Will I love Ghost World?

I don’t think I like Ghost World, but it belongs on this list. When I think of Clowes’ work I think of caricature, but the environments in Ghost World pull most of the storytelling weight. You can hear the hum of the fluorescents in the grocery store and the wind between buildings on an empty street.

Originally serialized in comic book form by artist and author Daniel Clowes, this semi-autobiographical graphic novel follows the adventures of two teenage best friends, Enid and Becky, as they face the existential terror of growing up in a “ghost world.” Suburbia in this sardonic and melancholy book is a cultural wasteland, a manufactured simulacrum populated by freaks, geeks, neo-Nazis, suspected Satanists, disillusioned adults, and disaffected youth.

The episodic nature of the narrative is greatly enhanced by its graphic novel form. We experience the claustrophobia and disconnectedness of our heroines trapped in two-toned colorless boxes, devoid of vibrant color or open… show more.