I Hate Fairyland by Skottie Young

This will be a shorter post, mostly because I read this graphic novel while hyped up on Vicodin after my miscarriage. Although I will say that the Vicodin probably enhanced this gory, fairy filed adventure. But kids, don't try that at home. In fact kids, don't read this graphic novel.

I Hate Fairyland is written and illustrated solely by Skottie Young, so from the get go he got points for being a double threat. This comic follows a girl named Gertrude who at a young age gets whisked off to fairyland...and gets stuck. Her decades spent among these colorful folk has filled her with a deep hatred of all things happy and fun. She gallivants across the land in search of a key to get her home with a fly as her partner. While on this decades-long quest she murders moons and massacres stars. She eats mushroom people and robs banks. It is a highly indecent and entirely hilarious take on the classic fairy tale dilemma of needing to go on a quest to return to one's home.

Even though I did not want to hate fairyland I came to see it through Gert's eyes and enjoyed her bloody romps through the various lands. She reminded me that not everything sugar coated and rainbow filled is fun 24/7 and exemplified the old phrase, "be careful what you wish for". This was the perfect thing for me to read after going through something so deeply horrible. It made me laugh and forget myself for a little while in a world not too dark but full of enough angst and evil to not feel like I was reading a Disney comic. If you like blood and fairies and destruction and comics, then go to the store and buy Volume One of I Hate Fairyland as soon as you can, but skip the Vicodin.