Reviews

My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf

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scarletsky's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

2.5

dizzy_reception's review against another edition

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4.0

I found this graphic novel interesting, and I think the drawing style, while crude, goes with the ambience perfectly. However, the author is kind of a dick isn't he? He blamed the adults for everything, but he admits he used people and excluded them multiple times throughout the book. He then, at 28, meets with his douchebag friends to reminisce about all the "freaks". Then the guy claims he is a punk rocker.

I agree, the adults are mostly responsible, but I felt the author let himself off the hook a lot too, and he apparently hadn't changed a whole lot from 18 to 28. Dahmer is obviously a worse person, but I felt the author uses a lot of hindsight bias to excuse using Dahmer to basically mock him and then plan activities with his "real" friends.

Would have been 5 stars if the author was even remotely likable.

virgoreading's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

joyreadsinnc's review against another edition

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5.0

Morbid, but very interesting and fascinating. It made me wonder about some of the people I went to high school with and what I would do if I found out one of them had done something terrible. It is also very sad, it shows Dahmer's sad beginnings as a person, and makes you wonder if anything could have stopped what happened.