Lost at Sea [review]

Lost at Sea by Brian Lee O’Malley
Published by Oni Press on July 24, 2012 (originally 2003)
160 pages. ISBN-13: 978-1-93266-416-4
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Raleigh doesn’t have a soul. A cat stole it — or at least that’s what she tells people — or at least that’s what she would tell people if she told people anything. But that would mean talking to people, and the mere thought of social interaction is terrifying. How did such a shy teenage girl end up in a car with three of her hooligan classmates on a cross-country road trip? Being forced to interact with kids her own age is a new and alarming proposition for Raleigh, but maybe it’s just what she needs — or maybe it can help her find what she needs — or maybe it can help her to realize that what she needs has been with her all along. 

Okay, so full disclosure: this book has been sitting on my shelf for I don’t even know how long. Maybe two years? Maybe more? I believe I got it as a Christmas gift and then never got around to it. I honestly haven’t read any Bryan Lee O’Malley except for a bit of Scott Pilgrim in high school (which I’ve been meaning to read in full at some point). I put Lost at Sea on my TBR for the Make Me Read readathon since it’s a relatively short book and a graphic novel to boot. And I am so, so glad I finally got around to reading it!

I get thoughts like:
I look in the mirror and I don’t belong there. I see myself and I look all wrong. Stephanie looks bold and bouncy and fresh and normal, and I look like something else. Too long, too stringy, too pasty, too squarish,
kind of inhuman.

Oh boy, this whole thing hit me right in the heart. Rileigh isn’t flat-out labeled as having depression, but I related a lot to the ways in which she acted and the thought patterns that she had and it felt very similar to my own experiences with depression. It was incredible reading this, feeling like O’Malley reached into my brain and plucked the words right out and put them in the pages of this book.

The illustrations were just gorgeous as well. Sometimes I get distracted while reading graphic novels if I don’t enjoy the art, but I thought this was just beautiful. The style was perfect and I felt things were conveyed very well. I think I posted about a thousand pictures to my Instragram story as I was reading. I can’t wait to read this again after letting in marinate in my mind a little. I definitely highly recommend this book to all and am so glad that I have my own copy, which is something that I don’t usually consider a necessity as far as books go anymore.

Anyway, thanks for reading! Please let me know in the comments what you thought of Lost at Sea or, if you haven’t read it, whether you’ll consider adding it to your TBR. You can also find me over on Twitter and Goodreads.