Cheryl

by Jillian Fleck (illustrator)

A story about a newly realized lesbian woman in her 40s, hellbent on reaching spiritual enlightenment. Even if it kills her.  Cheryl just came out and she's been doing just fine, thanks for asking!!!! She just broke up with her dog, quit gluten, cut contact with her father, and is just really trying to focus on getting enough water daily! It's all going great!! Except it isn't and everything is terrible, because no matter what Cheryl does she really can't shake that there's something wrong deep down in the core of her being.  What would really fix things would be to address her lingering internalized homophobia and childhood trauma. Or reach total spiritual enlightenment, reaching total enlightenment sounds easier, let's go with that one. As Cheryl falls further down the New Age wellness industrial complex however, the world turns out to be a lot weirder and sicker than she could have ever imagined. Now Cheryl is forced to confront that not only is it not all about her, but that she might have some part to play in making it better.  From the (self-proclaimed) cackling gremlin that created Lake Jehovah , Cheryl is a vision board of a coming out gone sideways. 

Genres: Graphic Novels, LGBT, Comics, Queer

204 pages, Paperback

Published May 7, 2024

Reviews

[Serhiy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wtf lol this is wild. 5⭐ trippy AF

About dental hygienist with trauma and daddy issues who didn't know they're lesbian until later in life. Now her trauma is eating her alive and poisoning everyone in her life. Can Cheryl overcome it and grow in her life?

[devynreads · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a frustrating read because it started out weird but with promise. To me, the dog = a man since that’s how they often act. I got Cheryl’s relationship with her father & her internalized homophobia. She had obviously suppressed much of her childhood due to trauma & neglect, and she was not coping well as an adult. I even got her foray into the Other World and all the talking animals - to me at least, it seemed that was a way to cope with her trauma and the mental instability it caused.

However, the second half of the novel did not make much sense. She searches for enlightenment, but that plot pretty much falls off. She never seems to deal with her internalized homophobia. The whole alien abduction orgy was fucking bizarre and gross and I have no idea what it was supposed to represent or add to the story. I mean, the aliens all looked like toddlers with gigantic dicks…..so that’s uh. No.

What I really hated was the “resolution” (?) with her father. That girl Cheryl was seeing called her selfish and the reason her father was getting worse, and I just have to say HAHAHAHAHAH. So she guilt-tripped Cheryl into thinking her father dying was her fault for….not forgiving him? Or agreeing to talk? NEWSFLASH: absolutely no one DESERVES forgiveness. If they have wronged someone, the person on the other end does NOT have to “hear them out” or accept/offer forgiveness. Her father was dying because of his own health. His daughter did not want any relationship with him because of HIS OWN ACTIONS. If Cheryl did not want to spend even a single second in his presence, that is completely okay. He was an extremely abusive alcoholic that left his only child with mental illness, trauma, and self-loathing. So that whole “you have to give him the time of day” message is bulllllllllshit. As a horrible excuse of a parent, you do not just get to say “aw sorry!!!” and suddenly all is well.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

This starts off fine with a woman figuring out in her forties that she's gay. She's obsessed with spiritual alignment and goes on some bad dates with New Age types. Then this thing devolves into being abducted by aliens and visited by a demon. It turned into very much of a WTF is happening? If it was some kind of magical realism thing, it never comes out and gives you the truth of what was going on. At 200 pages, I'd give this a pass.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5

This was just weird to me. I finished it because I wanted to see what Cheryl figured out about herself, but it was a little too abstract in its contents. You could see all the trauma, and bottled up homophobia that Cheryl had for herself, but because Cheryl seemed to live in this disconnect world, I couldn't really enjoy the story a lot. I'm sure it's full of metaphors and other meanings, but I guess it's just not a good story for me.

[Aurora Webster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dreamy, marries everyday drudgery and surreal magical quests into a dissociated but charming exploration of trauma and repression. Quite a challenge to illustrate a main character expressively without facial features!

[hanna ♡ ⋆⭒˚.⋆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75*

Caught my eye when I saw it on the shelf of the library.
I enjoyed the first half, and then it got kinda weird towards the end but overall pretty good.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[rose]

not at library

[Hailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was really weird but also kind of sweet, but 70% it was really weird. 2.5 rounded up

[Ash · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
Started out promising but the plot was lost about 2/3 through

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It either needed like 50-100 more pages... or less aliens, I'm not too sure.

[Sharlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

PENDING REVIEW
3.60 - Average