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Nov 21, 2008

Lara's rated it:

Synopsis:NAME THAT DEMON!!! Freaky Boyfriends! Shouting Moms! Innocence betrayed! Rotten things we've done that will haunt us forever! These are some of the pickled demons Lynda Barry's storeis serve up comic-strip style, mixing the true and un-true into something she calles "autobifictionalography." Inspired by a 16th-century Zen monk's painting of a hundred demons chasing each other across a long scroll, and encouraged by a 20th-century editor, Barry's demons jump out of these pages More...

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Mar 05, 2009

lola rated it:

In my dreams of teenage trauma prophylaxis Kathleen Hanna hands me Pussy Whipped and this book as a 13 year old, before I lose my virginity. Avenue D is playing in the background: "Shit, you know they all just want to hit it./They're just talking shit 'cos they want it," which, although nobody will prank call my house at 3am to call me a slut for a couple years, is a revelation that rings true.

I come out of adolescence unscathed.

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 13, 2008

Malbadeen rated it:

how stupid am I for not reading this before?! super stupid! It was awesome.
Highlights for me:

-"Common Scents" was hilarious.

-"Hate" was gratifying.

-The line, "This ability to exist in pieces is what some adults call resilience. And I suppose in some way it is a kind of resilience that makes adults believe children forget trauma" collapsed the chest of both my childhood self as well as my parental self.

-The dialog More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jun 27, 2007

Leslie rated it:

I caught myself thinking about taking up a paintbrush and water colors while reading this so I could paint out my demons too. I really love the one about the aswang (a scary dog demon story that her grandma tells her interwoven with a bunch of mother-daughter stuff), Dancing---amazing amazing amazing---just think hula + suave uncles dancing the twist in the kitchen + dancing baby-madness in the morning + trying to befriend the coolest dancing girl in the world. "Sensitive nose" and " More...

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Dec 22, 2008

Amber rated it:

Lynda Barry is masterful. A wonderful book for teens and adults both. Thought provoking but very authentic and real. Honest.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 08, 2010

Rachel added it

As a Buddhist, I really enjoyed this book. What a unique and genius take! I wish I had better words to describe it. Lynda Barry really took the graphic novel to new heights while using an Asian painting exercise in “One Hundred Demons.” Within, she covers seventeen “autobifictionalographic” stories where she observes and meditates on different “demons” that have affected her life throughout the years. Some of the demons/stories she shares are serious- like her hateful and abusive mother while ot More...

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Jun 30, 2009

Andrew rated it:

What probably worked as a serialized comic strip on Salon.com doesn't really work (for me, at least...a lot of five star reviews on this site, so I might just be weird) in book format. It took me forever to finish this because I could only bring myself to read two or three "demons" at a time. The self-consciously juvenile artwork fits the concept, but that doesn't stop it from getting distractingly ugly very, very fast. As for the stories themselves, they are occasionally quite touchi More...

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Apr 21, 2009

Jack rated it:

Read for my comic book club and really enjoyed it! Barry has an artistic style that initially put me off but that I grew to really admire. I think I didn't like how she drew herself as a kid -- she's so awkward it's actually painful! Once I got into it and was able to see a bit of the author and the life behind the self-portraiture, I found the book to be filled with wonderful, melancholy insights into growing up and shot through with equal parts humor and anguish.

There are a fe More...

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May 12, 2010

Brenda rated it:

According to the blurb on the back cover, Barry describes her work as: "Autobifictionalography."

Her introduction poses two relevant questions: "Is it autobiography if parts of it are not true?" and "Is it fiction if parts of it are?"

Having read Barry's _What It Is_ not so long ago, I've been thinking of composing an article called "What It Isn't." But, I can't even figure out what to put on a rubric for the creative writing class More...

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Sep 14, 2011

Martin rated it:

I first read this comic on salon.com when I was 24, which was just old enough to appreciate the tone of regret, trauma, and fragile beauty. I was crushed when the comic ended after only 17 entries. Reading it again ten years later, the writing affects me in the same way it did then. I am surprised how well I remember these stories and how I internalized them to help me make sense of the pain of growing up. The economy of Barry's storytelling is amazing. In just 18 panels she can reduce me t More...

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Aug 31, 2010

Thomas rated it:

I didn't immediately feel drawn to Lynda Barry's work. The Reader had Marlys pretty much every week, and I most often skipped it. Something about the style.

Oh, my regrets!

This is such a great collection of comics; such a wonderful arc, so many good stories, so many smiles and laughs and tears and meaningful moments.

Some comic artists have great drawing talent that is so far beyond any real insight, and you can get trapped and think that maybe comics are just More...

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Nov 21, 2008

Woodge rated it:

An amusing autobiographical(?) take on a girl's childhood. In graphic novel form.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 02, 2009

Sherry (sethurner) rated it:

Lynda Barry's graphic novels - or are they comics? - are guilty pleasures for me. This one was fascinating on lots of levels for me. First off are the stories, which are partially true, partially fictional, and which talk about her childhood and young adulthood. She doesn't have a hundred stories/demons, only seventeen, with titles like Head Lice and My Worst Boyfriend, Lost Worlds, Dancing, Hate, Resilience, Dogs, Girlness, and Lost and Found. There's lots of pain here, but also some humor, More...

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Jan 09, 2011

Cade rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 29, 2010

Samuel rated it:

This book was good--not brilliant, but really solid work. I particularly love how she breaks one of the cardinal rules of memoir (it shouldn't be therapeutic) and then celebrates that she did ("Writing this was SO therapeutic!"). I also love how she breaks another cardinal rule of memoir and just makes stuff up for the sake of a good story (From now on, I'm planning to use her term "autobifictionalography" in response to everyone who asks if my fiction is based on my own li More...

4 comments like

Aug 22, 2010

Joanna rated it:

I picked this book up mainly because of the rumors that Ira Glass is the head lice demon boyfriend. After reading it, I think his identity is pretty clear, and her take on him (drawn reading the Lonely Genius Gazette and talking weirdly about his mother) is one of the funnier things in this collection.

I liked the idea of the Hundred Demons very much, and some of the stories are memorable and moving. But the quality of the narrative struck me as a bit uneven from strip to strip, and More...

2 comments like

Jun 26, 2008

K rated it:

one of the first graphic novels i ever read. i just read it again and i love the part with her teacher who teaches about prejudice. it's so sweet.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 15, 2010

Jennifer rated it:

This is the first book of Lynda Barry's that I've read and I thought it was amazing. Her mix of comics and collage is beautiful to look at, but her stories were what I truly loved. She writes that she got the idea of drawing one hundred demons from a zen practice. Each "demon" is a chapter of memories from her childhood that capture so aptly the confusion and wonder of being a kid, all those unknownable things that happen outside your understanding and the sad guilts you continue to More...

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Nov 04, 2010

Jessica rated it:

This was one of those books that I didn't love, or even really like. But it has such positive reviews on Goodreads, and everyone I know who's read it liked it, so I wondered if maybe something was really wrong with me. There were a few things that I liked about it, so I'll start with those. I really liked the concept of One Hundred Demons. Writing about the personal demons that have haunted Lynda Barry throughout her life is such a great concept and it made me want to try it myself (as the bo More...

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Mar 01, 2008

Monica rated it:

Lynda Barry is a fantastic artist/writer who needs to be better known in the children's lit/YA world.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 07, 2010

Sharon rated it:

Lynda Barry's version of an old Asian painting exercise where she releases demons from her life onto the paper alternates between humorous and painful anecdotes she is working through from her childhood to early adulthood to the present (2000 election). All of them are poetically and artfully realized, a few (such as her lost childhood memories of kickball and the reason she stopped dancing) to the point where they brought tears to my eyes. This is maybe my favorite thing by her so far, an amazi More...

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Nov 13, 2009

Kali rated it:

One day, cartoonist Lynda Barry came across an ancient exercise by a Buddhist monk that calls for a painter to practice technique by drawing one hundred little demons. So she tried it, and after she inked a bunch of critters with tails and horns, she began exorcising some her own personal demons. One! Hundred! Demons! is the result, a crafty little first-person graphic memoir about living through the pains of everything from dating to dancing to the 2000 presidential election. Each of Barry’s More...

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Nov 04, 2010

MariNaomi rated it:

Until I read this book, I never truly "got" Lynda Barry's comics. I appreciated the creativity in her artwork, I was entertained by her brand of storytelling (I loved her novel Cruddy, for example), but her comics never really clicked with me on a visceral level. Well, One! Hundred! Demons! has changed all that. The stories are so well-written, sweetly and simply drawn, and have a universal, emotional tug that makes me crave more. I am glad to finally get on the Lynda Barry bandwagon, More...

4 comments like

May 01, 2009

Sara Jaye rated it:

READ THIS BOOK! YES, YOU! Seriously, i don't have *that* many friends on this site, and i'm not going to name names b/c that would be creepy, but i specifically think that each of you would really enjoy reading it if you haven't already.

I plowed through it all too quickly and am looking forward to re-reading it as well as her other books. Lynda Barry is a freaking genius. Don't be deceived by the bright colors...this book is written from an all-too-adult perspective. Thanks much for More...

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Mar 17, 2011

Lindsey rated it:

As much as we tsk and shake our heads at how cruel children can be to one another, the bullies of the world have inspired pure genius out of painful awkwardness, and Lynda Barry is the patron saint of the painfully awkward genius. In One Hundred Demons, Barry examines "demons" from her adolescence that continue to haunt, and in so doing has created a collection that is quite relatable to almost anyone. She blends a fluid Japanese brush-stroke inspired style with elements of collage, ma More...

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Feb 17, 2008

Stevelvis rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Nov 04, 2008

Ciara rated it:

the most interesting part of this book (it was in this book, wasn't it? i read a shit-ton of lynda barry all in a few days & maybe got confused) is her story about when she used to date ira glass (though she didn't specify him by name) & he was a total douche who used to call her "little ghetto girl" & generally treat her like she was dumb. this is a series of comics about fucked up shit that went on in lynda's life, or stuff that makes her life a little less than the awesomeness it co More...

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Jul 15, 2009

Christie rated it:

this is by far the most inspirational and fun book i have read in a long time. her insights and drawings aren't perfect or mindblowing, but they are better than all that somehow. it's just what i needed. i got that feeling i used to get when i was a kid hiding from chores and parents in my closet, just reading the day away. i looooooooooove lynda barry liked i used to love judy blume. it's part catharsis, part just some chick who really gets you and the stuff you've been through.

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Feb 06, 2009

Lindsey rated it:

what i learned from this book is that i've been a fool for many years for thinking i wouldn't like lynda barry, for whatever reason. i don't think i thought her work would be smart; i don't think i thought it would be truly touching or funny or relatable and it was all of those things. she does what my favorite great authors do, and that is take a specific moment from a specific life and somehow make it both painfully and thankfully familiar to my specific heart. LOVED.

1 comment like

Apr 12, 2008

Charlaralotte rated it:

My bro gave this book for my b-day. Yea, Ben!

I remember loving her "Marlys" comics in the LA Weekly. I thought this book was wonderful. Lots of horrible things happen to her as a young person. She's got a great way of condensing a lot of the pain of existence into one or two panels of a comic strip. I loved her Filipino grandma singing "Segie Segie baby" instead of "Shake it up baby now". I loved the story of the end of her friendship with her best frien More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)