Brontosaurus Illustrated

This is a "graphic memoir," in that it includes wonderful cartoon drawings by the author as she quickly takes you through the rape part and then on to the long effort to rebuild her life. Both tragic and comic, the book strikes an excellent balance between explaining the horror of afterwards when no one knows how to cope with her situation, including college doctors, her family, and her friends, and the reality of day-to-day living in an uninterested world. The author sees now how she dealt with her trauma and ultimately moved beyond it. And yet, there is always that Brontosaurus (bigger than an elephant) in the room with her. The cartoons carry us along until we feel the author has turned this late teen travesty (not just rape but rape/hostage situation at gunpoint and machete!) into a reason for her fabulous creativity and sense of humor. Recommended for all ages, late teens and up. Will make you think too about body politics!

This is an intimate view of terror, made palatable by incredible writing and the authors attitude. The graphics are really great and tell the tale almost without the words. but the words .. the words.. Some will haunt you, some will make you laugh, some will make you take a few minutes to think a bit more deeply, some will move you, some will make you cry and yet there is not a spare word in the tightly written memoir. Everyone would benefit from reading this book.

There is nothing entertaining about rape. Here, though, Leanne Grabel uses such muscular and precise words to describe a young woman's experience during and after rape that the reader becomes engaged immediately. Grabel's art (on every page!) lets us get up close to tangled feelings and experience an intimacy that words alone couldn't convey. Some passages are absolutely hilarious in their honesty. This is a gorgeous book -- gorgeously told and designed. What a gift!

For decades, I have been a huge fan of Leanne Grabel's writing, poetry, illustration, and performance art. It took courage to read her earlier memoir "Brontosaurus: Memoir of a Sex Life", one of the bravest personal memoirs I've read. Generously alert to her audience, Leanne holds your hand through her boomerang-shaped trauma to essential healing. Her style–percussive truth released as story-jazz. The new graphic novel "Brontosaurus Illustrated" layers gifts of thought-rhythm drawings to punctuate this story completely. People!!! Read this extraordinary book!