Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me

Dear Anna Vice... Laura Dean keeps breaking up with me.I put off reading this one until last night, despite receiving it on its release date. I wish I hadn't. "Laura Dean Keeps Breaking up with Me" (I'll shorten that to "LD" or "the book" if you don't mind!) is a story about a toxic relationship. Laura Dean keeps dumping Freddy at the worst of times, only to take her back sometime later. Freddy Loves Laura Dean, but she keeps getting her heart broken.The third time Laura Dean dumps Freddy is where the story begins. From there, things seem to spiral. Freddy becomes a bad friend, blowing off her good friends to pine after Laura Dean, who keeps, in turn, blowing her off.I can see myself in Freddy. I've been in my share of toxic relationships. I almost lost all my friends over my last one. I knew I was being a bad friend, but I couldn't stop, because my Laura Dean kept bringing me back in.LD (the book, not the girl) is a great story about leaving behind the things that you love that hurt you. It's easy to leave someone you don't love. It's harder to leave someone you do. It's got a wonderfully diverse LGBT+ cast, a plot that drives you to keep reading, and lovely art and writing. I wish I could read it for the first time again.5/5 for this one. I'm glad it came up on my radar and that I was finally able to read it.

I'll start off by saying that the art is what first caught my eye. I'm a sucker for clean lines, and Rosemary Valero-O'Connell's work is both detailed and simple. Smooth, thin lines are paired with a pastel pink color scheme to give this a nostalgic feel; I felt like I'd been transported back to my childhood. It's fun and sweet, and matches well with Freddy's journey through her first tumultuous romance.Having been through toxic relationships myself, the story resonated deeply with me. Mariko Tamaki does an amazing job at depicting the on-again, off-again cycle that too often is lopsided, leaning heavily in one person's favor and leaving the other to ride the ups and downs alone. This is one of those books that I wish I had read when I was younger...not only is it inclusive, depicting all different types of relationships and people, but it's also full of important lessons about how *not* black and white the world is. There's not always clear lines between healthy and toxic...together and single...loving and not loving anymore. I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated this book (so much so, that I bought it twice!), and have given it a permanent place on my favorites shelf.

I enjoyed this story. I WOULD recommend it. It's been hours since I finished it and I'm still upset for Doodle and want justice for her!! Anyway, it is a good story about a popular girl (Laura Dean) who surrounds herself with others to cope with loneliness while also neglecting and manipulating her girlfriend who may have low self-esteem (Freddy). Freddy is the main character in this tale.

I had to read this a couple times to fall in love with it, but fall in love with it I did! This is a great story centering on the confusion of being in high school and in a toxic relationship that makes you a bad friend. Great for teens and adults alike.The artwork is conveyed in a limited palette and is absolutely gorgeous. Features "millennial pink" and several other hallmarks of what seems to be popular in art these days--lots of plants and personal details specific to each character. I loved poring over each panel. The overall page layouts were incredibly creative and well done, too.The only reason this isn't a 5-star review: whatever's going on with the pink word balloons that are coming from the stuffed animals is unclear. I thought they would amount to something by the end of the story, but they didn't, and just seemed to be an unusual/quirky/confusing narrative device.UPDATE: Upgraded to 5 stars because I just read it a third time and somehow love/appreciate it even more. It’s just a lush, gorgeous book. The stuffed animal dialogue bothers me a little less. Is just a quirky aspect of the story that I had to get used to.

Oh Freddy... You just want to pull her into a big hug and tell her to stop getting her heart broken. I thought this book was fantastic - I appreciated that where so much queer fiction deals with first loves / falling in love / coming out , "Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me" was a look at what happens when someone you're dating is actually not a great significant other! Freddy is very sure of her identity, she just needs to find someone who treats her the way she deserves. I really liked Freddy's character arc through the whole story and I appreciated that she definitely had to stumble a bit to finally be able to make decisions that were best for her. I also really enjoyed that there were multiple queer side characters as well and enjoyed all the side characters that Freddy interacted with. In addition to the writing, I LOVED the art! Super pretty, really worked in tandem with the story in a great way. I would definitely recommend this graphic novel!

First off, as an artist, the illustrations in this graphic novel are TOP NOTCH. Every page i took extra time just to soak in every page. Wow. I want more.The story is very relatable, this is a situation many people have been in and its very easy to relate with Freddy. Freddy's friends are also written incredibly well, I could imagine their voices in my head as I read. The message about relationships that this story tells is very important no matter how old you are. If I ever have kids, im making sure they read this when theyre at a similar age to Freddy. What an awesome book.