I Ate the Whole World to Find You (Rachel Ang, Scribe)

While the world is in flux, the emotional realities remain firm in Rachel Ang’s collection of graphic short stories, I Ate the Whole World to Find You. Across five tales that range from the surreal to the suburban, one constant emerges: Jenny, a young woman navigating the hard edges of other people’s lives. Highlights include the first story, ‘Hunger’, where Jenny awkwardly flirts with a warehouse co-worker whose taste in relationships turns out to be controlling in unforeseen ways. ‘Your Shadow in the Dark’ focuses on a conversation with her cousin that contrasts their current struggles against a childhood that wasn’t without its shadows, while in the memorable ‘Swimsuit’, a trip to a suburban pool to reconnect with an old friend is disrupted by an act of violence. Ang excels at capturing the natural ebb and flow of conversations, which play out against their kinetic art, with the energetic pencil line work creating characters with an almost vibrating presence on the page. The expressive, raw quality of the illustrations perfectly mirrors the emotional tension of the narratives, adding a dynamic layer to even the quietest moments. I Ate the Whole World to Find You is the work of a sharp and insightful storyteller who can vividly convey a world of flawed connections and fraught relationships through any combination of dialogue and images. This graphic novel will appeal to readers who enjoy thoughtful character studies with a touch of the surreal.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Anthony Morris is a freelance reviewer, novelist, and podcaster. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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Category: Reviews