On sale date: March 16, 2010
The sequel to 2009's critical smash.
Loosely based on a teenager's diary from the 1980s found in a gas-station bathroom, Unlovable is the remarkable story of Tammy Pierce, as filtered through the pen of Los Angeles artist Esther Pearl Watson. This second and concluding volume picks up where the first volume left off (winter break) and finishes Tammy's tragicomic sophomore year of high school in 1985.
Tammy has built a devoted following over the last several years in the pages of BUST magazine, where Unlovable continues to be serialized on the magazine's back page, and this beautifully produced, day-glo orange and sparkly pink hardcover presents over 400 pages of her sometimes ordinary, sometimes humiliating, often poignant and always hilarious exploits. Her hopes, dreams, agonies and defeats are brought to vivid, comedic life by Watson's lovingly grotesque drawings, filled with all the '80s essentials—too much mascara, leg warmers with heels and huge hair, etc.—as well as timeless teen concerns like acne, dandruff, and the opposite sex (or same sex, in some cases).
Unlovable is about the rawness of trying to figure out who you are in a very public and humiliating way. Unlovable addresses these mysteries of adolescence through Tammy's naiveté; girls and women in particular will find much that resonates, but men will also relate to Unlovable's universal humor and wide cast of characters.
In the epic saga that is Unlovable, Tammy finds herself dealing with: tampons, teasing, crushes, The Smiths, tube socks, facial hair, lice, celibacy, fantasy dream proms, gym showers, skid marks, a secret admirer, prank calls, backstabbers, winter ball, barfing, narcs, breakdancing, hot wheels, glamour shots, roller coasters, Halloween costumes, boogers, boys, boy crazy feelings, biker babes, and even some butt cracks. Tammy's life isn't pretty, but it is endlessly charming and hilarious. Unlovable will be handsomely packaged in an irresistibly girly hardcover that would make Tammy proud.
Our web store won't be receiving any more stock of Unlovable Vol. 2, but you may be able to find it from a site like Indiebound or Bookshop, or at your local independent bookstore.
Praise
"Starred Review. A modest masterpiece, affecting and funny." — Booklist
"In the mode of Lynda Barry and Aline Kominsky, Esther Pearl Watson has gifted us with an adolescent heroine whose nightmare life is touching and alienating, sad and hilarious, naive and knowing. Think of the hypothetical 1980s high school days of the Onion's Jean Teasdale, and you might start to have a notion of what the life of Tammy Pierce is all about. ... Her lugubrious, hopeful incompetence is both excruciating to witness and impossible not to laugh at." — Paul DiFilippo - Barnes & Noble Review
"From the moment I laid eyes on Unlovable, I knew immediately that I had to run it as a series in BUST. Tammy Pierce is such an endearing underdog, and her teen-loser ways keep me coming back. No matter how cool or smart you may be as a grown up, I think there is a little Tammy in all of us." — Laurie Henzel, BUST Magazine Creative Director
"GOOD!!!" — Lynda Barry
"Tammy shows us how much she seems to be unlovable, but after a romp through the story inside, just as when meeting real people, we see there is so much to pity, admire, love, and root for. The scratchy artwork perfectly displays the awkward teen years; nothing goes right. Everything and everyone is on edge. Through the narrative, you can quickly switch between cheering on, yelling at, and dissing the ever optimistic Tammy." — Angela Boyle - Schulz Library Blog
Specs
- Pages
- 408
- Format
- Hardback
- Color
- Full-color.
- Dimensions
- 6.1" × 6"
- ISBN-13
- 9781606993149