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Bizarre Romance
Internationally bestselling author of The Time Traveler’s Wife , Audrey Niffenegger, and graphic artist Eddie Campbell, of such seminal works as From Hell by Alan Moore, collaborate on a wonderfully bizarre collection that celebrates and satirizes love of all kinds. With 16 different stories told through illustrated prose or comic panels, the couple explores the idiosyncratic nature of relationships in a variety of genres from fractured fairy tales to historical fiction to paper dolls. W ith Niffenegger’s sharp, imaginative prose and Campbell’s diverse comic styles, Bizarre Romance is the debut collection by two of the most important storytellers of our time.
168 pages, Hardcover
First published March 20, 2018
30 people are currently reading
2213 people want to read
About the author
Audrey Niffenegger
45 books12.3k followersAudrey Niffenegger (born June 13, 1963 in South Haven, Michigan) is a writer and artist. She is also a professor in the MFA Creative Writing Program at Columbia College Chicago.
Niffenegger's debut novel, The Time Traveler's Wife (2003), was a national bestseller. The Time Traveler's Wife is an unconventional love story that centers on a man with a strange genetic disorder that causes him to unpredictably time-travel and his wife, an artist, who has to cope with his constant absence.
Her Fearful Symmetry (2009), Niffenegger's second novel, is set in London's Highgate Cemetery where, during research for the book, Niffenegger acted as a tour guide.
Niffenegger has also published graphic and illustrated novels including: The Adventuress (2006), The Three Incestuous Sisters (2005), The Night Bookmobile (2009), and Raven Girl (2013). Raven Girl was adapted into a ballet by Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor and the Royal Opera House Ballet (London) in 2013.
A mid-career retrospective entitled "Awake in the Dream World: The Art of Audrey Niffenegger," was presented by the National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington D.C.) in 2013. An accompanying exhibition catalogue examines several themes in Niffenegger's visual art including her explorations of life, mortality, and magic.
Niffenegger's debut novel, The Time Traveler's Wife (2003), was a national bestseller. The Time Traveler's Wife is an unconventional love story that centers on a man with a strange genetic disorder that causes him to unpredictably time-travel and his wife, an artist, who has to cope with his constant absence.
Her Fearful Symmetry (2009), Niffenegger's second novel, is set in London's Highgate Cemetery where, during research for the book, Niffenegger acted as a tour guide.
Niffenegger has also published graphic and illustrated novels including: The Adventuress (2006), The Three Incestuous Sisters (2005), The Night Bookmobile (2009), and Raven Girl (2013). Raven Girl was adapted into a ballet by Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor and the Royal Opera House Ballet (London) in 2013.
A mid-career retrospective entitled "Awake in the Dream World: The Art of Audrey Niffenegger," was presented by the National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington D.C.) in 2013. An accompanying exhibition catalogue examines several themes in Niffenegger's visual art including her explorations of life, mortality, and magic.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 261 reviews
February 7, 2018
"Bizarre Romance" is a compilation of thirteen quirky stories written and illustrated by wife and husband team, Audrey Niffenegger and Eddie Campbell.
"Girl on the Roof" is a poignant letter written to a lost loved one. It is a prose story by Niffenegger with minimal artwork. This is in direct contrast to the beautiful panels drawn by Campbell in "Backwards in Seville". This reader enjoyed the "Secret Life with Cats" where a volunteer at the Happy Cat Home, a no kill shelter, had a life changing experience. "Thursdays Six to Eight p.m." focuses on the cost of suspicion.
I have to admit that "Bizarre Romance", a comic romance, was off-beat, however, I like books off the beaten path. This was just the book for me!
Thank you Abrams Comic Arts and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "Bizarre Romance".
"Girl on the Roof" is a poignant letter written to a lost loved one. It is a prose story by Niffenegger with minimal artwork. This is in direct contrast to the beautiful panels drawn by Campbell in "Backwards in Seville". This reader enjoyed the "Secret Life with Cats" where a volunteer at the Happy Cat Home, a no kill shelter, had a life changing experience. "Thursdays Six to Eight p.m." focuses on the cost of suspicion.
I have to admit that "Bizarre Romance", a comic romance, was off-beat, however, I like books off the beaten path. This was just the book for me!
Thank you Abrams Comic Arts and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "Bizarre Romance".
February 13, 2018
Bizarre Romance includes thirteen stories that were written and illustrated by Audrey Niffenegger and her husband, Eddie Campbell.
Comics aren’t really something that I’m always drawn to, but these are not your typical short stories, or your typical comics. They’re unpredictably odd, perhaps a bit on the eccentric side, and there are some that leave you thinking. And there is some incredible comic artwork.
Topics range from suspicion, to cats, fairies, aging, the topic of comics, and art, love, and others.
”The Composite Boyfriend” opens to the equivalent of a paper doll layout, including a naked man, assorted wardrobe accessories, etc. etc., and is followed by a story which begins at the beginning of a morphing of what appears to be multiple parties love stories.
“I met him at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston where he worked as a guard. I met him in a class I was taking. I met him at a school where we both taught. I met him at a party; we smiled at each other across a crowded room. We were introduced to each other by our mutual friend Paula, an Austrian immigrant who had escaped from the Nazis as a young girl.”
RoseRedSnowRidingBeautyShoesHoodSleepingWhite is the story of a brother and sister who are out shopping for Halloween costumes, and Roselyn declares that she is going as Queen RoseRedSnowRidingBeautyShoesHoodSleepingWhite. I really loved the illustrations in all of these stories, but this was one of the better ones for me, and I loved how the story developed, and ended.
Jakob Wywialowski and the Angels is about a man who has problems with Angels abiding in his attic. “I felt bad about throwing them out of the attic, but what was I supposed to do? One thing leads to another, and before you know it, you’ve got seraphim.”
Girl on a Roof A poignant love letter from Nan to Sylvie, who she hasn’t heard from since the floods began in New Orleans.
The Church of the Funnies is based on a child questions her father about why he doesn’t go to church, and he replies “I belong to the Church of the Funnies” which expands in her mind as she grows up, going from Peanuts characters in the adjacent pew to a church which encompasses comics of every sort, and beyond to encompass all Art.
”Backwards in Seville” was just lovely with beautifully done panels of art, and a strangely sweet story of a middle-aged woman who goes on a cruise with her aging father.
These stories are so varied in their topics, but I really enjoyed all of them, from strange to sweet to funny and back. As it says in the Introduction these stories are "sometimes romantic, sometimes star-crossed, or merely discombobulated, but all are at least a tiny bit bizarre."
Many thanks, also, to my good goodreads friend, Fran, whose review put this one on my radar. Fran's review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Pub Date: 20 Mar 2018
Many thanks for the ARC provided by ABRAMS Books
Comics aren’t really something that I’m always drawn to, but these are not your typical short stories, or your typical comics. They’re unpredictably odd, perhaps a bit on the eccentric side, and there are some that leave you thinking. And there is some incredible comic artwork.
Topics range from suspicion, to cats, fairies, aging, the topic of comics, and art, love, and others.
”The Composite Boyfriend” opens to the equivalent of a paper doll layout, including a naked man, assorted wardrobe accessories, etc. etc., and is followed by a story which begins at the beginning of a morphing of what appears to be multiple parties love stories.
“I met him at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston where he worked as a guard. I met him in a class I was taking. I met him at a school where we both taught. I met him at a party; we smiled at each other across a crowded room. We were introduced to each other by our mutual friend Paula, an Austrian immigrant who had escaped from the Nazis as a young girl.”
RoseRedSnowRidingBeautyShoesHoodSleepingWhite is the story of a brother and sister who are out shopping for Halloween costumes, and Roselyn declares that she is going as Queen RoseRedSnowRidingBeautyShoesHoodSleepingWhite. I really loved the illustrations in all of these stories, but this was one of the better ones for me, and I loved how the story developed, and ended.
Jakob Wywialowski and the Angels is about a man who has problems with Angels abiding in his attic. “I felt bad about throwing them out of the attic, but what was I supposed to do? One thing leads to another, and before you know it, you’ve got seraphim.”
Girl on a Roof A poignant love letter from Nan to Sylvie, who she hasn’t heard from since the floods began in New Orleans.
The Church of the Funnies is based on a child questions her father about why he doesn’t go to church, and he replies “I belong to the Church of the Funnies” which expands in her mind as she grows up, going from Peanuts characters in the adjacent pew to a church which encompasses comics of every sort, and beyond to encompass all Art.
”Backwards in Seville” was just lovely with beautifully done panels of art, and a strangely sweet story of a middle-aged woman who goes on a cruise with her aging father.
These stories are so varied in their topics, but I really enjoyed all of them, from strange to sweet to funny and back. As it says in the Introduction these stories are "sometimes romantic, sometimes star-crossed, or merely discombobulated, but all are at least a tiny bit bizarre."
Many thanks, also, to my good goodreads friend, Fran, whose review put this one on my radar. Fran's review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Pub Date: 20 Mar 2018
Many thanks for the ARC provided by ABRAMS Books
November 12, 2024
I read this in 2019, and I’m now bringing this review to Goodreads.
This book, by Audrey Niffenegger (internationally bestselling author of The Time Traveler’s Wife) and her husband, graphic artist Eddie Campbell have collaborated on a truly interesting graphic novel that celebrates love through short stories…in a most unusual way.
This is my third graphic novel this year (2019).
It is a different reading experience – wonderful illustrations accompany uniquely strange stories.
All in all, it’s quirky tales that soar or confuse.
This book, by Audrey Niffenegger (internationally bestselling author of The Time Traveler’s Wife) and her husband, graphic artist Eddie Campbell have collaborated on a truly interesting graphic novel that celebrates love through short stories…in a most unusual way.
This is my third graphic novel this year (2019).
It is a different reading experience – wonderful illustrations accompany uniquely strange stories.
All in all, it’s quirky tales that soar or confuse.
May 7, 2018
Well, it was bizarre.
Having read a few other of Niffenegger's books, I already knew I wasn't much of a fan of her style of bizarre. But having been a longtime fan of Eddie Campbell, I thought I'd give this a go because of his art. Unfortunately, this anthology didn't make full use of his art, including several text-only pieces.
And Campbell decided to use a collage method that sporadically featured photos of real things pasted into his linework. I found it very jarring when, say, a big colorful stack of waffles suddenly appeared on the page. I would get knocked out of the story flow as I stopped to examine this stack of waffles and try to decide whether he had worked out the angles and proportions properly for the surrounding picture he had drawn. Then I'd wonder why he chose to do this. Then I'd remember I was reading a story and try to get back to that.
I'll chalk this one up mostly to failed experiment, though I did find the sermon about art and religion near the end sort of interesting.
Having read a few other of Niffenegger's books, I already knew I wasn't much of a fan of her style of bizarre. But having been a longtime fan of Eddie Campbell, I thought I'd give this a go because of his art. Unfortunately, this anthology didn't make full use of his art, including several text-only pieces.
And Campbell decided to use a collage method that sporadically featured photos of real things pasted into his linework. I found it very jarring when, say, a big colorful stack of waffles suddenly appeared on the page. I would get knocked out of the story flow as I stopped to examine this stack of waffles and try to decide whether he had worked out the angles and proportions properly for the surrounding picture he had drawn. Then I'd wonder why he chose to do this. Then I'd remember I was reading a story and try to get back to that.
I'll chalk this one up mostly to failed experiment, though I did find the sermon about art and religion near the end sort of interesting.
March 1, 2018
Bizarre Romance, the creation of mad scientist wife/husband tag team Audrey Niffenegger and Eddie Campbell is a quirky collection of short stories, told mostly in illustrated form. But note: this this is the good kind of quirky—quirky the same way a capybara is quirky, quirky like the perplexingly changing rules of the alleged Olympic sport of curling. Quirky like that new doctor at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, Dr. Gregory House. Yes, he will insult your choice of shoe ware, hairstyle, and the band on your concert T-shirt, but really, you don’t want anyone else to cure your puzzling rectal bleeding, inexplicable respiratory duress, and the sudden baffling ability to play highly technical piano concertos despite never before having touched the instrument than Dr. House. You know, a good quirky!
The stories (some published previously) are all extremely strong. Many contain fantastical elements like fairies, angels, and spectral cats. Fans of Neil Gaiman and George Saunders will devour this book like it was the first Big Mac they came upon after being rescued from a twenty-year stint on an uninhabited desert island. Like these greats, Niffenegger nimbly grounds her fantasy with authenticity and genuine feeling.
I enjoyed all the entries to the collection here and signaling any out is like saying you like flatbread over pizza. Still, these were the ones I particularly relished:
“Jakob Wywialowski and the Angels”-a tale of a middle age chucklehead enlisting a pest control service to rid his attic of some very standoffish angels (ending in terrific eruption of pandemonium and tragedy) is fantastic. Very funny and clever, and more than a little poignant with a super satisfying conclusion.
“The Wrong Fairy” details the magical visitations Charles Altamont Doyle (Sir Arthur’s proud papa) received while drying out in the lunatic asylum. Needles to say, these callers where the inspiration for some of his paintings depicting fairies.
“The Ruin of Grant Lowery” warns of living a superficial life, the dangers of eating fairy prepared waffles (don’t be polite, just say no), and the power of names.
The artwork is skillfully drawn and as imaginative as the content of the stories. These tales will stick with you long after reading with the adhesiveness of a Siberian Husky’s fur to your new black suit pants pre job interview. Bizarre Romance is a wonderful read and I highly recommend getting out and grabbing a copy.
Oh, also, I am hereby disclosing that I was thrilled to win an advanced copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads for an impartial review. This is a very big deal, as I have not won anything for the last two years. This losing streak may have been the result of that one time Goodreads knocked on the door of my home to give me the “deodorant talk” as well as an unopened Speed Stick musk (apparently some of the other reviewers who claimed to be my friends were complaining about me in high nasally voices, noses clamped shut with clothespins). I acted aggrieved; I’m ashamed to say and demanded they vacate my property immediately. Then I continued on with my unhygienic ways. Or perhaps it was that time I attended Goodreads’ birthday party and I ended up stealing pricey microbrew beers out of the fridge that were not mine (I brought the Natty Light) and I eventually got so drunk I urinated into their mother’s potted Red Anthurium sitting on the dining room table, stole the ham they had in the downstairs basement icebox, and mooned their neighbors. Oops! So, it is nice of Goodreads to let me win an ARC again, and I’d like to thank ABRAMS Books as well as the lovely Mamie VanLangen for this copy. The reason I am flying higher than an eagle right now is because you are all the wind beneath my wings. Thanks!
The stories (some published previously) are all extremely strong. Many contain fantastical elements like fairies, angels, and spectral cats. Fans of Neil Gaiman and George Saunders will devour this book like it was the first Big Mac they came upon after being rescued from a twenty-year stint on an uninhabited desert island. Like these greats, Niffenegger nimbly grounds her fantasy with authenticity and genuine feeling.
I enjoyed all the entries to the collection here and signaling any out is like saying you like flatbread over pizza. Still, these were the ones I particularly relished:
“Jakob Wywialowski and the Angels”-a tale of a middle age chucklehead enlisting a pest control service to rid his attic of some very standoffish angels (ending in terrific eruption of pandemonium and tragedy) is fantastic. Very funny and clever, and more than a little poignant with a super satisfying conclusion.
“The Wrong Fairy” details the magical visitations Charles Altamont Doyle (Sir Arthur’s proud papa) received while drying out in the lunatic asylum. Needles to say, these callers where the inspiration for some of his paintings depicting fairies.
“The Ruin of Grant Lowery” warns of living a superficial life, the dangers of eating fairy prepared waffles (don’t be polite, just say no), and the power of names.
The artwork is skillfully drawn and as imaginative as the content of the stories. These tales will stick with you long after reading with the adhesiveness of a Siberian Husky’s fur to your new black suit pants pre job interview. Bizarre Romance is a wonderful read and I highly recommend getting out and grabbing a copy.
Oh, also, I am hereby disclosing that I was thrilled to win an advanced copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads for an impartial review. This is a very big deal, as I have not won anything for the last two years. This losing streak may have been the result of that one time Goodreads knocked on the door of my home to give me the “deodorant talk” as well as an unopened Speed Stick musk (apparently some of the other reviewers who claimed to be my friends were complaining about me in high nasally voices, noses clamped shut with clothespins). I acted aggrieved; I’m ashamed to say and demanded they vacate my property immediately. Then I continued on with my unhygienic ways. Or perhaps it was that time I attended Goodreads’ birthday party and I ended up stealing pricey microbrew beers out of the fridge that were not mine (I brought the Natty Light) and I eventually got so drunk I urinated into their mother’s potted Red Anthurium sitting on the dining room table, stole the ham they had in the downstairs basement icebox, and mooned their neighbors. Oops! So, it is nice of Goodreads to let me win an ARC again, and I’d like to thank ABRAMS Books as well as the lovely Mamie VanLangen for this copy. The reason I am flying higher than an eagle right now is because you are all the wind beneath my wings. Thanks!
December 15, 2019
I had no idea that that Eddie Campbell and Audrey Niffenegger were married. Heck, I wasn't even familiar with Niffenegger’s name, though of course I’ve heard of The Time Traveller's Wife. Bizarre Romance is a collection of collaborations between them. Some are straight up comics, others are illustrated short stories. Most have appeared elsewhere, often as prose stories by Niffenegger, though a couple are brand new to this collection.
Subject-wise, it's a mixed bag. There's fiction, memoir, an essay. Her work reminds me a bit of Harlan Ellison or Neil Gaiman in terms of subject matter. Some stories are fairly straight literary fiction (“Thursdays, Six to Eight p.m.”) Others have a hint of fantasy (“Secret Life, With Cats.”) And others have more than just a hint (“Jakob Wywialowski and the Angels.”) Also, like them, she seems equally comfortable in short story and essay modes.
I was already an Eddie Campbell fan, which is what attracted me to this book in the first place. But I’m definitely keen to check out more of Audrey Niffenegger’s work now. Definitely recommended!
Subject-wise, it's a mixed bag. There's fiction, memoir, an essay. Her work reminds me a bit of Harlan Ellison or Neil Gaiman in terms of subject matter. Some stories are fairly straight literary fiction (“Thursdays, Six to Eight p.m.”) Others have a hint of fantasy (“Secret Life, With Cats.”) And others have more than just a hint (“Jakob Wywialowski and the Angels.”) Also, like them, she seems equally comfortable in short story and essay modes.
I was already an Eddie Campbell fan, which is what attracted me to this book in the first place. But I’m definitely keen to check out more of Audrey Niffenegger’s work now. Definitely recommended!
August 26, 2023
Bizarre Romance was an interesting read and not what I was expecting!
I do enjoy picking up a "random" book that I normally wouldn't find in my TBR/book buying journey. Bizarre Romance was one of those books that I looked at and decided I would take a chance. The 16 stories in the book are absolutely marvelous, but I found it really hard to keep engaged with them. Maybe it was bad timing of reading it, or maybe it just wasn't for me. Regardless, beautifully written, amazing illustrations, and overall a good book. But, unfortunately, my enjoyment level just wasn't there.
Two out of five stars.
I do enjoy picking up a "random" book that I normally wouldn't find in my TBR/book buying journey. Bizarre Romance was one of those books that I looked at and decided I would take a chance. The 16 stories in the book are absolutely marvelous, but I found it really hard to keep engaged with them. Maybe it was bad timing of reading it, or maybe it just wasn't for me. Regardless, beautifully written, amazing illustrations, and overall a good book. But, unfortunately, my enjoyment level just wasn't there.
Two out of five stars.
July 28, 2019
I couldn't really get into this one. About half illustrated stories and half written short-stories, there were fairly hit and miss for me.
August 26, 2023
This volume is an odd mixture of short stories (text), graphic stories, and illustrated stories. The texts already existed and were illustrated and reworked in a collaboration between Niffenegger and her partner Eddie Campbell.
The result is uncomfortably uneven. My favourite piece was text-only, The Composite Boyfriend, a series of contradictory yet illuminating statements: "He made beautiful photographs. He was writing a novel about a man with eidetic memory. He had terrific hair. He was going bald. He didn't have any tattoos." The result had the flavour of bits of conversation overheard as you wander through a crowded party.
The graphic novel stories varied widely in format, and the lettering, such as in the piece about angels in the attic, veered towards illegible. Who wants to work that hard to read?
The volume started off well, but ... sorry, that's just me.
The result is uncomfortably uneven. My favourite piece was text-only, The Composite Boyfriend, a series of contradictory yet illuminating statements: "He made beautiful photographs. He was writing a novel about a man with eidetic memory. He had terrific hair. He was going bald. He didn't have any tattoos." The result had the flavour of bits of conversation overheard as you wander through a crowded party.
The graphic novel stories varied widely in format, and the lettering, such as in the piece about angels in the attic, veered towards illegible. Who wants to work that hard to read?
The volume started off well, but ... sorry, that's just me.
May 4, 2021
Bizarre Romance—the title perfectly describes the stories inside. The cover art is a simple drawing of two creatures embracing—a feline creature and an avian creature. Oh, this ain’t The Way We Were or Sleepless in Seattle or Wuthering Heights (although it could be). This is romance in the broader sense of the word. It is lovely and poignant and warm (and cold) and scary.
It was thrilling to see the combined work of a couple who had their own bizarre romance across the globe put together into a graphic novel that is utterly charming (in the broader sense of the word). I am glad to have this one as a real book and to be able to hold it in my hands. (It’s heavy, literally and figuratively).
It was thrilling to see the combined work of a couple who had their own bizarre romance across the globe put together into a graphic novel that is utterly charming (in the broader sense of the word). I am glad to have this one as a real book and to be able to hold it in my hands. (It’s heavy, literally and figuratively).
February 5, 2018
Every single story in this anthology is amazing. These 150+ pages took me on a roller coaster of emotions and left me thoroughly satisfied. I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC of this book.
July 21, 2025
This was interesting, some of the stories I really liked but others I disconnected from or just felt like I didn't have enough information to dive into into the forever changing worlds. But it was still very unique!
January 31, 2020
Most of these pieces originated as text-only stories by Niffenegger* and were later adapted into comics by Campbell. By the time they got married, they had been collaborating long-distance for a while. Some of the stories incorporate fairies, monsters, ghosts and other worlds. A young woman on her way to a holiday party travels via a mirror to another land where she is queen; a hapless bar fly trades one fairy mistress for another; Arthur Conan Doyle’s father sketches fairies in an asylum; a middle-aged woman on a cruise decides to donate her remaining years to her aged father.
My favorite of the fantastical ones was “Jakob Wywialowski and the Angels,” a story of a man dealing with an angel infestation in the attic; it first appeared as a holiday story on the Amazon homepage in 2003 and is the oldest piece here, with the newest dating from 2015. I also liked “Thursdays, Six to Eight p.m.,” in which a man goes to great lengths to assure two hours of completely uninterrupted reading per week.
Strangely, my two top pieces were the nonfiction ones: “Digging up the Cat,” about burying her frozen pet with its deceased sibling; and “The Church of the Funnies,” a secular sermon about her history with Catholicism and art that Niffenegger delivered at Manchester Cathedral as part of the 2014 Manchester Literary Festival.
*She has previously illustrated her own work. Based on her two graphic novels that I read, I prefer her style to Campbell’s.
My favorite of the fantastical ones was “Jakob Wywialowski and the Angels,” a story of a man dealing with an angel infestation in the attic; it first appeared as a holiday story on the Amazon homepage in 2003 and is the oldest piece here, with the newest dating from 2015. I also liked “Thursdays, Six to Eight p.m.,” in which a man goes to great lengths to assure two hours of completely uninterrupted reading per week.
Strangely, my two top pieces were the nonfiction ones: “Digging up the Cat,” about burying her frozen pet with its deceased sibling; and “The Church of the Funnies,” a secular sermon about her history with Catholicism and art that Niffenegger delivered at Manchester Cathedral as part of the 2014 Manchester Literary Festival.
*She has previously illustrated her own work. Based on her two graphic novels that I read, I prefer her style to Campbell’s.
December 17, 2021
If you like quirky short stories presented in a graphic novel you will love this book!
If not, do not be put off - the stories are thought provoking.
I found the illustrations went well with the context, others may not.
I really enjoyed Audrey’s The Time Travellers Wife & Her Fearful Symmetry.
Easily read within a day.
If not, do not be put off - the stories are thought provoking.
I found the illustrations went well with the context, others may not.
I really enjoyed Audrey’s The Time Travellers Wife & Her Fearful Symmetry.
Easily read within a day.
July 3, 2018
I borrowed this book from the library, but I think it's one worth owning. A marvelous collection!
Favorite Passages:
The room was enormous. He could see the ceiling but not the walls. There were a great many things in the room, too many for him to make sense of at first. When he looked carefully, he could see piles of things. Each thing was spherical, illuminated - each one was in motion. He drew near one pile and looked into a sphere. Some children were building a snowman. There were in a city. A large shiny vehicle passed by the children, moving under it's own power, like a train. One of the children threw a snowball at it. In another sphere there was a war going on, something exploded, and he turned away quickly. Lovers embraced in strange clean white bedrooms. Water gushed from pipes into bathtubs; no servants had to carry the water. Bodies were stacked naked in mass graves. Machines. Murder. Magic. He saw things he had no words for.
He turned to the lady, who was standing in an empty space looking depressed. "How do you like it?" she asked him.
"It's overwhelming," he said. "What is it?"
"The queen's children. The future."
______
Whenever I open the freezer to get some orange juice or a waffle, I greet her: Hi Jane. Sometimes I tell her about current events, or the weather. Mostly I just like knowing she's there. But other people find it strange that there's a cat in my freezer.
______
Someone stood there, all those years ago, with a burnt stick in his or her small hand, and made a picture. This may have had to do with their religion, but I imagine that when the artist stood back and looked at the finished drawing, that artist felt the same artists always feel at that moment: joy and disappointment. It's good, but it isn't as good as the thing we meant to make. The thing we cannot quite achieve leads us to make the next thing, and the next after that. We make things to find out what they are, what they can be, what they might mean. We make things to keep us company in the world. We make things to show them to other people, because we want them to understand.
The thing that makes us want God is the same thing that make us want Art - we want meaning. We want there to be more than meets the eye.
_____
Favorite Passages:
The room was enormous. He could see the ceiling but not the walls. There were a great many things in the room, too many for him to make sense of at first. When he looked carefully, he could see piles of things. Each thing was spherical, illuminated - each one was in motion. He drew near one pile and looked into a sphere. Some children were building a snowman. There were in a city. A large shiny vehicle passed by the children, moving under it's own power, like a train. One of the children threw a snowball at it. In another sphere there was a war going on, something exploded, and he turned away quickly. Lovers embraced in strange clean white bedrooms. Water gushed from pipes into bathtubs; no servants had to carry the water. Bodies were stacked naked in mass graves. Machines. Murder. Magic. He saw things he had no words for.
He turned to the lady, who was standing in an empty space looking depressed. "How do you like it?" she asked him.
"It's overwhelming," he said. "What is it?"
"The queen's children. The future."
______
Whenever I open the freezer to get some orange juice or a waffle, I greet her: Hi Jane. Sometimes I tell her about current events, or the weather. Mostly I just like knowing she's there. But other people find it strange that there's a cat in my freezer.
______
Someone stood there, all those years ago, with a burnt stick in his or her small hand, and made a picture. This may have had to do with their religion, but I imagine that when the artist stood back and looked at the finished drawing, that artist felt the same artists always feel at that moment: joy and disappointment. It's good, but it isn't as good as the thing we meant to make. The thing we cannot quite achieve leads us to make the next thing, and the next after that. We make things to find out what they are, what they can be, what they might mean. We make things to keep us company in the world. We make things to show them to other people, because we want them to understand.
The thing that makes us want God is the same thing that make us want Art - we want meaning. We want there to be more than meets the eye.
_____
March 10, 2018
via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
While this isn’t my usual pick, the moment I saw it was by Niffenegger, I had to request it. Wonderful illustrations accompany uniquely strange stories. The Composite Boyfriend is decent but something I think my younger readers would like. I enjoyed the tale of aging in Backwards in Seville, it is moving and heavier than the rest. There is something endearing about the drawing of Helene with scarlet lips, and lipstick smudges on the glass. Digging Up the Cat, seven years the animal rested in his grave, why the heck are the digging him up? Each tale is odd, it’s hit or miss, but always original. I’m just not always sure what was being said, whether the story tackled religion or art.
It’s a hard collection to review being as I don’t read graphic novels. Some of the stories left me confused. Getting Out of Bed is really good, one for the artists. It is a creative book, it’s strange because in some of the stories I preferred the art to the prose and in others the prose to the art.
I think it is for a different reader than me. All in all, it’s quirky tales that soar or confuse.
Publication Date: March 20. 2018
Abrams ComicArts
While this isn’t my usual pick, the moment I saw it was by Niffenegger, I had to request it. Wonderful illustrations accompany uniquely strange stories. The Composite Boyfriend is decent but something I think my younger readers would like. I enjoyed the tale of aging in Backwards in Seville, it is moving and heavier than the rest. There is something endearing about the drawing of Helene with scarlet lips, and lipstick smudges on the glass. Digging Up the Cat, seven years the animal rested in his grave, why the heck are the digging him up? Each tale is odd, it’s hit or miss, but always original. I’m just not always sure what was being said, whether the story tackled religion or art.
It’s a hard collection to review being as I don’t read graphic novels. Some of the stories left me confused. Getting Out of Bed is really good, one for the artists. It is a creative book, it’s strange because in some of the stories I preferred the art to the prose and in others the prose to the art.
I think it is for a different reader than me. All in all, it’s quirky tales that soar or confuse.
Publication Date: March 20. 2018
Abrams ComicArts
June 4, 2018
The introduction to this book starts off with “Art is like love”. Not a good sign. This was a poorly devised mashup between this couple. The writing did not connect well at all with the artwork. It was as if they could not decide between a collection of short stories or a graphic novel filled with short stories, so they decided to slap the two together haphazardly. There was one story about Muybridge that was a mildly entertaining and connected the words and art a bit better than the rest of the stories.
Aesthetically, this is a work of art that could have used outside opinion before going to print. The cover is lovely; the inside made me wish for an actually wonderful and truly bizarre romance.
Aesthetically, this is a work of art that could have used outside opinion before going to print. The cover is lovely; the inside made me wish for an actually wonderful and truly bizarre romance.
January 3, 2023
Oddly lovely. The title perfectly represents this collection of short stories and short comic panels, portraying all sorts of love…. I love Audrey’s imagination, and although I’m usually besotted with her artwork too, it was a great collaboration with her partner, artist Eddie Campbell. ‘Digging up the Cat’ was my favorite. Perfectly weird and sentimental.
March 9, 2018
I received the book for free through Goodreads Giveaways. Even though I won this ARC I'm thinking about buying it! I loved the stories and artwork! Unfortunately my copy did not come fully illustrated like the book is advertised, so I have to get the finished copy! I only knew the author, Audrey Niffenegger, from her book The Time Traveler's wife. Which I'm ashamed to say I did not read, but watched the film instead. After reading Bizarre Romance I simply must have more of her books! Her writing hooks you from the start, and though you're sad when the story is over, she doesn't just drop you with an ending. Every story feels complete and original. I wasn't sure the artwork style was for me at first, but it really does mesh with all the stories and add more depth.
October 10, 2019
Colleen says:
This book is a short story/graphic novel combo. Author Niffenegger and artist Campbell are married in real life and teamed up for this unusual book. If you've been wanting to read a graphic novel this may be a good start. The stories are sweetly bizarre and much easier to read than Niffenegger's novels.
This book is a short story/graphic novel combo. Author Niffenegger and artist Campbell are married in real life and teamed up for this unusual book. If you've been wanting to read a graphic novel this may be a good start. The stories are sweetly bizarre and much easier to read than Niffenegger's novels.
July 24, 2023
Very bizarre
November 17, 2025
Heavy on the bizarre with almost no romance. This collection wasn’t really my vibe!
June 28, 2018
I especially liked "The Church of the Funnies".
March 26, 2018
Years ago, I read and fell madly in love with Audrey Niffenegger's clever and heart-string-yanking sorta-scifi romance, The Time Traveler's Wife. That was before I found out how weird she apparently is; the word-of-mouth rumors that her further writings were very strange naturally made me all the more interested in her. I've gotten to enjoy her visual art, but this volume, Bizarre Romance, is the first additional thing of hers I've read.
This collection, created with her new husband, seminal comics writer Eddie Campbell, pretty much cements her "weird" reputation for me, and also that she married exactly the right person. These thirteen vignettes, most previously published in different versions, cover a specific range of expressive forms, mostly settling around wordy comics or illustrated short stories. Some of the entries do indeed focus on "traditional" romantic love, both straight and gay (although certainly not in traditional ways), but most of the tales are actually centered around other types of love relationships, such as the bond between siblings and other family members, the mysterious draw of supernatural entities, the artist's greedy lust for his muse (and sometimes vice versa), our fear of and draw towards death, and naturally, in more than one story, our worshipful adoration of cats.
I found the weakest aspect of the book (aside from the $18.95 ebook price – GULP), sadly, to be the art (which is all Eddie's, not Audrey's). While I loved his artwork in the brilliant and beautiful graphic novel From Hell, here in this collection, Eddie Campbell has augmented his hand drawings (or at least drawings that look hand-drawn) with digitally-rendered additions, effects, and patterns, which do not work together at all, let alone blend together seamlessly. It looks much less polished, and frankly, like it was done by a much less talented hand, than his earlier work. (A notable exception is "At The Movies", a story much better told with the illustrations, which are beautifully done in his From Hell style.) Even the full color printing throughout (my ARC was only in black and white, but the inside covers showed some samples in color) can't salvage the overall look. I suppose it's just a matter of taste, but the real star here for me was the storytelling.
The common themes that thread through all thirteen offerings are actually of the rather depressing variety: deception, manipulation, loss, and heartbreak, often carried to a morbid extreme. However, because the stories are so, well, bizarre, what could have been a very maudlin tone becomes infused with a generous dose of flat-out absurdism. That's not to say that the themes are necessarily subverted or even diluted (except where the authors purposely meant to do so!), just that they become more emotionally manageable when peppered by eyebrow-raising endings and a lot of WTF moments. Each will make you stop and think, trying to figure out if there was a deeper meaning that you missed, or if the authors were just fucking with your head. (In my opinion, pretty much all thirteen stories fit both criteria.)
If you generally don't like bizarro fiction, WTF moments, or authors fucking with your head, you're not going to like Bizarre Romance. If you are okay with embracing the dark, the freaky, and the occasionally incomprehensible, I think you're going to embrace this weird little tome as well.
I received an advance reader copy of this book at no cost to me via Goodreads Giveaways, courtesy of the publisher, Abrams ComicArts, but it had no influence on, nor was I otherwise compensated for, the writing of this honest review.
This collection, created with her new husband, seminal comics writer Eddie Campbell, pretty much cements her "weird" reputation for me, and also that she married exactly the right person. These thirteen vignettes, most previously published in different versions, cover a specific range of expressive forms, mostly settling around wordy comics or illustrated short stories. Some of the entries do indeed focus on "traditional" romantic love, both straight and gay (although certainly not in traditional ways), but most of the tales are actually centered around other types of love relationships, such as the bond between siblings and other family members, the mysterious draw of supernatural entities, the artist's greedy lust for his muse (and sometimes vice versa), our fear of and draw towards death, and naturally, in more than one story, our worshipful adoration of cats.
I found the weakest aspect of the book (aside from the $18.95 ebook price – GULP), sadly, to be the art (which is all Eddie's, not Audrey's). While I loved his artwork in the brilliant and beautiful graphic novel From Hell, here in this collection, Eddie Campbell has augmented his hand drawings (or at least drawings that look hand-drawn) with digitally-rendered additions, effects, and patterns, which do not work together at all, let alone blend together seamlessly. It looks much less polished, and frankly, like it was done by a much less talented hand, than his earlier work. (A notable exception is "At The Movies", a story much better told with the illustrations, which are beautifully done in his From Hell style.) Even the full color printing throughout (my ARC was only in black and white, but the inside covers showed some samples in color) can't salvage the overall look. I suppose it's just a matter of taste, but the real star here for me was the storytelling.
The common themes that thread through all thirteen offerings are actually of the rather depressing variety: deception, manipulation, loss, and heartbreak, often carried to a morbid extreme. However, because the stories are so, well, bizarre, what could have been a very maudlin tone becomes infused with a generous dose of flat-out absurdism. That's not to say that the themes are necessarily subverted or even diluted (except where the authors purposely meant to do so!), just that they become more emotionally manageable when peppered by eyebrow-raising endings and a lot of WTF moments. Each will make you stop and think, trying to figure out if there was a deeper meaning that you missed, or if the authors were just fucking with your head. (In my opinion, pretty much all thirteen stories fit both criteria.)
If you generally don't like bizarro fiction, WTF moments, or authors fucking with your head, you're not going to like Bizarre Romance. If you are okay with embracing the dark, the freaky, and the occasionally incomprehensible, I think you're going to embrace this weird little tome as well.
I received an advance reader copy of this book at no cost to me via Goodreads Giveaways, courtesy of the publisher, Abrams ComicArts, but it had no influence on, nor was I otherwise compensated for, the writing of this honest review.
March 7, 2018
Love the bizarre stories, as always. I didn’t love the art.
March 14, 2018
I won this in a Goodreads Giveaway and I want to thank the author for providing a copy.
This was a very strange book and not at all for me. I give it points for originality, but literally every story left me with a puzzled expression on my face or a weird feeling in my gut. Did not like.
This was a very strange book and not at all for me. I give it points for originality, but literally every story left me with a puzzled expression on my face or a weird feeling in my gut. Did not like.
March 31, 2019
This was delightful, and not JUST because I read it at a beach house facing an astonishing view of the Pacific. I read it in one day. It is a collection of short stories and comics about relationships, aging, loss, cats, almost all of them very engaging and unpredictable, and all of them full of interesting art. I love Audrey Niffenegger's mind and ability to tell stories.
March 30, 2019
I got one-third of the way through this book of short stories when I just had to give up due to sheer boredom.
April 10, 2018
Definitely an unconventional read with a lot of unrequited endings. I really enjoyed the first story "Thursdays, Six to Eight p.m." and the second story, as well, but the art really failed to capture my heart. I read a comment where someone compared it to Microsoft paint and I have to agree with that assessment. Repeatedly, I have stressed that art is very important to me *cough* art history major *cough* and subpar art does not cut it for me.
Now, I don't want you to think that the art work alone earned the two star rating. In fact, the thirteen stories overall were not thrilling or satisfyingly bizarre, but instead random and unfinished. There was one story where the protagonist, Grant, meets three mysterious women in a bar, who are fairies and want to study a human male to learn our ways. They ask him to choose one of them to live with for a certain amount of time and Grant agrees. What ensues is Grant becomes dissatisfied and dreams of another attractive woman, who ends up freeing him from his strange life with Harriet the fairy. After, this other woman feeds Grant and then turns him into a hamster. Really no rhyme or reason behind that story.
This pattern repeats throughout the graphic novel and fails to capture my attention or pique my interest. These stories are just a little too odd with nothing substantial to make me remember the story in a year. In reflecting back on it, the thing I love the most about this title is the cover art...
Now, I don't want you to think that the art work alone earned the two star rating. In fact, the thirteen stories overall were not thrilling or satisfyingly bizarre, but instead random and unfinished. There was one story where the protagonist, Grant, meets three mysterious women in a bar, who are fairies and want to study a human male to learn our ways. They ask him to choose one of them to live with for a certain amount of time and Grant agrees. What ensues is Grant becomes dissatisfied and dreams of another attractive woman, who ends up freeing him from his strange life with Harriet the fairy. After, this other woman feeds Grant and then turns him into a hamster. Really no rhyme or reason behind that story.
This pattern repeats throughout the graphic novel and fails to capture my attention or pique my interest. These stories are just a little too odd with nothing substantial to make me remember the story in a year. In reflecting back on it, the thing I love the most about this title is the cover art...
didn-t-finish
May 26, 2018I've been mucking through this book for about a week now, and I guess it finally got to the point where I decided I had read enough. I'm not sure why I'm surprised, because I couldn't get myself to finish the only other Niffenegger book I had attempted, The Time Traveler's Wife. I suppose this just isn't the author for me, and at this point, I will not be reading anything else by her.
The stories weren't funny, or even clever--just weird and uncomfortable, and I'm not sure what the point was.
The stories weren't funny, or even clever--just weird and uncomfortable, and I'm not sure what the point was.
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