In October 1993, fourteen-year-old ninth-grader Christine begins keeping a diary. She documents her friendship with "shiny" Landry, her crushes, her work for the school paper and her friendship with Paul, life with her mom and two younger siblings, high school parties, nightswimming, kisses, breakups, and working at a video store. Achingly realistic, yet not too dark.

See also: Phoebe's Diary by Phoebe Wahl; Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

Quotes

...just be normal, like everyone else.
The funny thing is, trying to hard to be normal is starting to make me feel crazy. Like, if I don't empty out all the murky goop swishing around in my brain, my head will eventually explode. (4)

This is like long-distance Truth or Dare. (122)

That's the essence of shiny-ness, really: simultaneously standing out and looking like you belong. (136)

I sometimes have dreams about finding rooms in my house that I didn't know were there. I'll be in a room I've known all my life, and suddenly there's a door that leads to an attic full of treasures. That's how tonight felt: like a door to a world I might never have known....I caught a flash of the other side of heartbreak. Things suck right now, but if I can just hang on, everything will be okay. (212) ( )

Chaotic teen drama but entertaining. The narrative voice is stellar.

Not truly a graphic novel more Diary of a Wimpy Kidish/mixed media-ish ( )

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through Netgalley.)

It's the first day of 1996 and, after a false start with journaling in her freshman year of high school, sixteen-year-old Christine is ready to put pen to paper - all part of her resolution to be a newer, SHINIER version of herself this year. (Kind of like her bestie Landry.) Over the next twelve months, we follow Christine as she makes new friends, and says goodbye to old ones; tries to find love, but mostly just ends up kissing a few losers; applies to college and worries over her lack of a LIFE PLAN; copes with grief after the loss of her father; and realizes that she is in love - and has been all along.

BE THAT WAY is a bit of a time capsule, and the nostalgia factor definitely soothed my GenX heart. However, I was hoping for more: more depth, more pathos, but mostly just more illustrations. I love Larson's style, and was disappointed to find that BE THAT WAY is a little prose-heavy. Alas, Christine doesn't get into graphic novels until the very end of the story, so there's that.

BE THAT WAY felt a bit like reading my own diary from that time period, for better or worse. ( )