Customer Reviews

Monsters

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Ken Dahl's Monster is the best funny book I've read since Flight. Dahl takes you through a half decade of neurosis, horror, pain, fear, ostracism, love, and majesty, all while entertaining and educating. I am delighted and honored to have read this book.

The world should read this book, It should be placed right next to the bible in every hotel room across America.

Ken Dahl's life changes when his girlfriend has her first herpes outbreak, and this graphic novel traces his path through the pain, worry, lack of information, loneliness, anxiety and social isolation that result. As he moves from place to place and tries to accept the disease, his tortured drawings depict the suffering he goes through. Poignant and moving, definitely worth reading.

This is absolutely one of the best graphic novels I've ever read (next to novels such as Black Hole, Persepolis, Maus, and Stitches). The detail in which *Ken* writes about his life and the artwork that conveys the emotion is what reels the reader in while informing him or her about something everyone stigmatizes. It's been a few months since I've read the book, yet the facts and even some of the drawings remain fresh on my mind. Wow.

Monsters is a extremely smart and well-drawn graphic novel about the disease Herpes. But it is also about coping with the disease and stretches to cover ideas like what it means to be diseased and what it means to be intimate. Fantastically drawn and gut-wrenchingly humorous. Highly recommended.

I love this book! Dahl writes with such vulnerable (and brutal) frankness, mixing unexpected humor into such a serious topic. He really captures a lot of the heartache of confusion, stigma and moral questioning surrounding herpes. It's a worthwhile read for any reader!