Ghost World (edition 2005)

STORYLINE: A slice-of-life memoir about two teenaged girls who have just graduated from high school and are trying to adjust as their lives and friendship changes.

ART: Black line drawings with aqua coloured shading. ( )

Even if you’ve seen the movie, go out right now and get this comic. Seriously. You will not be disappointed. Even more than in the movie, Ghost World is the story of the friendship between Enid and Rebecca in the summer after high school. The art is both funny and good-looking. And the story takes the friendship between the girls as seriously as any romantic relationship. Somehow, Dan Clowes has gotten inside the heads of two very sarcastic, very bored, very angsty teenage girls. How did he do it? No one knows.
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I saw the movie when I was in High School and thought it was like the most bad ass movie of all time. I totally fell in love. I guess I didn't realize until years later that it was based on a graphic novel from the 90s.

In the movie I always drift between the two characters and can identify in both.

The graphic novel, to be frank, totally made me glad I saw the film first. I was probably mean as a High School kid, too, and I'm not stupid--I get that a lot of Enid's cruelty comes from her anger of things happening in her past and feeling insecure but. Seriously??? They are two of the most angry and cruel girls. The whole book I just wanted to scream at them to like, look at themselves and stop worrying about lame everyone was around them.

I also don't really get the desire to have a "look" but that may stem from my strong desire to NOT be placed in a box.

Overall, I liked it but I think maybe I'm not the right reader for this graphic novel. ( )

I kept coming across this title, and felt like I was supposed to like it more, but the truth is, I just thought it was okay. ( )

Ghost World, by Daniel Clowes follows two teenaged girls through their life in a small town after high school. Enid and Rebecca, the cynical and sometimes scared protagonists, go through their days sneering at those around them while clinging tenuously to their own ideas of superiority in order to set themselves apart. The novel is a wonderful portrayal of teenagers in all their bravado and insecurity, as well as the problems that so often plague the notion of growing up and moving on from the familiar.

A graphic novel, Ghost World utilizes tones of blue and white to present a portrait of a town slowly filling with mainstream stores and malls, and the people that occupy it, from the freaks to the those Enid and Rebecca deem pathetic. The art style is clear, but cartoonish, sometimes almost creating a caricature of those it is presenting, well in line with the way Enid and Rebecca seem to see the world.

Clowes winds words and images together to create a realistic and slightly mystical setting for Ghost World, with mysterious characters and symbols such as the man continually waiting at an abandoned bus line, or the titular phrase “Ghost World” that appears throughout the town, and that apparently has for quite some time. The quiet mystery of the town combines with the familiar struggles of finding your way in the uncertain future that looms so large after high school to create a story that shows the loss that comes with great change, all the while nothing momentous changes at all. A great read for any, Ghost World will stick with you after reading as an occasionally uncomfortable, often funny, and wonderfully ambiguous read.

Liz K.