Comic Review: Gingerbread Girl by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover

Rating (Out of 5): ~2

Publisher: Top Shelf Productions

Release Date: 2011

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

There are plenty of established facts concerning 26-year-old Annah Billips. She likes sushi and mountains, but hates paper cuts and beer breath. She dates girls and boys, and loves to travel. She may have a missing sister, or she might be insane. Did Annah invent an imaginary sister named Ginger during her parents' ferocious divorce, or did her mad scientist father extract part of her brain and transform it into a living twin?
In this graphic novel, a host of narrators including boyfriends, girlfriends, magicians, pigeons, bulldogs, and convenience store clerks follow Annah through a night in her life in an attempt to determine that one last fact about Annah...and the Gingerbread Girl.

Review:

I thought that this was going to be a fun, quirky indie comic when I picked it up from my local bookstore. I'm a little disappointed by how it turned out.

We meet Annah, who believes she has a sister, made out of her own brain, who has disappeared. She's constantly looking for her, and believes that she has no emotions without her, and thus refuses to make any lasting decisions.

We meet Annah as the book starts, but then the story quickly shifts to other characters in the scene, who introduce themselves and talk to the reader, and talk about their experience with Annah. We get some science for what Annah thinks happened to her, and how it might have come about. The switching perspectives reminded me a bit of A Little Something Different, only not done quite as well, and more directly told to the reader.

Given how far-fetched the idea of her sister turns out to be, the thrown in science seems even more hard to believe. And then we get no answers—everyone refuses to answer any questions, as most of them don't have answers. Nothing gets solved, and we only get a base understanding of Annah and any of the other characters.

After I got to the end of the book, I felt a bit like I'd wasted my time. The whole concept was implausible to me, it didn't seem to have any real depth, and then nothing was answered or solved in the end. Not even her wish-washy attitude toward her dates. I'm a bit annoyed, possibly at how disappointed I was. The only part of it I did appreciate was the bisexuality of Annah.