CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian's Reviews > Something, Not Nothing: A Story of Grief and Love

Wow, wow, I've never read a book so visceral and heartbreaking while simultaneously so life-affirming and full of love. This is a collection of comics the author made in the two years following the death of her partner of 22 years, Donimo. Leavitt writes in her introduction: “After Donimo's death, I continued living, which surprised me."

SOMETHING NOT NOTHING does so much more than nearly all the other comics I've read and does it so differently, it almost doesn't feel *like* a comic. But, of course, it is. The formal experimentation and abstract watercolour art pair perfectly with Leavitt's words, like:

"Honestly I kind of thought you'd be back. Probably after a year. If I could just keep it together and the house was clean and the dog alive."

On a trip to a beautiful place in nature: “Fuck the rocks and their ongoing never-ending lives.”

“Delight: Hold out your hand step forward bow your head fall and let yourself see the let yourself into the step aside let yourself fall until she has you and you are caught and her eyes and teeth and never so scared or so much bright”

Leavitt oftentimes finds just the perfect way to describe and depict the illogical way your brain works when you're grieving.

I know this sounds like a heavy book, and it is of course, of course I cried many times reading it, but it is so worth it.