Imagine Wanting Only This / Kristen Radtke / 278 pgs

Very few books make me want to throw it across the room, burn it, then throw it again. Usually, if I don't like a book, it's because the book is boring or just not that well written. This one made me furious. The only redeeming quality it has is that the artist/author is really good at drawing. It was depressing, navel-gazing, and self-serving. It's autobiographical, and the author chose to capitalize on a sad tale of a man who died tragically, a stranger she didn't even know, without consulting the family of the deceased man to make sure it was okay. Let's just say I won't shed a tear the moment this awful graphic novel is taken out of circulation at my library.

However, if all what I said before doesn't deter you from this book, or has now made you almost morbidly curious, here's a summary of what it is about:

College girl loses her favorite uncle at a young age due to a genetic heart condition that runs in the family. She begins a years-long obsession with ruins, whether they be the ruins of a theater in a dying town, like Gary, Indiana, or Ancient Greek ruins all the way in Europe. Meanwhile, her increasing depression makes her break off an engagement and stop finding meaning in anything in her life, because all of life is just dust and future ruins, doncha know? Interspersed are historical stories that have nothing to do with the author's own life other than to just illustrate the futility of life.

One of my favorite quotes is from Doctor Who, "Sad is happy for deep people." Well, I guess I'm more shallow than I thought because the author's kind of depression was too much for me.