I imagine this must have been a very cathartic book to write. Very personal and and candid, but presented in such a matter-of-fact way that it doesn’t necessarily feel like an intrusion by the reader. ( )

The book opens with a suicide attempt by the author's mother in the 1980s then ranges back and forth through the decades exploring the history of mental illness and divorce in her family tree. While I felt sort of bad for everyone involved, I didn't really connect with the material due to the format and the author's failure to really land a reason for sharing all these family secrets.

First, I really don't get the point of an illustrated memoir where the pictures and the text only intersect tangentially. Set up sort of like a scrapbook or a Richard Scarry picture book, the pages were filled with street maps, cross-sections, room layouts, diary pages and legal documents, broken up with a very infrequent recreation of a family snapshot or frame from a home movie. The number of still life studies of furniture and fixtures was positively numbing.

Over these obviously photo-referenced drawings were strings of captions and giant boxes of text that could have been basically lifted out and printed as a straight prose memoir with very little editing to mark the absence of the images. There are little margin notes explaining some of the images, but most of those are pretty useless and easily discarded. For example: "Cedarcrest Regional Hospital in Newington, Connecticut, was originally built for tuberculosis patients in 1910 and in 1976 became part of the Department of Mental Health. Nine years after my mom's admission, the hospital closed." To which I can only say, "Oh, so?"

In the river of text, the author is almost as removed as her illustrations, acting like the director of a documentary, touching on her own trauma and grief but keeping the focus on the family events. In the midst of all the microscopic details about her mother, father, stepmother and brother, she almost fails to mention that at some point she got married to some guy and struggled with alcohol abuse. And she raises but doesn't really settle the questions regarding telling the stories of other people in her family when their agreement and maybe even ability to enter into an agreement about the matter is dubious (and even involves some dishonesty on her part). She got her book deal and spills the family secrets as the title promises, but I felt so detached from her and her family by the end that I'm not sure I see the value in doing so. ( )

This visually dense story by a talented writer and artist deals with bipolar illness and divorce. It's very painful when the author's mother is frequently hospitalized and even worse when her older brother shows the same symptoms. Everyone is trying to make it all better, but there seems to be very little help anywhere for this family, who themselves seem to share a strong desire to keep their troubles within the confines of their home, which is also understandable. It is not a light read and at times I felt like a ghoul for being an observer, but it will stay with me because the author is so extraordinarily strong herself. If you are one of those people who says, "Ewww, that's so depressing" - well, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, leave this one on the shelf.

Quotes: "While I wanted to involve myself in Ted's situation - unasked - my dad and Zach wanted to be available only upon request."

"He was in search of a grand explanation of the universe, a pattern that sewed together the disparate elements of his life."

"There was no getting around what my mother saw as betrayal: the taking of a story for my own purposes.” ( )

This was a really interesting read for me as it deals with inherited mental illness, which is something we have dealt with as caretakers of my father-in-law, and the secrets families keep "for the good of the children", which I think occurs in most families. (It certainly did in mine.) The illustrations are fantastic, and the author walks well the fine line between sympathy for her subjects and honesty in telling her story. Very well done. ( )

The cover alone grabbed me. This graphic novel memoir was twisty and compelling from the get go. Told through the eyes of the middle daughter, Margaret tries to uncover the family secrets and history that was hidden intentionally and unintentionally. The mental illness and suicide attempts didn't have to be shameful, they just needed to be understood and unearthed. Going back in forth from childhood to adulthood and back again - this non linear memoir is breathtakingly illustrated. Each frame, map, and character is laid bare. At times viewed through a youthful lens and later more mature. No family is perfect and Margi looks to chronicle her family's history rather than hide it. Compelling and wonderfully illustrated. ( )