My Brain Hurts
Volume Two
Liz Baillie
Microcosm Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-934620-03-8
Buy at Amazon
File Under: fiction, graphic novels

I loved Volume 1 of My Brain Hurts. Liz Baillie's story of Kate and Joey and their life in New York seems so real and authentic that I am sure I know these people.

In volume 2 we pick up where volume 1 left off. Kate is now in an alternative education program working for the advocacy group Lavender Alliance. Joey wakes up in the hospital after his beating by some skinheads for being gay. Joey's Mom doesn't visit and he feels his Dad has abandoned him. We follow them as they both try to straighten out their lives without either of them really knowing what that means.

What I like about My Brain Hurts is that it doesn't try too hard. Liz Baillie focuses on the small stories of the ordinary lives of these characters. She does not try to thrust them into some larger than life story. It works very well for her.

The only thing that I don't like about this book is that at the end she gives us synopsis of the characters lives after the story in the book. A clear indication there will be no My Brain Hurts Volume 3 and that makes me sad.