Puss Reboots: Blog: November 2013: Bad Houses

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Bad Houses by Sara Ryan
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Bad Houses: 11/20/13

Bad Houses by Sara Ryan is a graphic novel that examines the way people structure their lives around stuff. At one end of the spectrum there is the carefully decorated home. At the other, there's hoarding.

Lewis works with his mother, a runner of estate sales in Failin, Oregon. Anne, meanwhile is trying to make sense of her one little corner of the world, while her mother stuffs the rest of the house with her hoarding.

A bad house is the estate sale parlance is a home that won't turn a profit. These are the ones that are filled with the detritus of life. They are the sorts of places that Annie is embarrassed to live in.

The book begins as a pair of plots. They eventually entwine as Lewis and Anne become friends. It's a bittersweet story.

Four stars