A City Inside

by Tillie Walden

Shifting between the everyday and the surreal, A City Inside recounts one woman's life from childhood home, to the first love that she will never forget, to the creation of the idea of herself that she can grow old with and the home that she can grow old in. Walden's follow up to the lyrical I Love This Part is a poetic exploration of the process of growing older; the journey towards finding out who you are and building a life for yourself. It is a universal story of how we don't just come-of-age once, but many times throughout our lives.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, LGBT, Queer, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Young Adult

56 pages, Hardcover

First published May 7, 2016

About the author

Tillie Walden is an American cartoonist and illustrator.
Born in 1996 in San Diego, California, Walden graduated from the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont, where she is currently a professor.
Walden started publishing short comics when she was just a teenager. Her first long-form graphic novel The End of Summer was published by the British publisher Avery Hill in 2015. Her second book I Love This Part came out only a few months later, winning the 2016 Ignatz Award for promising new talent. Later Walden received the 2018 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work for her memoir Spinning (2017). Among her other works are A City Inside (2016), On a Sunbeam (2018), Are You Listening? (2020), Alone in Space (2021) and the series Clementine.

Reviews

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Tillie Walden’s greatest strengths is being able to convey so much emotion and narrative in such few words and gorgeous artwork. A City Inside is a perfect example, and features Walden at some of their most abstract and metaphorical as they capture feelings of loneliness, restlessness and the struggles of finding yourself in the world.


The story here is quite allegorical and told sparsely to allow the emotion to seep in and color the narrative for you. It can be read in a few short minutes but the feelings linger on far longer. There is a beautiful message about being able to live within yourself and come to terms with what that means, but also to be able to live within the life of someone else and share an existence. It is something that takes time and can be rife with heartbreak along the journey, but Walden leaves us with an encompassing feeling of hope. Short but gorgeous, and we get to see early use of the fish imagery that will become a big part of the artwork in On a Sunbeam.

3.75/5

[daph pink ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
A heartfelt book about changes::changes of heart, location, ambition, and necessity.

This is my second book by Tilly Walden ( after I love this part) and I love her art style and writing like the way she comprise big emotions into a few words.

It only took me like 5 mins to read this and 1 hour to fully accept it and absorb it because it was so beautiful !

Highly recommended because it's only 56 pages!!!

[Whitney Atkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is so tiny and pretty, but it reads like an illustrated poem and I'm not sure I entirely grasped it. It's short enough that I could reread it in 5 minutes, but since it is so short, I wish it packed more of a punch.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me months to finish On a Sunbeam, the 20 chapter web-comic space adventure coming of age story from Tillie Walden, the amazing artist, but this 56 small picture book sized graphic story I read in a matter of minutes and it accomplishes many of the same things: Coming of age, a first relationship, architecture, space. There's a slight separation from the YA audience of Sunbeam in that it also takes us to a place when we can begin to imagine all the girls Walden draws become adults.

It's somewhere for me between a 3.5 and 4--the art is, yes, Waldenistically awesome, as always (but here not bombastically so, as it is in Sunbeam, or Spinning), the short story slight, allegorical, elliptical as in all Walden stories, and evokes reflection.

[Alwynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brief, dream-like piece in which a woman reflects on her life: her restlessness, her childhood and the woman she loved and left, and imagines what her future might hold. A surreal, and beautifully rendered, meditation on loss, change and reinvention. Lyrical, uplifting and bittersweet.

[Cece (ProblemsOfaBookNerd) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This incredibly short graphic novel wins the award for "book that has made me cry in the fewest number of pages"

[Medha · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

This graphic novel is pretty short but it's definitely an eye catching and riveting read!

This is a coming of age story about a girl who feels like she doesn't belong anywhere. She wished to live in the sky and she did. She wanted to have a cat named Nancy and along came the cat who used to doze off on her lap whenever the girl used to write stories about places she wanted to visit but didn't really exist! She then met another girl who made her heart fill with joy, the sound of her laughter always left her gratified. But the girl never felt that she deserved all of this, she walked away from it all and lived alone until the end of days. She looked back at her life when she was older and she felt contented about the way she lived her life...

This pretty much sums up what the story's about. I liked the color theme of the illustrations and the storyline was a fascinating one as well.

[Sasha Elise · Rating 5 out of 5]

so i reread this and i got something different from it since last year. it's a book about being alone and being okay with it. it's a book about loving what's inside you. the good and the bad. healing from it and making something beautiful out of it. it's about appreciating the days around you as well as the little things. i didn't get all of the metaphors before but i do now. i understand now. i do.

[Raina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tillie Walden's art might be my new obsession. This is a gorgeous, super slim, dreamy piece. An interesting companion to Spinning. It has some similar themes and characters, but stays way above the nitty gritty of detail.

Stunning.

[Reading_ Tamishly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just cannot get enough of her characters, art and stories. This one is so hopeful.

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a big fan of extended surreal sequences, but I liked the emotions conveyed here and how the framing sequence ties it all together.

(Read in Alone in Space: A Collection)

[anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

rep: sapphic mc, sapphic East Asian li

he could build a city. has a certain capacity. there's a niche in his chest
where a heart would fit perfectly

[Anna McKenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's amazing how Tillie Walden can pack so much emotion into such a short number of pages, with such a simple metaphor/construct. This beautifully narrated and stunningly drawn graphic novel explores accepting yourself, feeling comfortable in your own mind and embracing the good and the bad in your life. It was really wonderful, highly recommended.

[fer · Rating 5 out of 5]

tillie walden sempre entregando tudo pros lgbts!!!! todas as graphic novels dela me deixam com uma sensaçao magica de quentinho no coraçao, é tudo sempre muito lindo e poetico e simples e gAY E MAGICO. É uma das minhas autoras e ilustradoras preferidas hoje em dia

[Elizabeth A · Rating 3 out of 5]

This slim graphic novel has wonderful illustrations and I really liked the exploration of dreams, life, love, belonging.

[Larakaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetry. Pure poetry in images and text. So melancholy, so optimistic, so profound. I can read it again and again.

[Eva B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

So short, but it made me Feel Things.

[Fraser Simons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Walden does such a great job of conveying meaning in short, abstract ways. I feel like I instantly know the protagonist in most of her comics almost immediately. This huge swath of time in such a short time and it’s theme was done really well, I think. Queer longing is dripping off the page, and as always, the conflict and resolution come without judgment, but still feel gutting.

[Emma Rappold · Rating 5 out of 5]

a tiny pretty poem of a book
reading this made me remember it’s all gonna be ok

[Ilkhom Turgunboyev · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the book and I think it is a beautiful coming-of-age graphic novel.

[Paola]

Este libro es un poema. Un poema perfecto.
Tillie Walden es súper life skilled y soy una admiradora absoluta de sus ilustraciones y de sus palabras.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A visually stunning poem. I want to crawl into Tillie Walden's art and never leave.

[Maritina Mela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Το συγκεκριμένο, είναι ένα μικρό graphic novel, το οποίο ξεκίνησα να διαβάζω, μη γνωρίζοντας το παραμικρό για αυτό. Το κάνω και με άλλα βιβλία, μού αρέσει να ξεκινάω ένα βιβλίο, γνωρίζοντας όσο το δυνατό λιγότερα για αυτό, ώστε μετά να το αφήσω να με κερδίσει, χωρίς να έχω προσδοκίες.

Αυτό εδώ, μού άφησε γενικά καλές εντυπώσεις, αλλά καλές εντυπώσεις του επιπέδου: "Οκ, αυτό διαβάζεται ευχάριστα" και τίποτα παραπάνω.

Διαβάζεται σχεδόν απνευστί, λόγω τις μικρής του έκτασης, είναι πολύ όμορφα εικονογραφημένο (πολύ σημαντικό για ένα κόμικ/graphic novel) είναι σχετικά καλογραμμένο, αλλά μέχρι εκεί.
Σε ό,τι αφορά την ιστορία, σε αφήνει να περιμένεις κάτι παραπάνω.
Σε αφήνει με ένα: "Τι, αυτό ήταν;" Τουλάχιστον εγώ, αυτό είπα μόλις το τελείωσα.

Είναι μια χαρά για να περάσεις λίγη ώρα ευχάριστα, αλλά μέχρι εκεί.

If you made it this far, congratulations!
'Til next time, take care :) :) :)

[l · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tillie Walden is perfect.

[Noa · Rating 5 out of 5]

the warmest hug <3

[TheHottestCheeto · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the vibes and I feel like I understand even tho I don't if that makes sense

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short but incredibly impactful. I read it twice in a row and cried both times.

[ang ⭑ · Rating 4 out of 5]

𓍢ִ✧˚.🐈‍⬛𖧧. ☆☆☆☆
being able to express so many emotions and concepts in so little space is admirable.

one of my choices for my reading pride month 2024 𝜗𝜚⋆₊˚

[LECTOR OLVIDADO ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este libro habla sobre la compañía y a veces la necesidad de estar solo y construir muchas cosas.
Siento que es el miedo constante que tenemos por nuestras decisiones y a lo que nos llevaria.
A veces esa persona que es el complemento de nuestras vidas también nos hace sentir solos.
Me gustó el estilo de ilustración y el manejo del blanco y negro.

[ctrn · Rating 4 out of 5]

bardzo szybkie przeczytanie, ale wypełnione jakąś dziwną nostalgią, wzruszeniem dla ukazanych słów i obrazów