that color is red, as in this comic. Precious Rubbish by Kayla E. is a memoir in comic form, told in the style children comics from the 1950's, about a childhood no one should have, a story of guilty, betrayal, pain, and much more. .

The book begins with what seems like a tale of the three little pigs, all with names, and leaving their home to enter the real world. Within a page or two, readers pick up the fact that something is wrong, something disquieting. This is not fiction, this is not a cute story, this is real. As the book unfolds, one is caught in the story, told like a activity comic book, filled with word searches, fun facts, and advertisements, that will at once be familiar, and yet crafted in such a way to keep the momentum of the story always moving forward. The main character is shown dealing with people, women who look away, men who act as predators, all accepted by the public, and those around them. No one seems to see the person that is being hurt, caught in their own drama, religion, southern upbringing, and poverty.

Not the easiest of reads in the slightest. Even harder to sum up. Though I say this writing in my kitchen, after reading this on my couch, so I think I'll be ok. I hope the author is ok. This is a book that once one gets the feeling of what is going on, one really does want to look away, of go no not right now. It is easy to not look, harder to look, but not as hard as it was to live. I give all respect to the author. This is a powerful work, one that is hard to recommend, as I know what many have gone through in life, and I don't want to add to it. However this is really very well done. And these are stories that should be told. Especially now. And stories that should no be looked away from. Especially, especially now. A book that will unsettle, but a book that should be read. And a book that I won't easily forget.

This was definitely not the book for me. It was reminiscent of old-school comics and commentary. I think this piece is eye-catching and can say a lot about our current time and political sphere. Unfortunately, I am not one who is in the mood to listen.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. These opinions are completely my own

As per my M.O. I didn't read the book description and thought these were comics of war propaganda. They were not. They did however serve as a diary for the author. A diary full of abuse and pain. It is more of a art piece then a book. It feels strange to say it was anything but horrible, but it wasn't. A creative way to release one's pain into the world.