Reviews with content warning for Body shaming - The Fire Never Goes Out: A Memoir in Pictures

The Fire Never Goes Out is a beautiful, raw and honest memoir style graphic novel in which Stevenson reflects back on a period of time in their life when their work was becoming popular.

The format is great fun, a series of comics, bookended with a reflection from the end of the relevant year. The graphics are gorgeous and it was really interesting to see their style morph and grow.

I really loved this sincere look at many of the struggles they were going through at the time and there are many stand out quotes and images throughout the book. We get snippets of insight into so many topics such as gender, identity, sexuality, depression and anxiety without being overloaded.
There is a real sense of hope and possibility throughout the book while also a sense of honesty that times can be tough.

A beautiful graphic novel that I would definitely recommend to graphic novel newbies and fanatics alike

“To everyone harboring their own fire and to everyone lost in the dark. May you see the sun again.”

Content Warnings

kathleencoughlin's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

4.25

ND Stevenson's exploration of their career, sexuality, and gender as well as the frank discussion of the impact of their mental illness, was really interesting to read. I've been a casual enjoyer of their work, but I haven't followed them particularly closely or been with them since the beginning. I think if you had been, you might enjoy this book even more. Because it was made up largely of their Year in Review posts, there were times that The Fire Never Goes Out was a bit disjointed However, once I got to the end, I felt like that actually made sense considering the overall narrative.

Content Warnings