Checked Out

by Katie Fricas

In which a queer library worker searches for love, artistic validation in New York
City, and the perfect book

An aspiring cartoonist and book lovin' lesbian, Louise works a dead-end day job at a shoe store, where she spends most of her time brooding over a coworker who will never quite love her back. By night, she works diligently and obsessively on her graphic novel—the true story of a carrier pigeon who rescued a battalion of soldiers in WWI.

When Louise unexpectedly lands a new job at a private library on the Upper East Side, she feels like her graphic novel will finally take off—surely the oldest library in New York has excellent holdings on pigeons and WWI. But what she finds in the stacks might be less revelatory than her discoveries between the sheets and buried in her own family history.

A graphic novel set against a perfectly cartoony NYC backdrop—complete with landmark haunts, street fashion, and quintessential characters of the city—Checked Out is at once a valentine to libraries and New York, and the story of an artist working to make her dreams come true. Drawn in a delightfully vivacious style, Checked Out buzzes with Katie Fricas’s vibrant energy, quick wit, and storytelling aplomb.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, LGBT, Queer, Graphic Novels Comics, Humor, Adult

356 pages, Paperback

First published May 20, 2025

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh look, a semi-autobiographical book about a creator having trouble finishing their current book project. That hasn't been done to death . . .

The story is all over the place, touching on creativity, research on World War I messenger pigeons, working in a private library, and various romantic relationships. Frankly, the mother's side story of a child put up for adoption was far more interesting than anything that happened to the main character in the entire book.

And I don't know if Fricas' art style is an affectation or simply the best she can manage, but I found the primitive line work unappealing and the blotchy coloring fairly atrocious.

[Hannah Garden]

Ahhh frikn yessss. This book reminds me why I make comics and what comics are for, why I work at the library and what the library is for, why I love NY and art and my family and my friends and my work, and what that love is for. Really really fun stupid book, five stars, sloppy wild & free.

[Sarah]

Loved this author's obsession over writing a WW1 comic about army carrier pigeons.

[Mariya · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is a bit all over the place and reads like an autobiography, but it was a fun and quick read. Most of it focuses on her hyperfixation with pigeons during WW1, which I actually found quite endearing and brought a lot to the character. I felt the representation was well done without throwing QUEERNESS in your face and making it their only character trait.

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved! Katie Fricas’s Checked Out is unlike anything I’ve read before—her style is dazzling, expressive, and totally her own. Every page bursts with energy, from the electric color palette to the hand-drawn lettering that scribbles its way across the panels.

The book follows a queer artist juggling work, love, and art in NYC, and yes—it seems pretty semi-autobiographical. Watching her embrace her library job is a delight: shelving books, sneaking off to read in the stacks, and occasionally committing those petty-but-beloved crimes only library workers can get away with, like hoarding the best reads or waiving your own fines. Or so I have heard. 😉

The story weaves together her chaotic dating life, creative block, family surprises, and the pressure of finishing her first graphic novel—which might just be the very one we’re reading. That’s the meta-juice I’m suspecting.

If you love graphic novels with personality, humor, libraries, and heart, this one’s a standout. A vibrant, standalone gem that’s as much about making art as it is about surviving the city.

[tillie hellman · Rating 3 out of 5]

kinda odd but silly. not my fav art style ever

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This coming-of-age story about a twentysomething queer woman living and working in a library in NYC will charm your socks off. It's full of all the big stuff we sweat over: love, sex, work, creativity, family, finding our purpose. Basically, life itself. Katie Fricas's delightfully scribbly-scrawly drawing style captures everything perfectly. Check out my little Q&A feature with her in Publishers Weekly here:

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...

[Adrienne Blaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It’s true — books are ghosts. I feel their protection around me.”

A frenetic graphic novel set in NYC. Amid retail ennui and confusing dating experiences, the protagonist becomes a library page, a dream job for many bookish folks. This position fuels her research of WWI carrier pigeons for a graphic novel, which becomes a kind of book within this book. I enjoyed learning some obscure history and insight into a private New York library. A great book for anyone who has felt like they lost the plot and found solace in dusty books and a trusty pencil.

May I also recommend the 1995 movie, Party Girl, starring Parker Posey in a similar NYC library fever dream?

[Zephorah Dove · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so hilarious and cute. Thanks to Edelweiss and Drawn & Quarterly for the DRC!

I love reading stories that incorporate libraries and the daily happenings of interacting with the public. “Checked Out” was a really cool take on an aspiring artist who gets a job at a library to geek out over WWI and ends with some interesting developments in her life. She quickly settles into her job and makes her way to the circulation desk; where all the hoopla happens. Seeing some similar library experiences I’ve had with people drawn out in such a relatable manner was nice and made me miss having a public facing job. Some people really do call the library just to chat about their day, and patrons are chatty Betty’s.

The art style and typography instantly drew me in and made the reading experience so easy going. I felt like I was reading daily updates about Louise’s life, unfiltered. The inclusion of her sexuality, family, and friends was done seamlessly where it didn’t feel forced to make her stand out as a character. Her subtle realization and growth at the end was refreshing.

This was such an engaging read and I’m really looking forward to more from this author. They also draw for The New Yorker (and others like the Guardian) so maybe I need to go read the newspaper more to keep up with their work.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked the story more and more as it went on, especially with the mix of history (both big and small scale) and the main character’s day to day life. Got more used to the art style by the end but unfortunately still didn’t appreciate it

[Shana Bird · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[LogFanJams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t really have too much to say about this book - it was very good overall, I liked the artwork and the story. I like that it’s about someone who works at a library but isn’t a librarian (same), and that it’s about New York and pigeons and stories and people. It’s just a nice little story about perspective and art and books.

[Sharon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story of the author realizing awkward truths about her current project, her family, and herself, is just another one of the oh-so-many "cathartic for the author but uninteresting to the reader" graphic memoirs out there. The sloppy, bleeding art style may be to someone's taste, but it sure ain't mine, and detracted from the impact. Even the library sections didn't appeal.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very fun read. I love the characters!

[alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Art style was so fun and had so much personality, and we love library worker representation and an acknowledgement shoutout!! Loved the narrative arc and message too. :)

[shesellsseashells · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ADORED this. 📚 🐦 🎨 💜

[Jeanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. I loved the art, the story read like a memoir. The art was like being inside someone’s sketchbook. A pure delight.

[Rich Farrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fine story about a young artist trying to create a graphic novel with life moments along the way.

[Izzy Pilares · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly one of the most charming books I've ever read! So much of this book is about love - the love present within romantic relationships, a love for history, a love of libraries and reading, and even a love for NYC (warts and all). Highly recommend!

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Checked Out (2025) is the first graphic novel by Katie Fricas, a queer artist based in NYC. The graphic novel is about her block in writing a Big Serious Graphic Novel about a true story of a pigeon who was influential in WWI. The centennial deadline (a marketing key) approached, but relationships, family issues, artistic block generally, working in a library, all complicate finishing the book.

This is a colorful, goofy, insightful semi-autobiographical book about the creative process, as she seems to be documenting in this book how life and the creative process itself sometimes determine what you do. You don't always get to choose what you do. Different stories come up, such as her mother's revelation of giving up a son for adoption. Her story of her relationship to Gus is in here, slowing things down, more fun to do than slogging away on a pigeon story. The library work is in here. NYC is in here.

And WWI is in here, especially when a guy gifts her a book on WWI pertaining to his Dad that helps her rethink the whole project. Will the pigeon book still happen? Who knows? What we have is the book that happened, documenting in a meandering and lively and messy (the story and the art) way her life in her (I think) twenties. Maybe 3.5. There's a kind of intensity in the process of realization in the end, on the Wonder Wheel at Coney Island that begins to grabs you, as sh increasingly gets focus on what is emerging as her focus, and/or what is not.

[Stephanie Tournas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Louise is a 20-something living in NYC with her roommate Cam. She works in a shoe store, but she’s writing a graphic novel about a pigeon that delivers messages during WWI. A thrilling opportunity drops into her lap: working in a library! Her job is to shelve books, but she spends lots of time in the 92os looking at the books on the Great War. This is an energetic, fast-paced story of her life as a single, queer artist and deep thinker. Her experience at the fictional dating app “Gandr” is hilarious and Fricas’s expressive, energetic artwork does a great job showing the types she meets: the alcoholic, the nihilist in a bad hat, the judgemental foreigner, and others. I loved the library types as well, both patrons and coworkers – they’re funny and wonderfully personified. The freeform and framed panels give a loose feel to the story, and it channels Louise herself – thoughtfully seeking new experiences and open to love. At the end, she makes a big decision – she abandons her graphic novel project. But it feels like she loved the ride, and readers will too.

[kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really liked this!!

the art was messy and sketchy in a way that at first i was unsure of and then quickly started to really enjoy. there were still significant details in the art, even though the messiness sometimes was hard to decipher at first.

the characters were realistic even the ones we didn’t see a lot of. i loved that lou worked at a library and was trying to write a niche subject graphic novel. and her being queer was dope, idk i love reading about a queer person and their struggles with relationships and you definitely saw that!

the ending was so inspiring - sometimes you have to let go of projects even if its painful. but Lou’s journey to realizing that though!! sometimes you have to take your journey alone. sometimes you have to wait to be ready to arrive at your destination. sometimes you have to reassess

[Amy Pickett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is it too early to call my favorite graphic novel of 2025? Because it’s Checked Out by Katie Fricas! In this funny, endearing, and surprising tale, Louise ditches her dead-end job in a shoe store to take a position as a library page at a private library on the Upper East Side. By day she shelves and processes books; by night she obsessively works on her own graphic novel, a true story about a WWI carrier pigeon that rescued a battalion of soldiers. Along the way she searches for love in NYC, processes a big family secret, and generally charms the reader with her misadventures in dating and pigeon research. Checked Out is a joyful shout-out to embracing your dreams and your day job, one colorful subway commute at a time. And don’t forget to bring a good library book along for the ride!

[Diana Flores · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Edelweiss & the publisher (Drawn & Quarterly) for this digital advance review copy. Publication date: May 20, 2025

As a Librarian, I was interested in the author's experience working in a private NYC library. Those parts were relatable, but I also enjoyed the other aspects of the author's life. Her roommate, dates, and various friends were good side characters. Her experience writing a graphic novel based on heroic carrier pigeons during WWI was a good plot line.

Could be improved: Overall, I liked the art style, but liked it more when it was done neatly. Sometimes the rushed style was distracting.

[Charles Hatfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fearless gust of a graphic novel, fast and rowdy, in a deliberately ragged, offhand style.

Lou, a young queer library worker and cartoonist in NYC, works a crazy job and thinks constantly about a crazy book project, but her relationships crash and her project turns out to be undoable. The drawing, in markers and watercolor, doesn't care whether its shows its penciled underdrawing, and everything and everybody is visually off-register and overspilling. The mostly ungridded page have a messy, unbuckled, lovely freehandedness.

I read this 350-page GN in one quick go, gulping it down. It's quirky, funny, and sad.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun wonderful weird little graphic novel about a queer artist obsessed with the WWI carrier pigeon Cher Ami of the Lost Brigade….

Follows her love life, her odd job at a private fee-based library in NYC, and her learning about how stories are embellished to obscure tragedy(re the carrier pigeon granted the Medal of Honor at the Battle of Argonne, a story more of myth than reality it seems).

I enjoyed her whimsical artistic style, more “rudimentary” or rough than many graphic art, but distinct and marked by both joy and pathos.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young artist named Louise is struggling to write a rather bizarre book about a carrier pigeon in WWI while also struggling to find love in the Big Apple. Fortunately, she does find that she fits in well at the library. The unique, blobby scribbly illustrations fit the derpy way Louise approaches life. It all felt so specific I am surprised that this is fiction and not a memoir.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible! Such beautiful art that looks at once easily tossed off and thoughtfully composed, a funny and touching narrative touching on juggling hopes and dreams, careers, art and expression, friendship, dating, family, and more in your twenties. Renders NYC beautifully and perfectly captures the joys and quirks of the library as workplace.

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wait I looked up pictures of this library and it’s so beautiful. I didn’t know there were private membership libraries in existence, but New York City has everything! A graphic memoir about a library worker writing about pigeons at war and having a semi messy romantic life and weird bad dating situations.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

>blockquote>I guess I wanted some relief- for making a book to feel like falling in love. And it did in a way, in the sense that it wrecked me. I ran from it, then returned, desperately, to its service.

Oh yes we love nerds with their special little interests they obsess over, falling hopelessly in love and being sad, and trying to create something than floundering in the process.