Books › I Am Not Okay With This
I Am Not Okay With This
192 pages
A stark, deadpan exploration of teenage alienation where repressed trauma manifests as uncontrollable, destructive power.
What it feels like
Reading this graphic novel feels like watching a fuse burn down in real time. It is a brisk, claustrophobic experience that traps you inside the messy, volatile headspace of a teenager grappling with grief, queer longing, and a terrifying lack of control. The stark, minimalist line art creates a deeply unsettling contrast with the raw, violent emotional reality of the narrative, evoking the innocence of classic newspaper strips while delivering a gut-punch of modern angst. The tone is deadpan and cynical, yet profoundly vulnerable, capturing the agonizing awkwardness of adolescence with a dark, supernatural twist. It will thoroughly delight readers who gravitate toward gritty, unapologetic coming-of-age stories where the monsters aren't hiding under the bed, but are instead bubbling up from within.
- Mood
- claustrophobic
- angsty
- volatile
- bleak
- Tone
- deadpan
- cynical
- raw
- darkly comedic
- detached
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- teenage alienation · repressed trauma · queer awakening · loss of control · grief and anger
- The writing
- Stark, minimalist dialogue pairs with deceptively simple, classic-comic-strip line art to create a jarring contrast with the heavy subject matter.
- The arc
- A slow-building pressure cooker of repressed emotion that inevitably boils over into a devastating, explosive release.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave gritty, unapologetic explorations of teenage angst and trauma wrapped in a darkly weird, supernatural edge.
Content notes
- suicide
- graphic violence
- grief and loss
- PTSD
- self-harm
About the book
Sydney seems like a normal, rudderless fifteen-year-old freshman. She hangs out underneath the bleachers, blasts music in her friend's car, and gets into arguments with her annoying little brother. But she also has a few secrets she’s only shared in her diary: how she's in love with her best friend, the bizarre death of her war veteran father, and excruciatingly painful telekinetic powers that keep popping up at the most inopportune times. Charles Forsman once again expertly channels teenage ethos in a style that evokes classic comics strips while telling a powerful story about the intense, and sometimes violent, tug of war between trauma and control. I Am Not Okay With This tackles familial strain, sexual confusion, and PTSD in Forsman's signature straight-faced-but-humorous style and firmly stakes his place among the world's best cartoonists.
Description from Open Library.
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