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Aug 23, 2008

Kim rated it:

I had heard great things about this and was on board until I found out it was a graphic novel. Okay, don't hate me, but something abou graphic novels turns me off. Right from the get-go. It's completely shallow. I wish I could tell you why. Maybe it has to do with the fact that when I was 16 my best friend was into them. And when I say 'into them' what I really mean is that she found a boy she liked who liked comics so she had to know absolutely everything there was to know about the genre More...

11 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jul 04, 2010

Andy rated it:

The worst thing that happened to “Ghost World” was that a movie was made of it, because it pawned the book effortlessly. Dan Clowes’ book was so cynical and condescending towards its subject matter that the film couldn’t help making the girls more likeable.

Case in point: when Enid and Rebecca are watching a lousy comic on television the Movie Enid says, “this guy rules, I want to totally do him”, it’s said with a dose of sarcasm and demented humor. The Book Enid says it with a jaded More...

5 comments like (10 people liked it)

Feb 08, 2010

jo rated it:

american representations of adolescents and post-adolescents in films and books have always left me cold, if not alienated. why do i have so little in common with these kids? why was my life and the lives of the italian teens i currently know and follow so vastly different? i blame american culture of violence and vice (for lack of a better world), kids' need to find themselves in drunkenness and drugs, when we had... what? what did we have? what do the italian kids i know have?

i th More...

12 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jun 13, 2011

Cindy rated it:

Don't hate me, Jayme! I liked it but didn't love it.

Two best friends since childhood fight but are inseparable sometime after high school but before college/work/life. They have no plans for the future, so they wallow in their silly lives, pushing around everyone around them. Really, they are flailing in that teenage angsty way.

Clowes captures the Essence of Hipster Friendship*. Everybody sucks, everything is lame - but if it's extremely lame, then it becomes cool again. More...

5 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 03, 2011

Evan rated it:

I could easily see myself depicted in a panel in this lovely graphic novel, with its snarky young teen heroine Enid reading my review of it and saying something like: "I mean, what kind of loser dork has the time to write a *review* of a 20-year-old graphic novel. Probably some middle-age loser living in his mom's basement."

Actually, I have written Goodreads reviews in my mom's basement. So, touche' Enid.

But I am writing this one in my own home, the double-mortg More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 05, 2008

Evil_Dead_Junkie rated it:

I have a great affection for Ghost World in both book and movie form, and not just because half of the movie was shot like three blocks from my apartment (The movie theater Enid works at for awhile really is THAT pathetic).

It speaks truth to (lack of) power. Most films about Geeks and Geek Culture tend to give us the upper hand, even when they proclaim themselves observations. A book like High Fidelity gently questions are assumptions and styles. Ghost World slaps you upside the hea More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Feb 23, 2011

Djll rated it:

Clowes is immensely talented but his style doesn't quite ring my bell. Nevertheless, I just picked this up at Pegasus in Berkeley for less than 1/3 cover price. OH MY FUCKING GOD! I am such a loser, always talking about how I saved a few precious dollars on this or that piece of shit. My life has no meaning.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 20, 2008

Sharm rated it:

Ghost World by Daniel Clowes has been the only comic book so far from the library that I haven't enjoyed completely. It was a pretty strong reaction as well, as while reading the book I felt an almost physical urge to put it down. I had to think about why this was so for quite a while before realizing that far from the book being bad, it was instead too good.

I'll explain. The book follows the lives of two teenage girls in smalltown America somewhere. Its anonymity is key to the atmos More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 07, 2007

Lacey rated it:

I read this graphic novel after watching the movie of the same name. My main critique of it is that some of the teenagers look middle-aged and that there were places where frames seemed to be missing -- I think I would have been a little more disoriented without the movie to guide me. But other than that, I feel totally freaked that a man could write about bitter teenage girlfriends drifting apart with such skill, sensitivity, and accuracy. If you want a comparison, the novel definitely pierces More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2009

Tim rated it:

In my opinion, Ghost World has the perfect relation between graphic novel and movie- they are separate entities, both with their own thing going on, both with artistic merit. The more I think about it, I'm not sure comics (or books) need to be adapted for the screen at all (says the kid who ruined several pairs of underwear during the LOTR years). Hrm. I guess books are better to adapt than comics being that comics already have a visual aspect. But that 'exit interivew' thing that Alan Moor More...

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Oct 20, 2011

ηicolε rated it:

I’m going to be bluntly honest here. I did not feel this storyline. At all.

Nothing really happens, even though the author sets up some really good ideas. First I thought that maybe something was going to come of the weird paedophilic moment at the dinner, but it was just mentioned and then left hanging. Then I thought maybe this whole homosexual aspect of the two main character’s relationship would develop into a conflict of sorts, but again, nothing really comes of it. There were m More...

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May 30, 2011

christa rated it:

I just stopped hating Daniel Clowes' graphic novel "Ghost World" like 7 minutes ago. Literally. I've had a long history of hating the listless bitches Enid and Rebecca and their ironic diner hopping, misfit hounding and personality contriving. But it just went away. Like a decade-old hate fever that finally broke.

Fact: My boyfriend and I rarely fight. So rarely that I can remember that we did have a fight in 2007 while watching the movie "Ghost World" about how much More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 14, 2010

Elliot rated it:

I couldn't get through the movie, because I found Enid and Rebecca too irritating. Clowes' comic, however, seems much more tastefully presented. Although there are a number of relevant oddball characters (my absolute favorite being the man who sits on the bench waiting for a bus on a closed busline), this graphic novel is primarily an exploration of the crumbling relationship of two apathetic, disaffected teens.

The graphic novel succeeds most in its subtlety -- almost nothing happens More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 14, 2010

Jason rated it:

This book is so brutally honest it can't fail to cut the reader a number of times. The sarcasm and ennui is pitch perfect and the desire to fit in as well as the loathing of those that do actually fit in hits home a little too much. The girls here have a toxic sort of relationship in which they live in jealousy and angst over the other but they are simultaneously their only support systems. Additionally, they are addicted to social interaction, but solely as a means of feeding their jokes at the More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 29, 2009

Erik rated it:

Rereading this for at least the second time is like revisiting an old friend. It’s not that it necessarily gets better with age. Instead, it simply reminds one of how Clowes was able to take a very simple story – two friends that are forced to grow up a little over the summer after high school and before life really begins – and create his own quirky and signature magic.

Enid is still the wise-cracking quasi-goth/hipster wannabee, and Becky is still frozen in time as her plain Jane g More...

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May 03, 2009

Jason rated it:

It's impossible that these weren't girls he knew, yet i think he made them up. They are so transparent, so 'high school', it breaches a fourth wall of fiction and you see right through, him; This is just stuff that happened to you, right?! That's the talent. The intellectual phrasings these girls use (at a Dinosaur miniature golf-course, "I remember this being so much bigger...Oh my God! I'm having a pseudo-religious experience right now.") Clowes doesn't skip out on minor details More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Susie rated it:

this is one of those books that forces me to marvel at the rare accuracy of middle-aged men able to represent the thought processes of young women in minor rebellion and the mundane appeal of their stupid, witty banter. in short, when i read this and when i re-read this twenty times over, i felt like i was reading a well documented account of day-to-day with my friends from when i was a teenager. truly awesome.

also, it's a comic book. i adore dan clowes' drawing style, but that's app

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 22, 2010

Schuyler rated it:

I don't know why I hadn't read this before. It seems kinda essential to any graphic novel lover's library. A classic, if you will. Just passed me by I suppose. I remember watching the movie...though I don't remember the movie itself very well. In my memory, I have cinematic visuals to go along with the graphic novel though I only remember specific bits and pieces. There's this guy who writes these suggestive signs in his window, right? To the girls? Or is that another movie? Either way, More...

0 comments like

Mar 08, 2011

Christine rated it:

I'm the first to admit, I don't read a lot of graphic novels. But Ghost World came recommended to me by a friend and I thought, why not.

I love how this is a coming of age story with an authentic teenage voice. Enid's struggle to find her identity had me laughing out loud in some areas and wanting to cry in others. The changing of her outfits was the externalization of her trying out different facets of her growing personality, not all with successful results.

Her relatio More...

2 comments like

Dec 16, 2010

Amy rated it:

I loved this book so much when I first read it at eighteen and after I re-read it recently at twenty-five, I was really pleased to see that it hasn't lost anything in the passing of time.Ghost World's wit, charm and endless mountains of sarcasm somehow feel just as fresh as they ever did - and I think this is to do with the eternalness of the plotline of two young female best friends with no clue about what they're going to do with their lives now that high school is over. Sure, Enid Coleslaw an More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 22, 2010

Stevecrandell rated it:

How can a teenager get so bitter? For most of us, it takes a couple decades soaking in emotional acid. But for Enid, not yet off to college, every graphic frame is an invitation to spit bile. She drops an F-bomb every other sentence, and other forms of abuse almost non-stop. She saves her strongest hate for men, but doesn’t seem to like anyone else much either, including herself.

Her best friend Becky is almost as vulgar, but more inclined to see some good in humanity. Given their su More...

0 comments like

Oct 03, 2011

Q rated it:

I can see how this comic would have massive cult appeal to the 'disenfranchised youth' of the 90's. However, this book is the bastard child of Strangers in Paradise and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac with a dash of Clerks. It has all the negativity of both books (Plus Daria and Roseanne) but none of the wit, charm or cleverness.

Don't get me wrong, I love negativity. Negativity is awesome if delivered with some class. This book has no class.

Like mommy Strangers in Paradise it fea More...

0 comments like

Mar 31, 2009

Molly rated it:

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

0 comments like

Jan 03, 2012

Ketan rated it:

Perfectly captures the mood of teenage life. The characters are incredibly self absorbed and often cruel and unpleasant ,but that's kind of the point. Clowes doesn't gloss over how mean teenage girls can be but he also shows us how it's often a defense mechanism too. makes me want to watch the movie. If you enjoyed this you might like the work of Harvey Pekar and Jim Valentino's Touch of Silver, Vol. 1. You might also like Tom perotta's Bad Haircut ,book:Bad Haircut: Stories of the Seventies|289 More...

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Jun 21, 2009

Kelly rated it:

Full review at http://yannabe.com/2009/06/20/review-gho...

Summary: Enid and Becky have been best friends forever and do everything together. They’re graduating from high school, so Enid is thinking of moving away to college but Becky doesn’t want her to go.

Review: This has been my favorite graphic novel so far, although I haven’t read very many yet. In the movie adaptation, I wish they had stuck to the book a bit more because the book was (of course) much better.

More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Dec 28, 2007

W.B. rated it:

This is really brill. One of the best graphic novels I've ever read. The movie was awesome but the book (which differs from the script in substantial ways) is eve better...and funnier. My favorite scene is the "Satanists" filling their grocery cart with Lunchables. Too adorable. How did a man write the definitive adolescent girl book?? WTFG, Mr. Clowes.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 09, 2010

Vanessa rated it:

Among the reading goals for this year were read more classics (check) and read a graphic novel to attempt to get over my irrational prejudice towards them. Of course, I kind of cheated with this selection as I'd already seen the movie and lurved it. And Daniel Clowes is pretty much the ne plus ultra of graphic novelists. I did love this book at any rate and the extra dimension the art work added. The Lunchables punchline was made for a visual. As were the final images of Enid alone in her existe More...

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Nov 29, 2008

Lindsey rated it:

After reading "Fun Home," I wanted to read more graphic novels, and several people recommended "Ghost World" as a place to start. I haven't seen the movie, so I don't know how it compares, but in general I feel like I missed something here. There were so many good moments: the supposed "satanists" buying lunchables, the record from Enid's childhood, the yard sale where she won't sell anything, and all the banter between the two main characters. However, the whole More...

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Aug 11, 2011

Lani rated it:

This should have taken me no time to read as it's an 80 page graphic novel but I had to read it over the course of three days because it was just so bad. I couldn't relate to any of these characters because they were all so whiny. I don't know anyone who acted like this or talked like this no matter how cynical and ~cool~ they were trying to be. I didn't feel like Clowes was able to capture the relationship of two teenage girl friends very well, but after reading some of the other reviews who sa More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 29, 2009

Kate rated it:

Why is the snob in me reluctant to give this book five stars? I don’t know, but forget it. This graphic novel, which is less plot-rich than the movie but far more emotionally intimate, conveys so masterfully the chameleon qualities and cocky insecurity of adolescents, the way smart girls with hot bods will dress like frumps, pick up Sassy magazines and whine “look at these cunts!” – yet curl up with the offensive rag while listening to the Ramones. Daniel Clowes belongs in that rare, mysteri More...

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