“Recognize your uniqueness. Be proud of who you are, what you have, what your life is about, and what you want to pursue. Pay attention to your own path. You don’t need validation from others.” – 4.25/5 stars!
Attention! This book contains: cute illustrations, depression, mental illness, feelings, being overwhelmed, big workloads and great partners.
From the bestselling author of Quiet Girl in a Noisy World comes a gently humorous and poignant collection of comics about anxiety and depression—because sometimes even the simple things like getting out of bed every day feel like an uphill battle.
Everything Is OK is the story of Debbie Tung’s struggle with anxiety and her experience with depression. She shares what it’s like navigating life, overthinking every possible worst-case scenario, and constantly feeling like all hope is lost.
The book explores her journey to understanding the importance of mental health in her day-to-day life and how she learns to embrace the highs and lows when things feel out of control. Debbie opens up about deeply personal issues and the winding road to recovery, discovers the value of self-love, and rebuilds a more mindful relationship with her mental health.
In this graphic memoir, Debbie aims to provide positive and comforting messages to anyone who is facing similar difficulties or is just trying to get through a tough time in life. She hopes to encourage readers to be kinder to themselves, to know that they are not alone, and that it’s okay to be vulnerable because they are not defined by their mental health struggles. The dark clouds won’t be there forever. Everything will turn out all right.
I didn’t know what to expect when I picked this up, but I ended up being pleasantly surprised with this book!
This graphic novel is, in essence, a memoir. In it you’ll read about the author’s struggles with mental illness and depression and how she overcame those challenges in her life. She talks about how it started and how people’s expectations built up to her feeling overwhelmed and depressed. She then shares with the reader how she felt and how professional help was crucial in getting her better.
There’s a lot of great things about this book, but what I think makes this book so amazing is how relatable it is and how it almost works as a guide for other people going through the same situation. You get everything here: you read about how it started, how she felt and what she did to overcome it. Not only that but you also get great advice and motivation from her. She touches in a lot of important points like being aware of your internal dialog and taking care of yourself. I’m very glad there are a lot of inspirational and motivational moments in this book!
I was also surprised with the art and how it paired beautifully with the content of the book! It was simple, but beautiful. I really liked how the author used color to highlight the happier times and black/white for the times she was depressed. I also really liked the color scheme the author used for the novel! There’s a lot of purple, pink and blue.
While I was reading this, I kept taking note of the quotes that I loved and there were so many of them. So here are a few of my favorites:
“I used to see my sensitivity as a weakness. I’ve come to understand that it is also my strength.”
“It’s OK to not know what you’re doing. It’s OK to feel overwhelmed. It’s OK to feel scared and confused. It’s all OK.”
“I can be really hard on myself. But I’m still learning. I’m trying my best. And that’s what matters.”
“You are allowed to have a little cry. It doesn’t mean you’re not coping. It doesn’t mean you’re failing.”
I’m impressed. Now I have a great book to recommend to other people who are going through the same challenges. I think the author did an amazing job with this book!
A big thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review
Sprayed Edges 