Scan barcode
hobbitfreddie's review
5.0
This is how you write a comic memoir I think. I had to read this for a class and I can see why the professor chose it. Telling a personal memoir is a very hard thing, and Glenn Head did an amazing job here. Incredibly personal and hard to read at times. Also very good art. It’s stylized but there’s so much detail and life in every panel.
trevoryan's review
4.0
One of the most brutal graphic memoirs I've read. Author Glen Head doesn't sugar coat anything about his terrible experiences at a boarding school run by a sadistic pedophile. And yet still, this is an engrossing, fascinating story, with incredible art.
thelilfawn's review
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Rape, and Pedophilia
idgort's review
I’ve been meaning to read this one since its release but it’s easy to avoid delving into something so painful. I’ve known and loved people who were abused, molested, and raped. And in hindsight, I’ve known people who were the monsters.
I grew up in the Catholic Church and catholic School, an alter boy and later a Boy Scout. I also grew up in an evangelical church and was a Royal Ranger, an evangelical church scout. I played sports, youth football. When I look back, I remember what an anxious mess I was, all the fun I had, friends, rivals, weirdo adults, and well a lot. I remember a lot.
Because I’ve learned about the monsters that were around, people who were hurt and abused, I’ve long wondered about my own childhood- I search my memories for dark shadows and dead ends. I’ve long wondered about my own disfunctions in alcohol and drugs and relationships and wondered if had to run from some villain.
I grew up in the Catholic Church and catholic School, an alter boy and later a Boy Scout. I also grew up in an evangelical church and was a Royal Ranger, an evangelical church scout. I played sports, youth football. When I look back, I remember what an anxious mess I was, all the fun I had, friends, rivals, weirdo adults, and well a lot. I remember a lot.
Because I’ve learned about the monsters that were around, people who were hurt and abused, I’ve long wondered about my own childhood- I search my memories for dark shadows and dead ends. I’ve long wondered about my own disfunctions in alcohol and drugs and relationships and wondered if had to run from some villain.
dantastic's review
5.0
Chartwell Manor is the story of Glenn Head's time at Chartwell Manor and the scars he continues to carry from it to this day.
I don't remember how this originally ended up on my radar but I'm glad I picked it up. It's a powerful, unsettling, memorable book.
Cartoonist Glenn Head was having trouble in school when his parents sent him to a boarding school in 1971, where he and the other boys suffered sexual abuse at the hands of the headmaster and that's just the first third of the book. From there, Glenn struggles to fit in, deals with alcohol and sex addiction, and generally tries to make it as a cartoonist against all odds. While he's a sympathetic character to some degree,
The art has an underground feel to it, the stark black inks making everything pop. It reminds me of Dan Clowes at times but I'm sure it's because they have some of the same influences. The writing really lays it all out there and doesn't look away. It took an unbelievable amount of courage to tell a true story like this.
I don't feel like I'm conveying the magnitude of this. Ordinarily when I'm reading a comic or trade paperback or whatever, I'm rushing off to tweet panels from it and it takes about twice as long to get through as it needs. I read this pretty much in one sitting, feeling uneasy but completely unwilling and unable to put it down other than to fire off a tweet urging people to pick it up.
Chartwell Manor is an unflinching tale of abuse and survival. Five out of five stars.
I don't remember how this originally ended up on my radar but I'm glad I picked it up. It's a powerful, unsettling, memorable book.
Cartoonist Glenn Head was having trouble in school when his parents sent him to a boarding school in 1971, where he and the other boys suffered sexual abuse at the hands of the headmaster and that's just the first third of the book. From there, Glenn struggles to fit in, deals with alcohol and sex addiction, and generally tries to make it as a cartoonist against all odds. While he's a sympathetic character to some degree,
The art has an underground feel to it, the stark black inks making everything pop. It reminds me of Dan Clowes at times but I'm sure it's because they have some of the same influences. The writing really lays it all out there and doesn't look away. It took an unbelievable amount of courage to tell a true story like this.
I don't feel like I'm conveying the magnitude of this. Ordinarily when I'm reading a comic or trade paperback or whatever, I'm rushing off to tweet panels from it and it takes about twice as long to get through as it needs. I read this pretty much in one sitting, feeling uneasy but completely unwilling and unable to put it down other than to fire off a tweet urging people to pick it up.
Chartwell Manor is an unflinching tale of abuse and survival. Five out of five stars.
helpfulsnowman's review
When you first pick this one up, it's sort of hard to look at. There is SO MUCH ART on every page.
It's a little like looking at an R. Crumb or maybe Charles Burns picture about 1 inch from your eyeball.
But then it calms down, or maybe your brain learns the language of it, and it's cool. So if you open it up and feel like it's super busy, I say give it a couple dozen pages.
This is one of those books I don't want to rate, star-wise, because it's about abuse suffered by Glenn Head and a bunch of people he went to boarding school with. Super fucked up, and, well, I don't know, it's hard to rate something like that without feeling like you're rating the act of putting such a story to paper, which takes some serious balzac.
I do appreciate that Glenn believes that the abuse he suffered has caused problems throughout his life, but he doesn't necessarily force the reader to believe the same thing. This is like the least "woe is me" narrative with the most fucked-up shit I think I've ever read. The ratio of how bad things were for Glenn to how little time he seems to spend feeling sorry for himself is different than the norm for this sort of comic, and it's a good read as a result. It just gives you a different perspective, or maybe helps a reader see that this shit hits different people differently.
It's a little like looking at an R. Crumb or maybe Charles Burns picture about 1 inch from your eyeball.
But then it calms down, or maybe your brain learns the language of it, and it's cool. So if you open it up and feel like it's super busy, I say give it a couple dozen pages.
This is one of those books I don't want to rate, star-wise, because it's about abuse suffered by Glenn Head and a bunch of people he went to boarding school with. Super fucked up, and, well, I don't know, it's hard to rate something like that without feeling like you're rating the act of putting such a story to paper, which takes some serious balzac.
I do appreciate that Glenn believes that the abuse he suffered has caused problems throughout his life, but he doesn't necessarily force the reader to believe the same thing. This is like the least "woe is me" narrative with the most fucked-up shit I think I've ever read. The ratio of how bad things were for Glenn to how little time he seems to spend feeling sorry for himself is different than the norm for this sort of comic, and it's a good read as a result. It just gives you a different perspective, or maybe helps a reader see that this shit hits different people differently.
marye17's review
Due back at lib, didn’t want to rush through the subject matter
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Child abuse
sizrobe's review
5.0
Pretty good memoir about a boarding reform school where the author suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a disciplinarian headmaster. The actual abuse is maybe the first half of the book, and the fallout over the rest of his adult life takes up the rest. It deals with alcoholism and sex addiction too.