sadiecass's review against another edition
5.0
Wow. Powerful stuff. I really liked the grit in the images to match with the story itself. It was dark, sometimes messy, and ever evolving.
Intense read. I found myself fighting tears in a spot or two.
*Received via netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Intense read. I found myself fighting tears in a spot or two.
*Received via netgalley. All opinions are my own.
kalona's review against another edition
4.0
As much as I wanted to enjoy this book and get carried a way with it, it took me a very long time to get into the story. The narrative is very straight forward with little distracting decor and it was supposed to be a touching story. Or, I thought it would be a touching story, instead it was a hard and gritty narrative of a very real battle with mental illness.
The rawness of the narrative and the very relateable additional issues that often tag along with mental illness made this book very hard for me to read. The story convey in a very real and hard way how mental illness can be there even if you are obviously unaware of it for a while.
IT shows how, even when you know you are sick, the biggest challenge of the battle is not the disease itself but recovery part. Mental health issues, like eating disorders, depression, OCD, they become a part of you and who you are. The disease become part of how you see yourself and you identity, and how are you supposed to recover from your identity?
Davis goes all the way out to show how real her struggle was and she is in not painting any rainbows or making any face-saving promises or painting rainbows. Yet her strong narrative still warrants hope and I would recommend the book for anyone who knows someone or themselves struggle with an eating disorder.
Kettner’s gritty artwork throughout the novel aids to the harsh narrative without sugar-coating anything. Nothing in a story like this needs sugar-coating, even if it makes the story harder to read, and both the author and the illustrator knows this.
The rawness of the narrative and the very relateable additional issues that often tag along with mental illness made this book very hard for me to read. The story convey in a very real and hard way how mental illness can be there even if you are obviously unaware of it for a while.
IT shows how, even when you know you are sick, the biggest challenge of the battle is not the disease itself but recovery part. Mental health issues, like eating disorders, depression, OCD, they become a part of you and who you are. The disease become part of how you see yourself and you identity, and how are you supposed to recover from your identity?
Davis goes all the way out to show how real her struggle was and she is in not painting any rainbows or making any face-saving promises or painting rainbows. Yet her strong narrative still warrants hope and I would recommend the book for anyone who knows someone or themselves struggle with an eating disorder.
Kettner’s gritty artwork throughout the novel aids to the harsh narrative without sugar-coating anything. Nothing in a story like this needs sugar-coating, even if it makes the story harder to read, and both the author and the illustrator knows this.
sizrobe's review against another edition
5.0
A graphic autobiography centered around anorexia. Some of this felt familiar, but on the overeating side instead of anorexia, as well as some addiction issues. Sometimes I envied anorexics for having the discipline to control their eating to such an extent, which I understand is a pretty shitty way to feel. Her struggles feel very relatable, and the art is well done.
always_need_more_books's review against another edition
5.0
I received this in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. Thank you to the author, Lacy Davis, and the publisher, New Harbinger for this opportunity.
Ink in Water is a memoir of Lacy Davis’ upsetting struggle with negative body image and eating disorders. and how she rose above her own damaging behaviours and feelings of inadequacy to live a life of strength and empowerment.
Told in the form of a graphic novel, it covers her friendships and how they break down, the beginning of her recovery on an overeaters anonymous course and the relationships she forms. Over the course of the book she suffers from both anorexia and bulimia and also partakes in extreme exercise.
It is heart-breaking in places and I found I was able to totally emphasise with Lacy. I liked her and was cheering on her recovery. The illustrations are amazing and I can’t rate this highly enough. I don’t generally read graphic novels but after having some family experience with eating disorders I wanted to know more about it and the feelings people have.
Ink in Water is a memoir of Lacy Davis’ upsetting struggle with negative body image and eating disorders. and how she rose above her own damaging behaviours and feelings of inadequacy to live a life of strength and empowerment.
Told in the form of a graphic novel, it covers her friendships and how they break down, the beginning of her recovery on an overeaters anonymous course and the relationships she forms. Over the course of the book she suffers from both anorexia and bulimia and also partakes in extreme exercise.
It is heart-breaking in places and I found I was able to totally emphasise with Lacy. I liked her and was cheering on her recovery. The illustrations are amazing and I can’t rate this highly enough. I don’t generally read graphic novels but after having some family experience with eating disorders I wanted to know more about it and the feelings people have.
djcthomas's review against another edition
5.0
Loved this one! Graphic novels always say so much with so few words. The illustrations are wonderful and really add to the darkness felt by the main character. I enjoy graphic memoirs because the combination of words and pictures provide insight more than words alone.
cj82487's review against another edition
5.0
It has been a very long time since I've read a graphic novel. Honestly, I don't even remember what the last one was that I read, but I'm SO glad I came across Ink in Water on NetGalley.
Lacy is brutally honest about her battle with anorexia. She is open about the good and the bad decisions she's made throughout her life and how she is constantly recovering. Those evil thoughts about not being good enough are constantly circling through her mind, but in the end, she has learned how not to be trapped by them. It truly was a beautifully written account of a terrible obsession with food.
There were many parts that were difficult to read, but that unflinching honest story needs to be told. I've never personally had an eating disorder, but I've come close. I've obsessed about calorie counts, carbs, ingredients, and time at the gym. I've dedicated journals and notebooks to tracking my body's intake and output as if it were my job. I've taken countless diet pills and tried my fair share of fad diets, none of which worked. I've felt the emptiness in my stomach and thought that was a good sign.
I no longer do that, but my relationship with food isn't always good, because that is what it is... a relationship. I still eat emotionally and those same thoughts that Lacy describes of being too big still pop into my head. And I would have never written any of that, if it weren't for reading Lacy's novel.
I think we all at some point or another in our lives have those voices in our head. The voices that tell us that we aren't good enough. Lacy is no different from any of us in that aspect. She was just brave enough to share her story with the world.
The illustrations by Kettner are amazing, particularly those showing the chaotic jumble of negative thoughts in Lacy's head. i love that the images are all in black and white and I hope that doesn't change when the novel goes to print. I don't know about you, but my thoughts aren't very colorful when they are negatively focused on my body image. The feelings provoked by the illustrations match those of Lacy's story. And if I'm being honest (which I am), it was the cover illustration that grabbed my attention. It screamed, "Pick me!"
Lacy's story is one that need to be told and I'm glad I've had the pleasure to read it. This novel is for those struggling with an eating disorder, recovering from one, or wanting to better understand the toll an eating disorder takes on everyone involved. It is also for anyone that has ever let those thoughts take control of their lives even for the briefest of moments.
Thank you Lacy for writing your story down.
Lacy is brutally honest about her battle with anorexia. She is open about the good and the bad decisions she's made throughout her life and how she is constantly recovering. Those evil thoughts about not being good enough are constantly circling through her mind, but in the end, she has learned how not to be trapped by them. It truly was a beautifully written account of a terrible obsession with food.
There were many parts that were difficult to read, but that unflinching honest story needs to be told. I've never personally had an eating disorder, but I've come close. I've obsessed about calorie counts, carbs, ingredients, and time at the gym. I've dedicated journals and notebooks to tracking my body's intake and output as if it were my job. I've taken countless diet pills and tried my fair share of fad diets, none of which worked. I've felt the emptiness in my stomach and thought that was a good sign.
I no longer do that, but my relationship with food isn't always good, because that is what it is... a relationship. I still eat emotionally and those same thoughts that Lacy describes of being too big still pop into my head. And I would have never written any of that, if it weren't for reading Lacy's novel.
I think we all at some point or another in our lives have those voices in our head. The voices that tell us that we aren't good enough. Lacy is no different from any of us in that aspect. She was just brave enough to share her story with the world.
The illustrations by Kettner are amazing, particularly those showing the chaotic jumble of negative thoughts in Lacy's head. i love that the images are all in black and white and I hope that doesn't change when the novel goes to print. I don't know about you, but my thoughts aren't very colorful when they are negatively focused on my body image. The feelings provoked by the illustrations match those of Lacy's story. And if I'm being honest (which I am), it was the cover illustration that grabbed my attention. It screamed, "Pick me!"
Lacy's story is one that need to be told and I'm glad I've had the pleasure to read it. This novel is for those struggling with an eating disorder, recovering from one, or wanting to better understand the toll an eating disorder takes on everyone involved. It is also for anyone that has ever let those thoughts take control of their lives even for the briefest of moments.
Thank you Lacy for writing your story down.
bluenicorn's review against another edition
3.0
This was a really great look at mental illness/obsessive tendencies, and one of the few books about eating disorders that isn't YA fiction (I know that is not true, but it's how it seems). I thought the connection between her eating disorder and the addictions of others was a profound one to make. I liked this book for its honesty, plain and simple. If it were fiction, I would be annoyed that the main character seemed to tie up so much of herself in relationships- but it's real life, and in real life, it happens. It was honest. Personally, I get that the author is punk rock, but I think the subtitle is unnecessary and kind of took away from what I thought was the beautiful imagery of her title.