Bad Habits: A Love Story reviewed

The story of how I came onto this book is a somewhat strange and sad one.  At my library I was looking at the graphic novel section and it's pretty much filled with standard superhero stuff like Spider-Man, Batman and Superman which doesn't really interest me all that much. But then I saw this on top of the graphic novel shelf which seemed short and it looked like a decent graphic novel so I checked it out.  And then I found it was like a real book with pictures!  And then things got worse so let's get on with Bad Habits: A Love Story.

So there's this girl named Car.  It's short for something but I forget what nor do I care to find out.  She's Cuban, bi-sexual and does almost every type of drugs known to man.  This story takes place for almost two years as she goes on a quest to find real, true love along with her wacky roommates and some old lady who may be some guy in drag.  I'm not too sure on that either and once again, I don't care to find out.  Of course, the plot doesn't quite matter since it's all about the ramblings of one character.

So my main problem is that it wants to be something like Catcher in the Rye, a great book.  It has the same rambling manner and it has a similar main character that wants to find the truth in things as she doesn't like things as they are...but this time it's a girl!  Now what makes Catcher work and what makes Bad Habits fail?  The obvious answer is that Catcher is much better written and much more entertaining.  But the real reason is a bit deeper than that.  With Catcher it was a case of How We Got Here as Holden was narrating his story.  In Bad Habits, Car just rambles on and on with no meaning, no reason and no direction.  Quite frankly, it's boring when somebody just rambles.  I should know!  It's like verbal diarrhea with no signs of stopping any time soon.

Now while reading the book isn't very good, looking at the pictures is pretty good.  It looks very comic book-y and it looked like the graphic novel that I wanted to read.  Granted, the pictures rarely connect with the story but when it does, it actually compliments the story quite well.  With the pictures, what little themes in the book do come out as we see Car ripping her heart out and various gross-outs that does underline the realities of New York Living.  There's also a very cute shout-out to The Lady and the Tramp Kiss...but with cocaine.

The words in this book suck but the pictures aren't too bad.  I get what's happening and I got the intent but man is it pretentious and boring.  The only thing that makes this thing even readable are the pictures and they are good enough to make this an almost interesting failure.  I don't think it would've worked as a straight graphic novel but I probably would like it more.  Lastly, this book is a quick read since I knocked it out in a couple hours so that has that going for it...which is nice.

5/10