It is hard to capture just how concerning this book is for parents. We will capture individual items below, but it is extremely important to understand that this book isn’t strange… it is orders of magnitude beyond that. It feels like some mix of demented and honestly insane. We are only adding a few words of caution about this main point, but PLEASE don’t misunderstand this. This concern spans over every single page and, if anything, is understated here. All of this placed into a graphic novel format and marketed at kids is honestly unthinkable.
Completely randomly a 2-headed bird shows up to take them to another dimension, which ends up being disturbing thing after disturbing thing. They appear in a place with dozens of men who look like their father. We see all types of disturbing looking, weird beings illustrated that have no clear point. There is a woman with no head. Mom starts ripping false faces off (looks like skin coming off in drawings) which start talking to her. A character is “torn to pieces”. The dialog can only be described as crazy ramblings.
Below we will try and capture points on the rest of the content to help paint a full picture of just how concerning this title is, but this main point above is by far and away the most important. Don’t underestimate it.
Other things to be aware of:
Author dedication shows an odd illustration of a creepy man.
The book opens to the mother of the family so spaced out that no one can get her attention. We read from the kids that “jumping up and down lying won’t get her attention”. Then, out of nowhere, we read, “Greg, their father, who never wanted to be called ‘Daddy’, and never acted like a daddy” tells mom he’s walking out on her (remember, this is a kid’s graphic novel with a light looking cover). To make it worse, he adds “Anyhow, having children was your idea”. The kid’s response? They are bummed he is taking the car with him. So, there’s that…
Unfortunately, amongst all of the insane content, the characters are absolutely awful to each other for the vast majority of the book, especially the siblings. We read things like the following: “Liar, liar, you’re a big fat liar”, “Earl, you punch him in his big fat gut, I’ll punch her in her fat gut”, “I’m nicer than he deserves… why don’t you mind your own business”, “you don’t know anything you dumb moron”. And that is only a taste of it.
During an insane version of a wedding, we hear a witch-like officiator say, “Do you Shirley take Whatzisname to be your agreeable, obedient husband, who will do everything you tell him to, and will father you up to three female children, one of whom Shirlette, will grow up to be president of whatever place or dimension you live in”.
The following terms are used, some of them over and over: dummy, stupid, dumb, idiot, shut up, fat people.