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Ann Tenna
From the celebrated New Yorker cartoonist and acclaimed author of Cancer Vixen, a brilliant, funny, and wildly imaginative first novel: the story of an influential gossip columnist brought face-to-face with her higher self-and a challenge to change her life for the better. Glamorous, superconnected Ann Tenna is the founder of Eyemauler, a New York City-based Web site that's always the first to dish the most up-to-the-minute dirt on celebrities and ordinary folks alike. Ann has ascended to the zenith of the New York media scene, attended by groups of grovelers all too willing to be trampled on by her six-inch Giuseppe Zanottis if it means better seats at the table. But as high as her success has taken her, Ann has actually fallen far-very far-from her true self. It takes a near-fatal freak accident on her birthday-April Fool's Day-and an intervention from her cosmic double in a realm beyond our own to make Ann realize the full cost of the humanity she has lost. Told with laugh-out-loud humor, spot-on dialogue (including via cameo appearances from Coco Chanel, Gianni Versace, and Jimi Hendrix, to name just a few), and stunning, full-color artwork, Ann Tenna is a timely, necessary tale for our overly "media-cated" times: the newest, much-anticipated adventure from a supremely gifted artist at the height of her powers. From the Hardcover edition.
240 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2015
4 people are currently reading
429 people want to read
About the author
Marisa Acocella Marchetto
6 books25 followersMarisa Acocella Marchetto is a cartoonist for The New Yorker whose work has appeared in The New York Times; Glamour; and O, The Oprah Magazine, among other publications. She is the author of The New York Times bestselling graphic novel Ann Tenna (Knopf), Cancer Vixen (Knopf), and Just Who the Hell Is She Anyway? (Crown). Her graphic memoir Cancer Vixen was named one of Time’s top ten graphic memoirs, and a finalist for the National Cartoonists Society Graphic Novel of the Year. A founder and chair of the Marisa Acocella Marchetto Foundation at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Dubin Breast Center at Mount Sinai, she lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
September 14, 2018
The 3rd FANTASTIC graphic novel I've read this year that I give a full ***** (5 stars) to (I'm an admittedly huge snob, I only give the full five if these efforts are genius works, ONLY then). Yeah. This hallucinatory "novel" is a self help book in disguise, some fabulous impostor! It's a Juicy Fruit commercial of silly substance--& what it sells is YOU (having to put your higher form with your terrestrial one is something everyone can relate to!). It is more humanist than feminist, although it's replete with a phantasmagoria of beautifully vibrant, femmy pictorials, with glitter & a va-vah-voom that makes the pictures resplendent as stars.
This is a trip! Its mega glam (like, Megagagaglamorama Glam!)! Just so stupid-good!
This is a trip! Its mega glam (like, Megagagaglamorama Glam!)! Just so stupid-good!
October 23, 2015
It looks like I am the first male to review this book, and so we all realize I am not the target audience for this super-girly New Yorker story of gossip, social media, and the need to find your REAL and Genuine Self and just stop with the whole Fame and Gossip Thing, okay? The main character is Ann Tenna (Haw! What a great name for a gossip maven, huh?!), the "glamorous and super connected" founder of Eyemauler, a gossip website. We don't want this, people! Let that glamour stuff go! Let's just appreciate what matters!
I dunno. Marchetto is a talented artist. I liked her Cancer Vixen quite a bit. I just have no interest in these characters or their world. And it seems super didactic and unfunny, though the book jacket promised it would be HILARIOUS with "laugh aloud humor" and "spot on" dialogue. So why did they lie to me, as Earnest as they all so clearly are about Sincerity and Being Real with Oneself?! Let me see: Big Publisher Knopf released this, so they are counting on lots of toney east coast women who do not read superhero comics or experimental graphic novels to buy this. And I bet they so will. It's a niche! It has Massive Marketing and to be-NY Times bestseller stamped all over it. . . and Fame for Ms. Marchetto, totally. But I am one of those superhero/art comics types, I'm no fun at all, so maybe I'm just being mean and boring.
I dunno. Marchetto is a talented artist. I liked her Cancer Vixen quite a bit. I just have no interest in these characters or their world. And it seems super didactic and unfunny, though the book jacket promised it would be HILARIOUS with "laugh aloud humor" and "spot on" dialogue. So why did they lie to me, as Earnest as they all so clearly are about Sincerity and Being Real with Oneself?! Let me see: Big Publisher Knopf released this, so they are counting on lots of toney east coast women who do not read superhero comics or experimental graphic novels to buy this. And I bet they so will. It's a niche! It has Massive Marketing and to be-NY Times bestseller stamped all over it. . . and Fame for Ms. Marchetto, totally. But I am one of those superhero/art comics types, I'm no fun at all, so maybe I'm just being mean and boring.
November 12, 2015
Ann Tenna has a lot going for her. She’s the founder, chief editor, and head columnist of Eyemauler, a gossip website based in New York City. Her fiancé Zim is the celebrity photographer for Eyemauler too. (What a match made in Heaven.) She has a loyal personal driver and a slave of an assistant. She’s famous and glamorous; a-listed and activist; powerful and venerated. She’s all-seeing, superconnected. Or so she thought until the fatal car accident that put her in a coma and caused her to travel to the otherworld and meet with her other half self—SuperAnn. SuperAnn, the enlightened, enhanced version of Ann, disillusions her illusions about being superconnected: “Ann Tenna, are you so superdisconnected from who you truly are you wouldn’t even know it if you were face-to-face with your own face?” SuperAnn encourages—no urges—Ann to complete her unfinished business on earth so that she can finally stop reincarnating and making the same mistakes life after life and merge with her higher being and become her true self at last—awakened, enlightened, connected with the universe.
Ann Tenna is a graphic novel that really hits home for me. Besides having created a very captivating, moving, hilarious story, Marisa Marchetto explores the themes of law of attraction and high vibrations (like attracts like, so if you’re vibrating a low kind of energy, you’re likely to come across negative people and attract unpleasant situations to yourself); interconnectedness with the universe (we’re all as one attached to each other through invisible cords); the gift of intuition (the gut-feeling is never wrong, trust me on that one); compassion and love (ask for forgiveness and forgive, know to love and accept yourself truly first before you can love and accept others fully); self-discovery and self-growth (we all have talents that we’re meant to put forth in the world and we must continuously evolve to keep the energy flowing positively, productively). Basically, everything that I truly believe in and strive for; it’s as if Ann Tenna was made for me. Like Ann, I—and probably many others—constantly struggle between ‘social-mediacation’ and ‘self-authentication.’ It’s a journey that is constant with impasses and regressions, but there is definite progress when you’re self-aware. And Marisa perfectly depicts that in Ann Tenna.
Ann Tenna is a graphic novel that really hits home for me. Besides having created a very captivating, moving, hilarious story, Marisa Marchetto explores the themes of law of attraction and high vibrations (like attracts like, so if you’re vibrating a low kind of energy, you’re likely to come across negative people and attract unpleasant situations to yourself); interconnectedness with the universe (we’re all as one attached to each other through invisible cords); the gift of intuition (the gut-feeling is never wrong, trust me on that one); compassion and love (ask for forgiveness and forgive, know to love and accept yourself truly first before you can love and accept others fully); self-discovery and self-growth (we all have talents that we’re meant to put forth in the world and we must continuously evolve to keep the energy flowing positively, productively). Basically, everything that I truly believe in and strive for; it’s as if Ann Tenna was made for me. Like Ann, I—and probably many others—constantly struggle between ‘social-mediacation’ and ‘self-authentication.’ It’s a journey that is constant with impasses and regressions, but there is definite progress when you’re self-aware. And Marisa perfectly depicts that in Ann Tenna.
October 8, 2015
While I agreed with the messages of this novel, it was too message-y. I know you have to hit people over the head sometimes with things, but geez. Perhaps I'm not as dense as the average bear when it comes to these issues.
December 22, 2015
Hmmmm ... At the beginning, I wasn't sure whether I liked this. Towards the middle, it started improving. But then the ending left me kind of nonplussed. Overall, it was kind of meh. Possibly my experience with Marchetto's previous book, the excellent Cancer Vixen, left my expectations too high. The story of Ann Tenna is just not very compelling. This book seems to think it's more profound than it is. A near death experience forces a gossip monger to reexamine her life, and the whole book wants to be a metaphor for today's plugged in society. This was fun in places, but not anywhere near as compelling as Cancer Vixen.
March 20, 2016
Dagnabbit! This was just too metaphysical for me.
I was also not too keen on the artwork and the author's obsession with hair, makeup and fashion.
The book succeeded in making me want a banana maple walnut milkshake, and that's about it.
I was also not too keen on the artwork and the author's obsession with hair, makeup and fashion.
The book succeeded in making me want a banana maple walnut milkshake, and that's about it.
July 5, 2016
Wtf did I just read? terrible story and awful art. I guess you might like this if you are really into the history of fashion and also metaphysical nonsense woo? I have no idea who the target audience is for this pile but it's obvious I'm not it.
July 4, 2016
Let's start simple: This is not a novel, despite what it says on the cover and in the description. It could be called a "graphic novel", but it's quite pretentious and misleading to call it a novel, when its not. I suppose that should have been my first clue that I wasn't going to like this book, but hey, it's not like I don't have my own bouts of pretentious weirdness--I was willing to give it somewhat of a pass.
I regret doing so.
I didn't know who this author was--still don't, except for the overly glowing inside flap description of a "celebrated New Yorker cartoonist and acclaimed author of Cancer Vixen", which is apparently a memoir of her treatment for cancer. I'm sure it's powerful and compelling.
Unfortunately, this fiction novel is not--despite that flap telling me that it's a "wildly imaginative first novel", "the newest, much-anticipated adventure from a supremely gifted artist at the height of her powers" with "spot on dialogue".
First, let's get one thing out of the way: The art is bad. It's particularly bad. This is coming from someone who can't draw at all, and who tries very hard not to be too judgemental about the art of others. But this art doesn't show any skill, proportion, anatomy, or eye to composition. I could draw this. That is an insult.
Second, let's get something else out of the way: This story is trite. There's nothing particularly imaginative about "character has near-death experience, meets afterlife/true soul, is tasked with mission". Which is not to say that I'm bagging on it for being hackneyed necessarily, but when the publisher (or, I suspect, the author herself) is blowing smoke up my butt with "wildly imaginative", I usually hope for something other than "shamelessly derivative".
Third, this story is just not good. This one takes a few details and examples to explain properly.
I'll start with the point at which I said "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I'm done". It was when the mystical being had to explain why she had to go away briefly when one of the limited cast of non-white folks showed up. You see, it had been established that nobody could see this being. And this non-white character had already shown up once when the being was round. But this second time, the being had to go away because, and I quote: "She can sense me....Lorna is Peruvian, descended from ancient Incan mystics. Her dormant skills for working with energy haven't fully awakened..." Barf. I guess that's the "spot-on dialogue"? Right up there with "Invite me to a Korean barbecue and I get grilled?"
There's the plotpoint of the "super" version of our main character, who's supposed to be the "pure" version--who was split from the "regular" version millenia ago in a way that's described poorly and nonsensically--who is essentially her "angelic self" lying to her, occupying her body, and then using it to have sex with someone.
And there's the very end--which I'm going to spoil for you, so that you, unlike me, don't waste your time. Our Hero, who was a gossip magnate, finds out in the last 5 pages--of a graphic novel, remember, so we're talking short span--that in fact the rich folkd who run the media companies of the world, explains their suddenly evil plan. "Most of the media is now under our dominion. No sane person would risk their credibility to reveal our goal: To control the world and the minds and souls in it". Is this foreshadowed? Nope! Does it make sense? Nope!
This book reads like the tail end of the fever dream of someone who thought They Live was a documentary. Not the beginning of the fever dream, but the end, when your brain's too tired to even try.
I think what might have angered me the most was the very very end, where the author has the temerity to put "A note on the type"--those little notes they put at the end of what are actual prose novels, that explain a particular font. That works there, because novels are typeset--the font is a real font. It doesn't work here because "all type was hand lettered". Basically, she handwrote it using narrow sans serif letter, and then calls the use of changing two of those letters--the A into almost a pentagram, and the O into a satellite, the "Superann Font". It's not a font. Nor did you invent the idea of puttint a ring around Os or connecting the line across the A with one of the legs.
This book is as proud of itself as when I walk into the house and my dog's pooped on the floor, grinning and wagging his tail as if to say "See what I made? Isn't it GREAT?!?!" Well, like I tell Roux, Marisa Acocella Marchetto: No, it's not great. And now I'm annoyed.
I regret doing so.
I didn't know who this author was--still don't, except for the overly glowing inside flap description of a "celebrated New Yorker cartoonist and acclaimed author of Cancer Vixen", which is apparently a memoir of her treatment for cancer. I'm sure it's powerful and compelling.
Unfortunately, this fiction novel is not--despite that flap telling me that it's a "wildly imaginative first novel", "the newest, much-anticipated adventure from a supremely gifted artist at the height of her powers" with "spot on dialogue".
First, let's get one thing out of the way: The art is bad. It's particularly bad. This is coming from someone who can't draw at all, and who tries very hard not to be too judgemental about the art of others. But this art doesn't show any skill, proportion, anatomy, or eye to composition. I could draw this. That is an insult.
Second, let's get something else out of the way: This story is trite. There's nothing particularly imaginative about "character has near-death experience, meets afterlife/true soul, is tasked with mission". Which is not to say that I'm bagging on it for being hackneyed necessarily, but when the publisher (or, I suspect, the author herself) is blowing smoke up my butt with "wildly imaginative", I usually hope for something other than "shamelessly derivative".
Third, this story is just not good. This one takes a few details and examples to explain properly.
I'll start with the point at which I said "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I'm done". It was when the mystical being had to explain why she had to go away briefly when one of the limited cast of non-white folks showed up. You see, it had been established that nobody could see this being. And this non-white character had already shown up once when the being was round. But this second time, the being had to go away because, and I quote: "She can sense me....Lorna is Peruvian, descended from ancient Incan mystics. Her dormant skills for working with energy haven't fully awakened..." Barf. I guess that's the "spot-on dialogue"? Right up there with "Invite me to a Korean barbecue and I get grilled?"
There's the plotpoint of the "super" version of our main character, who's supposed to be the "pure" version--who was split from the "regular" version millenia ago in a way that's described poorly and nonsensically--who is essentially her "angelic self" lying to her, occupying her body, and then using it to have sex with someone.
And there's the very end--which I'm going to spoil for you, so that you, unlike me, don't waste your time. Our Hero, who was a gossip magnate, finds out in the last 5 pages--of a graphic novel, remember, so we're talking short span--that in fact the rich folkd who run the media companies of the world, explains their suddenly evil plan. "Most of the media is now under our dominion. No sane person would risk their credibility to reveal our goal: To control the world and the minds and souls in it". Is this foreshadowed? Nope! Does it make sense? Nope!
This book reads like the tail end of the fever dream of someone who thought They Live was a documentary. Not the beginning of the fever dream, but the end, when your brain's too tired to even try.
I think what might have angered me the most was the very very end, where the author has the temerity to put "A note on the type"--those little notes they put at the end of what are actual prose novels, that explain a particular font. That works there, because novels are typeset--the font is a real font. It doesn't work here because "all type was hand lettered". Basically, she handwrote it using narrow sans serif letter, and then calls the use of changing two of those letters--the A into almost a pentagram, and the O into a satellite, the "Superann Font". It's not a font. Nor did you invent the idea of puttint a ring around Os or connecting the line across the A with one of the legs.
This book is as proud of itself as when I walk into the house and my dog's pooped on the floor, grinning and wagging his tail as if to say "See what I made? Isn't it GREAT?!?!" Well, like I tell Roux, Marisa Acocella Marchetto: No, it's not great. And now I'm annoyed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 28, 2024
2.5 rounded to 3. The art was a lot of fun and adventurous. The story was message heavy and took too long to get where it was going. The extra pages were nice to see but the story or characters didn’t really go anywhere other than what we all saw coming.
March 10, 2016
Holy crap. This is by the same woman as Cancer Vixen, which I like a lot, but it deserves to be thrown across the room with great force. (I didn't, because it was a library book.) Basically, the heavenly planes are all about the greatest spa experiences, including for your soul, and being able to eat whatever desserts you want without getting fat. Oh, and you lose the weight you couldn't lose. And Coco Chanel's ghost designs you a custom leather suit.
I was amused by the first bizarre appearance of the spirit of a famous physicist, but by the second or third one I was saying DEAR GOD THIS IS NOT THE MYSTICAL EXPLANATION YOU THINK IT IS.
Part of the fun of Cancer Vixen was its insistence that something like cancer doesn't stop the real world, or frivolity, and if you can wear a different designer shoe to every chemo treatment more power to you. But it doesn't work in philosophical, spiritu-mystical revelation-style hooey which may or may not be tongue-in-cheek. Gah. Avoid at all costs, and wait for her next book.
I was amused by the first bizarre appearance of the spirit of a famous physicist, but by the second or third one I was saying DEAR GOD THIS IS NOT THE MYSTICAL EXPLANATION YOU THINK IT IS.
Part of the fun of Cancer Vixen was its insistence that something like cancer doesn't stop the real world, or frivolity, and if you can wear a different designer shoe to every chemo treatment more power to you. But it doesn't work in philosophical, spiritu-mystical revelation-style hooey which may or may not be tongue-in-cheek. Gah. Avoid at all costs, and wait for her next book.
January 12, 2016
Weird. A woman on some journey of self-discovery in order to save the world. Or something.
January 10, 2016
What a mess.
September 24, 2025
Ann Tenna was unique, and it’s worth the read entirely for that reason. With a completely ridiculous set up and cartoonishly cosmetic world, Ann Tenna falls from grace and meets SuperAnn, her transcendental super self. SuperAnn attempts to teach Ann about how to live a good life, without being brainwashed by the gossip-driven media. I found that Ann Tenna falls short in its critique of society with over the top straw men. There is no room for complexity in the do or die situations presented by SuperAnn (Who advocates for an Organic and Non-GMO lifestyle). And ultimately Ann is entirely forced into a life as a Transmissionary (don’t ask me it wasn’t really explained). With glitz and glamour like no other graphic novel I’ve read, this book is interesting in its presentation. But it’s lack of nuance and meaning, or general cultural critique, and complete lack of realness, really makes it fall short. Read this for Drag, read this for Camp. Don’t read this and take anything anyway to influence your worldview. It’s sugar with no substance and I love that for it.
September 16, 2017
I didn't like this book. But with that said the art work was amazing. The story just irritated me - I have very different value systems than the characters in the book. I think that was part of the point...but still, ugh. This was an impulse pick up at the library so I feel a bit bad because I was obviously not the target reader. Someone who likes popular/celebrity/fashion culture would probably get more out of it.
January 5, 2022
When gossip columnist Ann Tenna has a near death experience and is confronted by her higher self she faces aa challenge to change her life for the better. Hopefully, the message to love and forgive yourself and others will reach this book's readers without the need for such drastic measures.
I gave this 4 stars because I read the Uncorrected Bound Proof and hope that the finished volume will have higher production features.
I gave this 4 stars because I read the Uncorrected Bound Proof and hope that the finished volume will have higher production features.
January 22, 2018
Quirky and super-creative work of philosophy cum graphic novel. I think the overall "lesson" is that we're supposed to stay connected to some sort of cosmic force of love and acceptance (and stop spreading gossip), but that makes it sound preachy in a way that it's not, really. Maybe the hippy-dippiness is assuaged by the overweening weirdness.
June 16, 2019
I had the rare opportunity to peruse the graphic novel shelves at the library last week and picked this up on the strength of how much I enjoyed Cancer Vixen. This story was...quirky. I love quirky, but there was just something about how the quirky was delivered in this graphic novel that didn't really do it for me.
May 5, 2021
This was entertaining, even if I probably missed some fashion references. The book has a good message and is about changing spiritually for the better.
Some people don't seem to understand that Superann didn't really use Ann's body; they are two parts of the same person. Superann is Ann's higher self.
Some people don't seem to understand that Superann didn't really use Ann's body; they are two parts of the same person. Superann is Ann's higher self.
April 5, 2022
This was a hot mess.
The wobbly, borderline manic plot. The moral lesson lost in its own whimsy.
But above all, the hideousness of their hairstyles.
I found the artwork nauseating 95% of the time. I had to cover the panels with Anna's puckered-bruise eye just to squirm through the pages.
I saw potential and was delivered couture gar-bage.
The wobbly, borderline manic plot. The moral lesson lost in its own whimsy.
But above all, the hideousness of their hairstyles.
I found the artwork nauseating 95% of the time. I had to cover the panels with Anna's puckered-bruise eye just to squirm through the pages.
I saw potential and was delivered couture gar-bage.
July 5, 2018
Добро проти зла, вічне проти тимчасового, жінка проти інших жінок і самої себе, розбите серце... що ще треба для захоплюючого графісного роману?
Мені нічого.
Смішні референси, трохи сюрреалізму, трансформація головної героїні - вишеньки історії.
Мені нічого.
Смішні референси, трохи сюрреалізму, трансформація головної героїні - вишеньки історії.
June 16, 2021
Karma is a spiritual bitch. Funny tale of what happens to gossip columnist when forced to face the pain she has brought onto others. Think of it as a updated “it’s a wonderful life” on the astral plane.
September 6, 2022
This is the most underrated graphic novelist! If you see low stars it’s because someone doesn’t want to see this female goddess art be released. Thank you for making these books! My first was she-banged so amazing the Bible jokes & new world messages.
September 27, 2022
Ann Tenna is unlike any graphic novel I’ve ever read. I never knew where it was going to go and the laws of the transmission art world were a bit lost on me, but I love Ann and how she learned to forgive her self. Surprisingly really touching and fun to read.
June 16, 2017
2 1/2 stars.
June 16, 2017
It's basically A Christmas Carol with Manolo Blahniks, bright colors, & NYC. Who wouldn't enjoy a romp like that?
July 5, 2017
kudos to the author for doing a scifi comic with a gossip journalist/actually some kind of goddess(?) as the protagonist (space is such a boys club) but i didn't love the actual story.
June 20, 2018
durr hburr technology is bad fire is scary and thomas edison was a witch
also super ann literally rapes vapid ann by stealing her body and this is just seen as ok for some reason??????
also super ann literally rapes vapid ann by stealing her body and this is just seen as ok for some reason??????
November 9, 2018
Interestingly weird graphic novel about media, celebrity gossip, and higher planes of existence. Lots of puns.
February 10, 2019
I spotted this book a few years ago on a shelf in a book store and it haunted me ever since. The art style was enjoyable and the characters, a bit cliched, but in a fun and campy way. I enjoyed it.
March 9, 2019
Two stars for the pretty pictures. Otherwise one star for the super cliched new agey story about connecting with the universe and being your best self through love and its predictable criticism of media crazed New Yorkers. Waste of drawing talent, but there’s not much behind that talent.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews