Alex splits their topics into four sections – All By Myself, A Million Feelings, Together, and Ever After, respectively – and a number of subsections, of equal length, that not only tackle numerous questions, but subvert the norm. First reminding us of Eric Carmen’s (and Celine Dion’s) power ballad, All By Myself masterfully leans into the common tropes around singlehood, before providing us with a plethora of options, because yes, some long for romantic relationships, and others are just fine alone. Every section of the book has this same verve, nestled with ideas, jokes and concise answers. It surely takes us on a ride, but along the way we are provided with not only answers to the questions we come with, but answers as to why we had these questions in the first place. “I wanted to help readers question what they actually want, rather than simply going along with what they think they should want,” Alex tells us. “How to Love is actually saying that you couldn’t make a guide that tells you how to love,” they add.
All in all, How to Love is a book that we can get through in one sitting, but it is also one to be revisited as you grow and recover yourself. The flat, bold and fun comics, filled with endearing anthropomorphic characters, are a testament to Alex’s desire to offer accessible and universal notions of loving and living. “The characters are very simple, so that people can more easily identify with them […] vampires, witches, mermaids, they all transcend gender in a way. It makes it easier to understand the visual metaphors.” Currently taking the time to “nurture this book,” now that it’s out in the world, they see their future being filled with longer-form comics, graphic novels and short stories, and we wait for more answers to our questions, and the ones we didn’t even know we had.
How to Love is published by Walker Books, you can get a copy here.