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High School Comic Chronicles
Likewise: The High School Comic Chronicles of Ariel Schrag
Ariel Schrag concludes her turbulent ride through high school in the long-awaited final volume of her acclaimed series of compelling and strikingly honest autobiographical graphic novels.
Set in Berkeley, California, Likewise takes us into the holy grail of teenagers, every bit as terrifying as it is senior year. Struggling with a major longing for her ex-girlfriend who has gone away to college, her parents' post-divorce relationship, anxiety over the future, and all the graphic details of her complicated life, Ariel sets out to document everything and everyone. And when she discovers James Joyce, a whole new world of creativity opens up to her.
Written with unabashed honesty, insight, and humor, Likewise is a brave account of one teenage girl's search for truth.
Set in Berkeley, California, Likewise takes us into the holy grail of teenagers, every bit as terrifying as it is senior year. Struggling with a major longing for her ex-girlfriend who has gone away to college, her parents' post-divorce relationship, anxiety over the future, and all the graphic details of her complicated life, Ariel sets out to document everything and everyone. And when she discovers James Joyce, a whole new world of creativity opens up to her.
Written with unabashed honesty, insight, and humor, Likewise is a brave account of one teenage girl's search for truth.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
About the author
Ariel Schrag
23 books235 followersAriel Schrag was born in Berkeley, California. She is the author of the novel Adam, and the graphic memoirs Awkward, Definition, Potential, Likewise, and Part of It. Potential was nominated for an Eisner Award and Likewise was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award.
Adam was made into a feature film directed by Rhys Ernst and produced by James Schamus’s Symbolic Exchange. Schrag wrote the screenplay. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize at the Mezipatra Queer Film Festival, a Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Directing at Los Angeles Outfest, and was nominated for a GLAAD award for Outstanding Film -- Limited Release.
Schrag was a writer for the USA series Dare Me, based on the Megan Abbott novel, the HBO series Vinyl and How To Make It In America, and for the Showtime series The L Word.
She has written comics and articles for The New York Times Book Review, Cosmopolitan, New York Magazine, USA Today, and more. Her original art has showed in galleries across North America and Europe.
Schrag graduated from Columbia University with a degree in English Literature. She teaches the course Graphic Novel Workshop in the writing department at The New School and has also taught classes at Brown University, New York University, Butler University, and Williams College.
She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Adam was made into a feature film directed by Rhys Ernst and produced by James Schamus’s Symbolic Exchange. Schrag wrote the screenplay. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize at the Mezipatra Queer Film Festival, a Grand Jury Award for Outstanding Directing at Los Angeles Outfest, and was nominated for a GLAAD award for Outstanding Film -- Limited Release.
Schrag was a writer for the USA series Dare Me, based on the Megan Abbott novel, the HBO series Vinyl and How To Make It In America, and for the Showtime series The L Word.
She has written comics and articles for The New York Times Book Review, Cosmopolitan, New York Magazine, USA Today, and more. Her original art has showed in galleries across North America and Europe.
Schrag graduated from Columbia University with a degree in English Literature. She teaches the course Graphic Novel Workshop in the writing department at The New School and has also taught classes at Brown University, New York University, Butler University, and Williams College.
She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews
June 16, 2009
"Plans:
-Work on the comic til I die.
-Die."
These are the words of Ariel Schrag in her latest comic, her magnum opus, Likewise. Luckily she decided to finish the comic but continue to live. This comic is not for everyone -- maybe not even all lovers of her earlier books, Potential, Definition, and Awkward. Yes, these books -- each of which chronicles a different year of high school -- have their share of teen angst. But unless you have been a teenage girl or have a teenage daughter, you've probably never seen a meltdown of the proportions Ariel goes through in Likewise -- and even if you have seen one in life, you may not have seen one in print.
Said meltdown is in reaction to her continued obsession with the loss of the infinitely unworthy Sally, a young woman whose vacillations and mixed signals will be familiar to anyone who has been in a truly bad relationship. Schrag flawlessly documents the extreme passion and self-loathing of which teenagers are capable; her ongoing struggles with her own internalized homophobia being the most painful aspect. However, as much as Schrag's uber-confessional style (begun with Awkward) continues to fascinate, what makes Likewise really special is the development of her artistic identity. Schrag discovers Flaubert and Joyce (FYI, I have a desire to write a conference paper on Ulysses in Likewise and Fun Home, and if I see you presenting a paper on this topic I will consider my idea stolen), and you can see her boldly inserting herself into this literary conversation, asserting to a friend at one point that she wants to make comics respectable as literature. Her inner dialogue -- which is ongoing -- often falls into incomplete sentences and almost unintelligible word association. She certainly takes to heart Joyce's desire to incorporate everything, all of life. I love the panels where she draws someone saying, "This isn't going to be in the comic, is it?" and proceeds to include everything after answering in the negative. Certainly she has come to see the painful part of being a nonfiction-writing artist, as she recognizes her own tendency to put art above people. (Luckily she's a very lovable character.) One of my favorite parts is when she stops in the middle of recording dialogue for the book (she documents herself working on both Potential and Likewise, and she uses a tape recorder to record both conversations and personal reflections) and begins talking to her future self, wondering how she is balancing college and working on the comic. It's a wonderful meta moment, and one especially striking from someone so young.
-Work on the comic til I die.
-Die."
These are the words of Ariel Schrag in her latest comic, her magnum opus, Likewise. Luckily she decided to finish the comic but continue to live. This comic is not for everyone -- maybe not even all lovers of her earlier books, Potential, Definition, and Awkward. Yes, these books -- each of which chronicles a different year of high school -- have their share of teen angst. But unless you have been a teenage girl or have a teenage daughter, you've probably never seen a meltdown of the proportions Ariel goes through in Likewise -- and even if you have seen one in life, you may not have seen one in print.
Said meltdown is in reaction to her continued obsession with the loss of the infinitely unworthy Sally, a young woman whose vacillations and mixed signals will be familiar to anyone who has been in a truly bad relationship. Schrag flawlessly documents the extreme passion and self-loathing of which teenagers are capable; her ongoing struggles with her own internalized homophobia being the most painful aspect. However, as much as Schrag's uber-confessional style (begun with Awkward) continues to fascinate, what makes Likewise really special is the development of her artistic identity. Schrag discovers Flaubert and Joyce (FYI, I have a desire to write a conference paper on Ulysses in Likewise and Fun Home, and if I see you presenting a paper on this topic I will consider my idea stolen), and you can see her boldly inserting herself into this literary conversation, asserting to a friend at one point that she wants to make comics respectable as literature. Her inner dialogue -- which is ongoing -- often falls into incomplete sentences and almost unintelligible word association. She certainly takes to heart Joyce's desire to incorporate everything, all of life. I love the panels where she draws someone saying, "This isn't going to be in the comic, is it?" and proceeds to include everything after answering in the negative. Certainly she has come to see the painful part of being a nonfiction-writing artist, as she recognizes her own tendency to put art above people. (Luckily she's a very lovable character.) One of my favorite parts is when she stops in the middle of recording dialogue for the book (she documents herself working on both Potential and Likewise, and she uses a tape recorder to record both conversations and personal reflections) and begins talking to her future self, wondering how she is balancing college and working on the comic. It's a wonderful meta moment, and one especially striking from someone so young.
May 5, 2015
i will NEVER understand why queer people like this book! not only is much of it TERRIBLE, poorly illustrated inside jokes that aren't explained, it's pretty full of homophobia. this is not a queer classic. it sucks.
April 2, 2010
definition self-indulgent
February 10, 2020
This was....
exhausting
maddening
interior
crazy-making
and kind of wonderful.
exhausting
maddening
interior
crazy-making
and kind of wonderful.
September 27, 2012
Wow, could I have picked a more inappropriate book to read after a break up? Pretty much all that happens in this whole book is Ariel pining for her ex, crying, obsessing, writing letters, deciding whether or not to send letters, wondering what her ex thinks of her comic, masturbating while reminiscing about the sex they had, wearing out every memory through endless replay, reading books her ex likes to try to get inside her mind, etc. I want to say it made me feel less pathetic by comparison but maybe it just opened whole new horizons of indulgent misery to consider. Like what if I just did nothing but cry, drink, smoke, and write bad poems about it?
you cry, drink, take up
smoking (fire and soaking wet,
like) try not to think
Okay no. There's no excuse for bad art, whatever happens! And even with a vulnerability to hideous heartbreak stories this kind of fell flat. I did enjoy the use of different drawing techniques to render different states of mind (from loose and rough and urgent to a glowing detailed dream state - I'd say there are four or five distinct styles through the book). But mainly it felt like Schrag didn't have much to say - there's not really a story, just a lot of agonising. There's a lot less narrative and dialogue than the previous books (Awkward, Definition, Potential) and a lot more of a kind of staccato stream-of-consciousness semi-poetic writing which occasionally works really well but mostly doesn't. I got pretty bored with her internalised homophobia, arrogance, solipsism and writing about writing too.
you cry, drink, take up
smoking (fire and soaking wet,
like) try not to think
Okay no. There's no excuse for bad art, whatever happens! And even with a vulnerability to hideous heartbreak stories this kind of fell flat. I did enjoy the use of different drawing techniques to render different states of mind (from loose and rough and urgent to a glowing detailed dream state - I'd say there are four or five distinct styles through the book). But mainly it felt like Schrag didn't have much to say - there's not really a story, just a lot of agonising. There's a lot less narrative and dialogue than the previous books (Awkward, Definition, Potential) and a lot more of a kind of staccato stream-of-consciousness semi-poetic writing which occasionally works really well but mostly doesn't. I got pretty bored with her internalised homophobia, arrogance, solipsism and writing about writing too.
September 14, 2010
I really tried to love this graphic novel, but it's too self-aware, too self-indulgent, and too poorly edited. Schrag started reading Ulysses and started tape-recording her interactions while working on this, the senior year volume of her high school chronicles, two factors which presumably had a hand in making this almost unreadable at points in its meticulous recreation of the stupid conversations that all high schoolers have. I like my coming-of-age memoirs with a bit more distance and a bit more crafting of narrative and characterization--unfortunately, in recording word for word her conversations with her friends and her tortured 17-year-old diary entries, Schrag produces what is essentially just a series of semi-incoherent Livejournal entries with pictures. Frankly, I don't think Schrag's work would have gotten the level of attention that it has if there wasn't such a tragic dearth of comic books/ graphic novels by and about queer girls. But Fun Home this is not.
May 1, 2009
This did not really appeal to me. It was too…wordy (for one), and the words were often confused and jumbled, and Ariel really dwelled way too much on her relationship with Sally – which she just wasn’t getting over. Maybe I’d have gotten into this if I were still dwelling myself, but I’m not. At one point Sally is telling Ariel that she always liked her (because she was such a cool person) and I wanted to think so, too, but I just wasn’t seeing what it was that was so great. Nor – during Ariel’s whole discussion of what “It” was and what it means to have “It” (a certain coolness not possessed by everyone) – could I see what Ariel or Sally or any of their friends had that made them particularly hip or cool or whatever. What Ariel has (or had in her high school years) is time to obsess, and an autobiographical graphic novel/comic is probably a good place to do that. I ended up skimming this, because I could only get into some of it, and there was so much repetition.
January 16, 2011
Oh, how brilliant this would've been if it had been a couple hundred pages shorter. Following in the footsteps of Potential, this chronicles Schrag's last year of high school, but spends more time dwelling singularly on her struggle to finish writing and drawing Potential and her turbulent relationship with her 1st girlfriend (who is also her 1st ex-girlfriend). Potential managed to have just the right amount of high school angst, mixed with her sexual explorations, while Likewise is angst drawn and written while angsting over angsty things. It has its good moments, they just happened to be buried somewhere in the 400+ page count - the book's only real crime is it's length. But it's worth it just for Schrag's still-present humor and storytelling flair. If you skip over some sections though, no one will blame you.
June 17, 2009
I loved her earlier books with all my heart. This one, I can't even finish- it's too raw, too emotionally painful, and far too stream-of-consciousness and meandering. I'm sad that it didn't work for me. I think that in a lot of ways it felt self-indulgent- I was on page 200 & something and nothing had happened except a lot of wallowing in loneliness for Sally.
I found the drawing to be more interesting than in the earlier work- which is why I gave it two stars despite not finishing it. Schrag is taking some chances here, both with the text and, in my eyes, more successfully with the drawing.
I think this was probably cathartic to write. I'm holding out for the next one, whatever it will be.
I found the drawing to be more interesting than in the earlier work- which is why I gave it two stars despite not finishing it. Schrag is taking some chances here, both with the text and, in my eyes, more successfully with the drawing.
I think this was probably cathartic to write. I'm holding out for the next one, whatever it will be.
April 11, 2009
You know, i really liked awkward and definition. potential was a little slower and less compelling, but likewise...
it's not that it's bad, it's that i already went through that sort of awful solitary world-shattering breakup and i don't particularly want to relive it through a graphic novel. plus, you know, i still keep falling for bad girls (not bad in general, just bad for me), and this is so entrenched in her one non-relationship fallout that it makes me mortified (for her), and uncomfortable. and because of that, loses a lot of the wit and fun cultural commentary that were in the earlier books.
it's not that it's bad, it's that i already went through that sort of awful solitary world-shattering breakup and i don't particularly want to relive it through a graphic novel. plus, you know, i still keep falling for bad girls (not bad in general, just bad for me), and this is so entrenched in her one non-relationship fallout that it makes me mortified (for her), and uncomfortable. and because of that, loses a lot of the wit and fun cultural commentary that were in the earlier books.
July 21, 2009
Disclaimer: I know and adore this author. She is my husband's cousin. But the inner monologue in this book is so compelling, so authentic, and so deeply moving that anyone, whether they knew Ariel or not, would find Likewise impossible to put down.
I devoured this book in two days. It is incredibly honest, complex, and gripping. There are many intertwined layers of meaning in every page, and, while the specifics of the story differ quite a bit from the specifics of the story of my own senior year of high school, the universal themes explored here make the book powerfully personal and relevant.
Run, do not walk, to this book.
I devoured this book in two days. It is incredibly honest, complex, and gripping. There are many intertwined layers of meaning in every page, and, while the specifics of the story differ quite a bit from the specifics of the story of my own senior year of high school, the universal themes explored here make the book powerfully personal and relevant.
Run, do not walk, to this book.
May 12, 2009
Likewise is the autobiographical chroniclings of a girl in her senior year of high school who is trying to write a comic and missing her ex (who has already gone off to college) and pining for a straight girl. It's about applying to college and experimenting with boys and coping with parents who are splitting up and defining oneself as gay, and what that means. Immense appeal to a limited audience.
August 6, 2016
I thought I'd be really sympathetic to someone's stew of toxic thoughts and heartbreak and internalised homophobia following a breakup, but it turns out I have my limits.
I don't really understand the appeal of "brutally honest" autobio things about people being self-absorbed fuckwits? like I can definitely be a dickhead, I'm only human, but I am always trying to be a good and compassionate person. narratives where that desire is missing fall so flat to me.
I don't really understand the appeal of "brutally honest" autobio things about people being self-absorbed fuckwits? like I can definitely be a dickhead, I'm only human, but I am always trying to be a good and compassionate person. narratives where that desire is missing fall so flat to me.
June 15, 2009
Holy fucking shit, guys.
September 23, 2019
This comic holds a lot of Potential. Both in the figurative and literal sense as the references to the preceding graphic novel by Schrag are quite excessive. Since I haven’t read Potential, I had a hard time getting many of the references.
I really liked the idea of this comic book and found Schrags brutal honesty, which never held back and sometimes made her into a dislikeable character, very endearing.
I did recognize my teenage self in Ariel and while sympathizing with her, I was also really annoyed be her bigotry. While reading I was so happy to have left that part of myself in the past and wasn’t really comfortable revisiting these feelings through Schrags book.
I would love to be able to give Likewise a higher rating, but it did feel way too long and repetitive. As if reading my own, annyoing teenage diaries (which didn’t have as great artwork though).
I really liked the idea of this comic book and found Schrags brutal honesty, which never held back and sometimes made her into a dislikeable character, very endearing.
I did recognize my teenage self in Ariel and while sympathizing with her, I was also really annoyed be her bigotry. While reading I was so happy to have left that part of myself in the past and wasn’t really comfortable revisiting these feelings through Schrags book.
I would love to be able to give Likewise a higher rating, but it did feel way too long and repetitive. As if reading my own, annyoing teenage diaries (which didn’t have as great artwork though).
September 4, 2021
A concise rating for this book feels a bit difficult. A third of the way into the book things slow down and the mundanity of high-school prevails. It nips at all the right “spots” - spots that tend to be hard to write, hard to read/care for/focus on. The comic is intensely self-indulgent, grappling with half-realities that are part-memory, part-disillusionment and fanaticism. Not to mention, the whole comic is rife with gay angst and internalized homophobia. That being said, the torrent of nothingness that fills the every day at 16 (whatever age it is?), is frighteningly vivid in this comic. It makes you feel bad, because it makes you remember what those days/weeks/year felt like. It’s also good, because of that.
April 13, 2018
It's definitely an accomplishment that a high schooler could write this, but it's a real slog to get through sometimes. Also, the unexamined affluence is a bit annoying, like when she's trying to decide between going to Barnard and Columbia (they're actually the same place: a women's college and a men's college that merged in the 1970s) because those are here parents alma maters. Heavy eye roll . . .
May 6, 2018
Having really enjoyed Ariel Schrag's graphic memoir documenting her junior year of high school, I similarly thought her senior year's would be earnest, exploratory and mildly amusing. Rather, at 200 or so pages in I'm struggling to finish this. The stream of consciousness narrative, strange and boring esoteric-ish conversations, and pining over her ex-girlfriend feels like an endless bad dream. Maybe I'll pick it up again sometime, but probably not.
December 21, 2021
I really liked the author/artist's previous two graphic novels but this one felt awfully obsessive and navel gazey--and in the worst way--with tiny print in small black and white frames that were impossible to read, never mind not the least bit interesting.
August 30, 2009
A part of me wants to give this a higher rating for the chapters that I enjoyed, but the chapters that I didn't like were such a chore to read. There are moments that interest me: the chapters in which the Ariel deals with questions of her sexuality, whether or not she can identify with other lesbians, whether or not there is scientific reasoning behind homosexuality, whether or not heterosexual sex somehow offers something that she can never have with another female. It's almost heartbreaking to think of how it might feel to "lack" the ability to connect on the same physical level as heterosexuals--"lack" being in quotations because she felt as if lesbian sex was inferior to straight sex, but this is, of course, arguable. I even sympathized with the obsessive longing for her ex-girlfriend... for awhile. The first few times she's curled up in bed alone, eyes filling with tears, it tugged at my heartstrings. By the middle of the book though my sympathy and patience had worn thin. It doesn't help any that the object of her affection isn't very affectionate, but in fact rather detached, only displaying interest in an attempt to keep Ariel from breaking ties.
This brings up one of the main topics of Likewise--the portrayal of friends, acquaintances and everyday situations in Ariel's writing and whether or not she is exploiting the aforementioned as well as her own emotions. She even entertains the idea of jumping in front of a car on the last day of class to give the book "a climax like no other." Although this idea was more of a joke, there are more subtle ways in which Ariel starts to manipulate situations with how it will translate into her comic in mind. So much of the book is just Ariel scribbling away on her comic, lamenting over misplacing her drawing compass, giving up on drawing in favor of masturbation--to an extent that I wonder how it can interest anyone other than the author. (I can relate to masturbation interfering with goals, but still....)
The artwork and style are good--definitely an improvement if the covers of her previous books are any indication. However, there are many chapters in which the artwork seems unfinished, neglected no doubt in favor of masturbation. The carelessness of these sections makes me reluctant to give any of her previous work a chance. Her writing frequently switches from coherency to a stream of consciousness that is confusing to me, having not followed the events of her life previous to her senior year of high school. The flashbacks can be confusing on occasion as well. In her excitement to record her thoughts in the very moment that she has them, the time frame of events isn't always clear.
It may be an accurate depiction of her life, but it is in need of editing. There's probably some value in recording minute and irrelevant details in a diary; however, I don't see a need to include moments that lead to nowhere, especially when publishing something with the expressed ambition of proving that graphic novels are a legitimate form of literature. Ariel sitting on the toilet is the kind of scene I could just as well do without seeing once, much less several times throughout the novel. It would be different if it in some way advanced the plot, but it doesn't. It's more like "O hai, look, this is me taking a shit." Except without any narration or humor.
Some of the dialogue failed as well. The many conversations regarding "It" seemed juvenile and pretentious. I guess that's high school though. (If you're wondering what "It" is, then you must not possess "It," laugh out loud lame.)
The book was disappointing in that I wanted to enjoy every moment of reading it, and didn't. It's easy to look back at the book with fondness for what it gets right, but in the end I have to remind myself that so many parts of it just dragged on needlessly. I would still recommend this to a certain niche, young lesbians in particular, but with the advice of skimming over (m)any chapters in which the reader loses interest.
This brings up one of the main topics of Likewise--the portrayal of friends, acquaintances and everyday situations in Ariel's writing and whether or not she is exploiting the aforementioned as well as her own emotions. She even entertains the idea of jumping in front of a car on the last day of class to give the book "a climax like no other." Although this idea was more of a joke, there are more subtle ways in which Ariel starts to manipulate situations with how it will translate into her comic in mind. So much of the book is just Ariel scribbling away on her comic, lamenting over misplacing her drawing compass, giving up on drawing in favor of masturbation--to an extent that I wonder how it can interest anyone other than the author. (I can relate to masturbation interfering with goals, but still....)
The artwork and style are good--definitely an improvement if the covers of her previous books are any indication. However, there are many chapters in which the artwork seems unfinished, neglected no doubt in favor of masturbation. The carelessness of these sections makes me reluctant to give any of her previous work a chance. Her writing frequently switches from coherency to a stream of consciousness that is confusing to me, having not followed the events of her life previous to her senior year of high school. The flashbacks can be confusing on occasion as well. In her excitement to record her thoughts in the very moment that she has them, the time frame of events isn't always clear.
It may be an accurate depiction of her life, but it is in need of editing. There's probably some value in recording minute and irrelevant details in a diary; however, I don't see a need to include moments that lead to nowhere, especially when publishing something with the expressed ambition of proving that graphic novels are a legitimate form of literature. Ariel sitting on the toilet is the kind of scene I could just as well do without seeing once, much less several times throughout the novel. It would be different if it in some way advanced the plot, but it doesn't. It's more like "O hai, look, this is me taking a shit." Except without any narration or humor.
Some of the dialogue failed as well. The many conversations regarding "It" seemed juvenile and pretentious. I guess that's high school though. (If you're wondering what "It" is, then you must not possess "It," laugh out loud lame.)
The book was disappointing in that I wanted to enjoy every moment of reading it, and didn't. It's easy to look back at the book with fondness for what it gets right, but in the end I have to remind myself that so many parts of it just dragged on needlessly. I would still recommend this to a certain niche, young lesbians in particular, but with the advice of skimming over (m)any chapters in which the reader loses interest.
August 20, 2014
This was a very large and somewhat dense comic memoir. I really admire Ariel Schrag that she was able to take all the weird, embarrassing, great and horrible things that were happening in her high school life and put it all down in her comic.
There were some aspects of teen life that I really recognized, some of the uncomfortableness with friends having a strange order, or meeting acquaintances of friends and feeling like you don't quite belong.
However, I was more a shy kid so I didn't really have what Ariel described as "IT" in one of the more teen sections of the comic. I also recognized that and thought it was kind of funny, teens talking about something abstract in a circle, everyone kind of uncertain or certain. I sympathized with the preppy girl...who may or may not have had IT.
I also never had any teacher that I felt comfortable enough to tell anything that was going on in my life that didn't have to do with school or my parents or other mundane things. Although I liked teachers I never got the sense that I should tell them anything or treat them like they might care about what happens to me.
Overall, a very good read.
There were some aspects of teen life that I really recognized, some of the uncomfortableness with friends having a strange order, or meeting acquaintances of friends and feeling like you don't quite belong.
However, I was more a shy kid so I didn't really have what Ariel described as "IT" in one of the more teen sections of the comic. I also recognized that and thought it was kind of funny, teens talking about something abstract in a circle, everyone kind of uncertain or certain. I sympathized with the preppy girl...who may or may not have had IT.
I also never had any teacher that I felt comfortable enough to tell anything that was going on in my life that didn't have to do with school or my parents or other mundane things. Although I liked teachers I never got the sense that I should tell them anything or treat them like they might care about what happens to me.
Overall, a very good read.
November 24, 2010
While Ariel's drawings always have a certain loose appeal, I found this story a little too wordy and all over the place and not always clear (like a certain type of resentment she sometimes exhibits towards LGBT culture -despite being part of it--and the teacher who councils LGBT teens is never quite explained)There are instances in the book which I'm not sure are supposed to chronicle a type of teen self-important intellectualism or actually embody it themselves--the early discussion of "IT" in the book comes to mind, and makes me wonder if her later interest in Joyce is simply another "IT" posture. Though I see other reviewers have considered the obsession with ex-girlfriend Sally Jults to be too much, I actually welcomed them in the book--they added a bit of concrete emotion to what is otherwise a lot of ennui and semi-intellectual rumination(in other words I'd rather hear about Sally than who/what is or isn't cool enough to be deemed "IT".) Sally's visits home themselves are interesting too--her expression of resentment over being constantly documented for Ariel's comics are one of the few instances we get of someone else's thoughts and feelings besides Ariel's own.
June 30, 2015
I hate giving this a low star rating, because Schrag continues being so honest here and really stretches in her writing, and it was emotionally resonant in that I really felt terrible for what she was going through - so much isolation, paranoia, continuing avoidant/anxious attachment conflict with Sally, questioning the existence of gayness and struggling with internalized homophobia. It is basically reading someone's breakdown in real time and it's painful. So hard to get through. She is clearly influenced by James Joyce so most of the inner narration is Joycean stream of consciousness and halfway through the narrative flow breaks and the rest of the book I read but I'm not sure what was real and when the things that I think happened happened. For me the appeal of a real life comic is experiencing someone's life, and reading this was like someone giving up on trying to make a piece of art and just illustrating her pain. But knowing that she seems to be doing better and has gone on to do more things made me feel less anxious.
July 25, 2010
I really hate to say this since I liked Ariel's previous work, but I simply couldn't get into "Likewise," and I'm stopping on page 240. Nothing much happens in this book -- just a lot of word-for-word transcriptions of high school conversations (complete with every "like" and "um").
Also, at this point in Ariel's life, her previously published graphic novels were understandably affecting her social life, so it makes sense that she would work that element into the plot of this book. However, this would have been much more interesting to read about in a behind-the-scenes interview with her, instead of in the graphic novel itself. Reading a comic book about making a comic book is not exactly gripping.
She did a few things with the artwork that I found interesting; it's an accomplishment, to be sure. I just wish the story had been as compelling as the previous graphic novels. It is on the strength of those other books that I even read as far as I did in this one.
Also, at this point in Ariel's life, her previously published graphic novels were understandably affecting her social life, so it makes sense that she would work that element into the plot of this book. However, this would have been much more interesting to read about in a behind-the-scenes interview with her, instead of in the graphic novel itself. Reading a comic book about making a comic book is not exactly gripping.
She did a few things with the artwork that I found interesting; it's an accomplishment, to be sure. I just wish the story had been as compelling as the previous graphic novels. It is on the strength of those other books that I even read as far as I did in this one.
April 1, 2010
Oh Ariel, of course your awesome high school craziness had to end up in something of a real craziness. This book was too meta, too messy, too plotless, too high-falutin' high school philosophy, too everything. But you know, what the heck. It also seemed to borrow narratively from Ulysses and got me one step closer (I am still way way way too many steps away) to actually considering reading that book. It was weird and sad and sexual and obsessive and hollow, Schrag's life, and yet she's still making art about it and there's something really powerful about that. That even when you're basically crazy and lost, you can still create. That's kind of magical. Alternating illustration styles worked pretty well here, but nonetheless it took me weeks to read, and that's a little unacceptable. For balls, the 3 stars. Way to stick it out little lady.
November 3, 2010
I finished this about a month ago and thought I had added a review, but apparently I didn't.
As Ariel went through high school, her books became longer and longer and seemed to become more self obsessed. There are lot of things that I really liked about this book and yet at times I was wondering if I would finish it. The art work was uneven and displayed a lot of different styles. At times I began to wonder if she was either drawing while high or drunk or if she was just racing through pages to get them done. At other times, there is a genuine talent here with marvelous art work.
It's clear from her books that Ariel really struggled through high school and I applaud her for her courage and for how she approached the unique challenges she faced in high school.
I have been so impressed by her books, that I'm now a regular reader of her blog.
As Ariel went through high school, her books became longer and longer and seemed to become more self obsessed. There are lot of things that I really liked about this book and yet at times I was wondering if I would finish it. The art work was uneven and displayed a lot of different styles. At times I began to wonder if she was either drawing while high or drunk or if she was just racing through pages to get them done. At other times, there is a genuine talent here with marvelous art work.
It's clear from her books that Ariel really struggled through high school and I applaud her for her courage and for how she approached the unique challenges she faced in high school.
I have been so impressed by her books, that I'm now a regular reader of her blog.
Shelved as 'abandoned'
November 4, 2013After adoring
Awkward and Definition: The High School Comic Chronicles of Ariel Schrag
and
Potential
, I anticipating loving this one, too. But after 100 pages of Schrag obsessing over her ex-girlfriend, I was 500% done with that. Especially once Schrag discovers
Ulysses
and fills the book with hundreds of words of poorly handled stream-of-consciousness spewing. Not something I was willing to slog through for 300 more pages.
May 27, 2011
this book is admirable for it's ambition, but it is also damned by it. People who are not intimately familiar with Schragg's previous works will find it confusing, and people looking for concicesness or narrative arc will go home disappointed. It got boring and repetitive, and I was struggling to care about the characters by the end. I definitely just skimmed the last half. Theres a lot of good things in here- it's neat to see how Areiel's grown as an artist, for one -but this book was mostly a confusing mess. It can stand as a warning to wanna-be autobiographical comickers everywhere: nobody gives a shit about you or your friends unless what you do is interesting, so choose your anecdotes wisely. Also, maybe dont give a depressed high schooler a 7 grand advance to write a comic book.
July 9, 2011
In Likewise, Ariel Schrag represents, in comic form, the emotional tumult of her senior year of high school (1997-98), centered on an ongoing relationship with a girl she was in love with who (sort of) just wanted to be friends. Some parts of it are really good, but other parts made me feel embarrassed for Ariel -- the way I would feel if I knew my zines and journals from high school had been compiled into a book that anyone could buy on Amazon. It can get pretty painful reading almost 400 pages by a highly self-aware teen about her internal universe. I can see how this could be an important book for queer teens -- I think I would have liked it a lot more when I was Ariel's age in the comic.
March 7, 2013
I picked these up (all of her books) to help me better understand the life and struggles of those in the LGBT community - a culture I was largely isolated from due to growing up in a small conservative town.
All of Ariel's books are well written, incredibly honest, and great for those looking for more understanding of others. I also really enjoyed the illustrations which had a shaky, awkward feel to them which well captured the feeling of adolescence.
I didn't care for them because they seemed to drag on; she captures so much detail of her High School years that I found myself losing interest. I think I would have liked them more if all would have been condensed into 1 or 2 books rather than one for each year of school.
All of Ariel's books are well written, incredibly honest, and great for those looking for more understanding of others. I also really enjoyed the illustrations which had a shaky, awkward feel to them which well captured the feeling of adolescence.
I didn't care for them because they seemed to drag on; she captures so much detail of her High School years that I found myself losing interest. I think I would have liked them more if all would have been condensed into 1 or 2 books rather than one for each year of school.
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