I Never Liked You

Brown's memoir struck me with the power of the gaps in narrative. Spaces between panels and the flow of time was interrupted often although it didn't feel jarring. Rather, this construction connected with the way I understand my own memories and experiences, narrative threads that have an overall chronological structure but also many gaps. Rereading, I was also struck by his vulnerability in the way he rendered his indifference to his mother or the defense of indifference and denial of pain involved in such loss and maternal absence.

Adolescence is a painful, awkward time, and that awkwardness is captured here in all its horrible glory--romance with the girl next door (while being in love with someone else), an emotionally unbalanced mother who just wants her son to love her, being known as the kid who never swears--at the best of times, high school is rough; at the worst, it can be used to make comics as bitterly romantic as this one.

Sparse - every word and image counts in this work. It struck me as a really sad story but in some kind of beautiful way. It feels honest and unapologetic. I loved it.

A graphically illustrated account of troubled adolescence, this is funny, morose, odd and thoughtful. I dug it.

Chester Brown writes a number of autobiographies, all of which are hilarious because they are true (probably with a pinch of artistic license). 'I never liked you' is a journey through the childhood of Chester. His distant relationship with his mother, the beginnings of his passion for drawing and his early attempts at romance are some of the memories we are treated to.

A quiet memoir of an unhappy childhood. Perhaps too quiet. It was so sparse that I had trouble connecting with any of the characters.

Brown is a masterful cartoonist but this autobiographical coming of age story was so unlike my own adolescent experience that it was hard for me to relate. I'm sure for some folks it is the Holy Grail of their teenage years.