Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Ystäväni Dahmer by Derf Backderf

4 reviews

moto1480's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

4.0

My Friend Dahmer is an interesting real life story of Backderf's experiences growing up with Jeffrey Dahmer. It's well-written and quickly sucks you in. It would have been very easy for the author to pretend to have been closer to Dahmer than he was, but he's very clear about the high school friendship(?) that he had with him. The art is different and I'm not an huge fan of Backderf's style. It's sweaty MAD magazine-esque, if that makes sense. 

While Backderf says repeatedly that he didn't write this to engender sympathy for Dahmer, you can't help but wonder what could have been if anyone was paying attention to him before he killed for the first time. I actually think this graphic novel is Backderf's way of coming to terms with being unable to do anything for and about Dahmer. I enjoyed this immensely, though the end ran out of steam.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Murder, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, and Ableism

amarj33t_5ingh's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

4.0

An insightful gaze into Dahmer's past to argue he wasn't born evil but made evil by his dysfunctional family. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Gaslighting, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Grief, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Addiction, Cannibalism, and Stalking

flamesocks's review against another edition

dark informative sad medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Addiction, Bullying, Cannibalism, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, and Murder

Minor: Ableism

booksborrowed's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious sad fast-paced

3.0

A former classmate of Jeffery Dahmer shares his personal experiences and collective research of others to show a speculative story into Dahmer's childhood. 

This graphic novel was easy enough to follow and kept my dark interest into the human psyche entertained. There is a lot of added materials and notes to get even more information from at the end. 

It could have been interesting if there was less explanation in writing and the author used the drawings for more of an emotional impact. 

Overall, this was a quick on sitting read, and held a lot of opinions reading as a memoir. I wouldn't say don't try it, but it didn't "wow" me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, Sexual violence, and Violence