Books › One! Hundred! Demons!
One! Hundred! Demons!
224 pages
A chaotic, collage-filled exorcism of childhood memories that blurs the line between truth and fiction to get at the messy heart of growing up.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like being handed the keys to a brilliant, slightly unhinged artist's private diary. It is a visually dense, frenetic explosion of mixed-media collage and handwritten text that pulls you instantly into the chaotic headspace of adolescence and lingering adult anxieties. The pace is brisk and episodic, bouncing between darkly comedic observations and sudden, gut-punching moments of vulnerability. It wraps heavy themes of childhood trauma, bad boyfriends, and shifting friendships in a warm, wry nostalgia that never feels saccharine. Blurring the lines between memoir and fiction, the narrative creates a deeply intimate, cathartic atmosphere. It will absolutely delight readers who love indie comics and anyone who finds comfort in confronting their own messy, pickled demons with a sense of humor.
- Mood
- frenetic
- bittersweet
- cathartic
- intimate
- Tone
- wry
- vulnerable
- chaotic
- nostalgic
- darkly comedic
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- childhood trauma · memory and truth · confronting personal demons · resilience through art · the messiness of growing up
- The writing
- Visually dense and textually frantic, featuring handwritten lettering and mixed-media collages that feel like reading a brilliant, unfiltered diary.
- The arc
- Moves from frantic, humorous recollections of childhood anxieties to a profound, cathartic acceptance of one's flawed past.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave messy, honest memoirs and find comfort in art that embraces the weird, painful, and hilarious parts of being human.
Content notes
- childhood trauma
- emotional abuse
- racism
- substance abuse
- depression
About the book
"Name that demon!!! Freaky boyfriend! Shouting Moms! Innocence betrayed! Rotten things we've done that will haunt us forever! These are some of the pickled demons Lynda Barry's stories serve up comic-strip style, mixing the true and the un-true into something she calls "autobifictionalography". Inspired by a 16th-century Zen monk's painting of a hundred demons chasing each other across a long scroll, and encouraged by a 20th-century editor at Salon.com, Barry's demons jump out of these pages and double-dare you to speak their names." - Provided by Publisher
Description from Open Library.
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