Book Review: Gingerbread Girl by Paul Tobin
Gingerbread Girl
Published by Top Shelf Productions
Released on July 12, 2011
ISBN: 9781603090803
Hardcover
112 pages
Paul Tobin (author), Colleen Coover (artist)
Marketing Copy
There are plenty of established facts concerning 26-year-old Annah Billips. She likes sushi and mountains, but hates paper cuts and beer breath. She dates girls and boys, and loves to travel. She may have a missing sister, or she might be insane. Did Annah invent an imaginary sister named Ginger during her parents' ferocious divorce, or did her mad scientist father extract part of her brain and transform it into a living twin?
Like most of the graphic novels I've encountered, Gingerbread Girl adheres to the "enter late and leave early" rule of fiction writing so well, I felt like I was plopped in the middle of a bizarre world armed with nothing but a can of exploding snakes. The part that drove me crazy? The narrator keeps changing! Sometimes, Annah is telling her own story. Sometimes, her girlfriend tells the story. Even a pigeon and a dog narrate parts of the story. (No, I'm not kidding.)
I have a feeling this will be popular with guys who have fantasies about trying to "turn" cute lesbians straight, but it doesn't really do it for me.
The idea was interesting. I'm still intrigued by Annah's fantasies about her feeling and sensing other half, but the vision for this story never seemed fully realized to me.