It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth: This Book Is for Someone, Somewhere.

Product Information

Thorogood taps into sensation and the way that it is experienced in a way that is unlike anything I've seen before. It's astonishing." - AIPT (review link) Thorogood elevates the dark material with her expressive use of the comics medium and the urgency of her voice. One to watch for the 2020s." ― Forbes I think Zoe's clever use of her wild art works in her favor. Drawing weird faces over people (Similar to Pun Pun Manga) and also having the narrative go all over the place, making it really feel like you're inside her mind just like your inside your own with various thoughts. The art is the strongest part of the story, helping convey her very real and very scary thoughts of killing herself.

Book Genre: Biography, Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Memoir, Mental Health, Nonfiction The creator of this ... book is depressed and a rather miserable person to both herself and those around her. Being in her head was a really horrible experience and I'm sorry that she lives like that 24/7. I don't know if those who are depressed and hate themselves also are nasty and hate others and think horrible things about those around them, or if that is something else causing that for her, but it is really not great to read about. Thorogood is one of the very few comic creators I’ve encountered to successfully capture not only the experience of listening to music but the sensation that a song can have when it resonates with you for ill and good—as happens with her and Cake’s “ Open Book” in It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth from Image Comics. Thanks to @netgalley for allowing me to read this eArc in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Advance Praise

Sure, Zoe uses humor and mix of art styles to give this story a bit of sunshine. And she manages it, creating an amazing piece of surreal art that should be read by everybody. Thorogood’s body of work might be relatively small: two graphic novels, one autobiographical ( It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth), and one not ( The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott); but the impression she has made on the industry is already big. I love how Zoe experiments with different styles throughout the book. The story flows seamlessly, despite the staccato changes in colour, layout, form, etc. It’s a great representation of the bumpy spiral-turned-whirlwind of mental illness. This is a highly self-conscious book, capturing the very human inner contradictions and inner dialogues we all face, particularly during moments of self-doubt. Thorogood is very open and honest—often under the guise of self-deprecating humor—about her mental health, issues with life and struggles with her family. There is a discussion on depression being passed down through generations while the elder generations view mental health as a ‘ dirty secret’ and don’t like how openly she speaks about her own, something I’ve experienced or seen far too often. This is a highly empathetic book, one that you may likely feel is showing you to yourself through the lens of her own self-analysis and so much so that she even jokes about how often people call her work relatable. It is existence exposed in all its messy flaws and joys, a book teeming with life and the feeling that ‘ you’re getting older but you don’t know how to grow up.’

This isn’t the kind of A-to-B, linear, formulaic mental illness story where the protagonist goes from sad to happy, running off into the sunset with a grateful wave to their trauma for all the “good lessons”.

B. Clay Moore discusses the death and life of ‘The Whistling Skull’

wowww..im utterly speechless after reading this one. I don't even know where to start but I guess I'll just start here. depression is messy. it's also not the same for everyone (the onset of it, the duration, and the highs and lows) especially if you have different forms of depression, manic depression (bpd), mdd etc. zoe does an EXCEPTIONAL job of illustrating this and her own experiences of depression in "it's lonely at the centre of the universe." Typically in mainstream media, we tend to see depression look the same and very dramatic, and sometimes (sadly) romanticized. but zoo's experience is unique to herself, yet still relatable and familiar to many. There is disappointment. There are failures. There is self-sabotage and unanswered questions and the author doesn’t tie up all the loose ends with a neat bow. It’s messy. It’s ambiguous. It’s real. The story was heartbreaking in its honesty and familiarity. This is a place many of us have found ourselves at one time or another, and some of us spend way too much time here doubting, hating, or regretting our lives. This could be useful for those who are going through something similar, but I won't be recommending it to anyone unless they are into that sort of thing.

It's sad that in 21. century we are afraid to talk about mental issues as most of those talks end up on some shitty phrase of „support“ such as „think positive“, „you can do it“, „there is nothing wrong with you“. Yet, some people decide to let it all out, a burst of creative energy that gives us a remarkable piece of art with artists pieces of themselves embedded into it.These simplified ways to represent life coming face to face with reality underpin Zoe’s search for actual meaning. In the opening of the book, Zoe explains her hatred of mental health slogans, lines like “there are people who care about you.” She describes them as presumptuous, and there’s a limit to a one-size fits all approach to people’s emotions, just like there’s a limit to how universal a story can be. Thorogood is a master at pinpointing the mental havoc mental illness plays on you and those around you, and the Embodiment of Depression that haunts her looks as vividly evil as it feels when it's weighing down on your chest crippling every decision you make, or refuse to make. Thorogood's representations of herself are also striking. Thus, she portrays herself visually in about half a dozen different ways, with multiple versions of herself often interacting, arguing and competing for attention. The result is a riotous and often confusing explosion of her thoughts and feelings that leap out at the reader. However, the result is not dismal and even during the book's darkest moments Thorogood's artistic brilliance shines through as does her subtle and often self effacing sense of humor. Perhaps the best example of this is the frequent appearance of the personification of her depression which takes the form of a large looming monster that seems to be a hybrid of Ingmar Bergman's Death and a Teletubby.