The Big Book of Bisexual Trials and Errors

by Elizabeth Beier (Illustrator)

Elizabeth Beier chronicles true-life romantic tales as she breaks up with a long-term boyfriend and navigates a brave new world: dating women. Beier tackles the complexities of sexuality and self image with a conversational and immediate art style and stories anyone who’s ever struggled with dating can relate to.

Genres: Graphic Novels, LGBT, Queer, Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Memoir, Nonfiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[honeybean · Rating 5 out of 5]

At so many points in this book I said aloud "This is literally my life!" - especially if "reading" instead of "drawing" were substituted for the awkward moments at bars. I enjoyed this book, its diagrams, drawings, and overall message <3 #bipride

[Maia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elizabeth Beier is a born storyteller and she interweaves her tales of trials and errors with natural ease and flashes of bright humor. At the beginning of the book she is fresh from the break-up of a six year relationship and ready to dive head-first back into the dating scene. But even in the wild abundance of queer ladies, nonbinaries and men in the Bay Area it isn't always so easy to find true love. Richly illustrated in black and white, some pages in a lose unconcerned line, others tenderly rendered landmarks that locals will recognize immediately. An impressive first book.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming & honest collection of comics detailing Beier's queer/Bi coming of age. Her scrawly, brushy, slightly awkward art is really appealing to me, too. Longer review is now on TCJ: http://www.tcj.com/reviews/the-big-bo...

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elizabeth Beier reminds me why it's so beautiful to be a queer person. Why it's important to communicate your experiences as a queer person, whether it's your successes, your perceived failures, your actual failures, or you general desires for your own identity being queer is being human which means being complex.

I received this book as a Christmas present from two friends (and I didn't get them anything back and I know I suck for that) and I read this over a snow day. I couldn't put it down. It's not enough that Beer is an approachable writer and artist, she just writes with a pure honesty. Rather than try and write a discourse about her queer identity, instead Beier writes honestly about her experiences and desires to have a relationship with another woman after her break-up with her boyfriend. The book is one long list of trials (and mostly failures) with women until she finds the right person in a beautiful butch woman who loves her back.

Books like this are important, not just to queer readers like me, but to lovers of comics as well. This book will probably strike some readers as sloppy, but the looseness of the style really speaks to the tone of this book. Beier isn't constructing an elaborate narrative. Her story is messy and her experiences are loose and freeform therefore the arrangement of the pages are as such. Beier seems to understand that comics is just as much the words as it is the images that accompany them along with the arrangement of the images. Reading this book can sometimes be difficult, but the arrangement allows the reader to feel that their reading/listening to someone just riffing.

A queer woman just communicating her experiences, desires, failures, and victories is not the stuff of epic poetry and award-winning novels. But it doesn't have to be. This book is simply about desire, and how we're guided by it to become something we want to be: complete and happy.

[Daeus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great storytelling. Not my favorite style/art, but I really liked the author's perspective on things and how the book progressed. Feels like I just met a bunch of really interesting people at a bar and went on a few dates (without having to actually leave my home!!).

[Miss Syreena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dating is the worst. Enjoyed this honest reflection on relationships, identify, and connection (as well as the bonus at the end with folks sharing thoughts on the closing of an iconic lesbian/queer bar).

[Lauri-Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favourite book I've read this year.
It's full of heart and energy. I could relate to so much of it.

[Markie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of witty humor, great art, and a feel good story about a woman finding herself through the journey of looking for her first female partner. Sometimes we need to lose ourselves in a crowd of possibilities to find ourselves, even if the crowd is a bunch of attempted dates that failed in some way. The story, while following the world of a bisexual woman, is more about finding who you are and loving that person you find inside yourself. It's a beautiful message, and well portrayed through Elizabeth Beier's graphic novel.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve never really connected to a book so much. Beier really spoke to me on every page. I’ve never felt so validated and empowered after reading something. I can’t thank the author enough for writing something that I *only* cried twice during.
This book was so funny and real and the author is so wonderful for being so open and vulnerable with everything going on in her head. I loved every second of it.

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

My only gripe is the slightly taller size of this book, but I suppose it goes with the title and all that! A very gripping and entertaining memoir whose illustrations went hand-in-hand with Elizabeth’s feelings and emotional states. Reminded me a little of Alison Bechdel’s Dykes to Watch Out For!

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone else who, like the author, began to embrace bisexuality only after leaving a long-term/monogamous/heterosexual relationship, I related hard to this graphic memoir about a woman in search of her first female partner. Still, I was surprised by the range of emotional beats the author was able to achieve: sometimes tender, sometimes cutting, sometimes laugh-out-loud hilarious—sometimes all at once. It’s clear that Beier has a lot of love for the younger self she depicts, even with that person’s own middling self-worth and unvarnished foibles. I was glad to see hyper-local queer stories and history woven into the larger narrative as well.

[Traci · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you follow my reviews, you know graphic novel memoir is my favorite genre. Reading this one was pretty amazing, because I was like "are you me?" Opposite coast, and about 10 years younger, but this is very similar to what I experienced on OKCupid in NYC around 2004/2005. So naturally, I found it to be a great read. Loved the messages in the second half of the book, too. Thanks for writing this, Elizabeth! I love that more people are doing the work of telling bisexual stories.

[Valerie Acklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A witty and wonderful coming out memoir that neither over-dramatacizes nor underplays the sometimes brutal realities of discovering who you are. With the keen eye of Alison Bechdel, the visual flow and appeal of Nicole J. Georges, and the honest humor of Ellen Forney, this book both entertains and informs, brining the often-erased bisexual experience to the forefront. Where it belongs.

[Aneesa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realize until halfway through, when it seemed like a big chunk of the story was missing, that this is more of a collection of stories than a single narrative. Anyhoo, it was fun seeing drawings of every bar and restaurant I have ever been to.

[Michelle Nogales · Rating 5 out of 5]

My partner gave me this graphic novel for Christmas and I started reading it on New Year’s Eve. It’s very specific and awkward and hyperlocal and quite wonderful. It’s an autobiographical account of the author’s adventures as she moves to Berkeley and becomes actively (as opposed to merely hypothetically) bisexual. She also spends quite a bit of the book waxing lyrical about the last days of the Lexington. Vividly drawn and highly relatable, even though I’m not of her generation and reading this book *seriously* made me feel that.

[Maggie Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beier's Big Book of Bisexual Trials and Errors is a collection of stories about the author's exploration of her bisexuality. I appreciate seeing books like this given how few bisexual narratives are out there. I do wish she had been a bit more focused on just her own experiences because there was an interesting story about the closure of an LGBT bar in Portland that deserved its own book. Alas, that's one of the pitfalls of memoirs lately.

[mica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading through this, there was a lot I could associate with, and so much I could empathize about. I didn't hear about this book when it was kickstarted, but I'm really glad it was made, and I'm really glad that I got to read it. That said, while I really liked Beier's art style, I found it a little difficult to read as a comic/graphic novel, and found myself pretty confused as to what words and panels to read in what order at certain times.

[Breonna Charrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The story was very relatable to anyone navigating love, dating, and sex. That being said it is especially for any bi folks who may have come out late or have been in a monogamous relationship most of their adult life and then have to explore dating another sex for the first time. I also loved the honesty included as the author dealt with self esteem and confidence issues.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was adorable, heartfelt, and at times way too real. I saw echoes of my own experiences in a lot of Beier's stories, and am glad to have this narrative in the Bisexual Canon. (Plus, there's just something about reading a story that's set where you live; I, too, have been overwhelmed by all the hot dancing ladies at Cockblock. Up top.)

[Theo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beier's art was great, especially to see the evolution over time. For the storytelling aspect, I felt her stories rang true due to how messy they were, but also most of them just skimmed the surface. It's definitely a book about dating, but the limited scope meant issues would pop out in ways that didn't quite add up or show their complexity.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little disappointed that it was a very one-sided look at her bisexuality - basically just her interest in trying to date/sleep with a woman. I expected a more nuanced exploration of bisexuality.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bless this book for having the invaluable inclusion of a woman going out on dates with women that don't end in marriage. BLESS. The art is so curvy and moody and has so much humor and drama and emotion packed in. Nice queer history bits as well.

[B · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this honest and informative graphic novel. The parts I liked the most were in the appendix where references to further reading material and events to go to could be found. I also enjoyed the shout out to other graphic novels throughout the book.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Art was okay, some things were spelled wrong or had missing words.

[Jana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I lovedlovedloved reading this, could not put it down. This was so affirming, beautifully made and written.

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great and super relatable!

[Bean · Rating 3 out of 5]

6.5

[Levi Coffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A damn delight.

[Rogan Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Representation: Bisexual author, obviously ;)

This is a graphic memoir of Elizabeth figuring out life after breaking up with her long-term boyfriend and exploring dating and being with women for the first time. She explores self-image as she relearns what she’s attracted to, what she attracts to herself, and the complexity of life and sexuality.

I enjoyed this quick read, it’s humorous at times and shows the wide variety of people out there to explore with. Not much I can say beyond that description, but it was good!

[Scott Neigh]

Queer graphic memoir. The story of the author leaving the serious relationship she was in during college and then going through a process of growing into herself. I didn't find the storytelling as literarily or intellectually compelling as, say, Alison Bechdel's memoirs, but it was charming, honest, and personal, and I still enjoyed it. Also appreciated the way that it seemed in part to be a love-letter to a place – a historic lesbian bar in San Francisco that closed in 2015 – and the community that cohered around that place.