Jon Allen (4)Besprekingen

*Received via NetGalley for review*

A beautiful, melancholy, and true to life story about a young man maturing and drifting away from his best friend, not only because they have different interests and personalities, but because one of them is gay.

The art is atmospheric and serviceable, the emotions are raw and honest, and it flies by in the reading, even at 400 pages.

Dana finally works up the gumption to kick her unemployed stoner boyfriend to the curb. Unfortunately, this is not Dana's story, it is Julian's, and we are asked to follow him on the road to rock bottom as he lies and steals in order to get his next fix. Typical unrepentant loser crap.

This is the third collection/reworking of material from Jon Allen's Ohio Is for Sale comic book series (this is an altered version of #9), which seems to be about teen and twentysomething slackers in a small Ohio town in the 1990s. I haven't read the comics or the first book, but I found the second collection/reworking, The Lonesome Era to be as underwhelming and unnecessary as this one, so I think I'll stop picking up Allen's work.

Teen angst alert! Set in the 1990s, this is a coming of age story about a gay teen in love with his best friend, a crass metalhead who is a bad influence to say the least. There are some bullies, some homophobia, and a whole lot of moping.

It not bad, but I just couldn't bring myself to care about any of it.