Bryan Lee O'Malley

Lottie Person is a glamorous fashion blogger living her best life -- at least that's what she wants you to think. The truth is, her allergies are out of control, her friends are terrible people, her boyfriend traded her up for someone younger, and she may or may not have killed somebody! It's the first volume of SNOTGIRL, and things will never be the same!

Green Hair Don't Care

tori 👻

Moth

If you’re a guy who didn’t like this comic. It’s probably because it’s not written for you. It’s a mean girl esq story with a murdery twist. Sign me up. Only thing I hate is the gay baiting. Because as much as I want Lottie to be bi with the fact her and coolgirl totally have vibes I’m not holding my breath. That’s probably the only thing for you guys in it. Please writers don’t gay bait bc I need to know what happens but I won’t keep reading if it does.

Nessa Luna

Julia

It was a little hard to get into, but it picked up a bit toward the end. I'm hoping the next volume is better. Also, I really loved the artwork.

chloe ✩‧₊˚✧｡*ﾟ

I picked up this book excited by the colour aesthetic <3 but in the end I realised that's the only thing that positivitly stood out to me. The main character was kind of a douche and the plot was very confusing. I want the next volume to explain it more but I don't think I want to waste my money on it. 

All in all the graphics were super amazing but through out the book I was highly confused about what is going on and characters were bland and mean and I felt no connection with her.

brianna

Jeff James

I really loved the Scott Pilgrim books when I read them a few years ago – Goodreads tells me I gave the entire series five stars – but nothing else I’ve read by Bryan Lee O’Malley has lived up to that standard of quality.

His first book, Lost at Sea, was mostly just slight. His follow-up to Scott Pilgrim, Seconds, was better but still felt a bit lacking – I barely remember anything about either book. However, slight or not, they’re both light-years better than his newest series, the willfully unpleasant Snotgirl.

To be fair, the unpleasantness is right there in the title. Lottie Person, the main character, has an epic allergy problem that generates awful green snot at the most inopportune of times. I mean, how is she supposed to be a picture-perfect fashion blogger if she can’t even control her nasal passages?

This would maybe be a funny/gross premise if Lottie (or any of the other characters) had any kind of redeeming qualities, but they’re all horrible, vapid people being terrible and catty to each other.

This is coming from me, a huge fan of the Lovable Alpha Bitch. Cordelia Chase on Buffy/Angel and Taylor Townsend on The OC were my jam. I like stories that uncover the hidden depths of that particular archetype… but Snotgirl is not that. Lottie is shallow and horrible, and when bad things started happening to and around her, I was not in her corner.

The twist, see, is that Snotgirl also wants to be a murder-mystery-slash-thriller. Did Lottie really see someone die, or is she losing her mind? Again, this feels like a potentially rich vein of storytelling – fashion blogger + murder = DRAMA – but the execution was so muddled and obtuse that I didn’t care about what was actually happening to Lottie.

It’s a shame, really, because I do like Leslie Hung’s art. It feels a bit like manga designs from the eighties crossed with fashion sketches. I just can’t figure out what O’Malley sees in these characters. They have no redeeming qualities, and I’m not sure he even likes them. Does he just want to punish them for their vacuous ways?

This review originally appeared at Full of Words.

Izza

4.5 stars | Beautiful artwork and super intriguing storyline! Really looking forward to the next volume!

sophia n

i'm reviewing all the way up to chapter 14 right now, and will come and change this later when the vol3 bindup comes out but for now ... i'll just say, some chapters are def stronger than others, but i think on average i'm still really interested and the art is incredible and i love lottie and caroline so much, so. average 4 stars. i think if i hadn't read o'malleys other works, i probably would be really frustrated by the story itself. but i already know his style of HUGELY unreliable and unlikable narrators, magical realism, and jumpcuts? i still think ... i'm not sure if i think this format of actual serial comics is the best way for this story to be told. i'm on the fence with it. i like the idea of the bindups better, and will probably be buying them at some point, and hoping it ends around a volume 5 or 6.

Demi

3.5/5 

Honestly this is such a difficult graphic novel to rate for me. With that being said I want to start off by saying that I absolutely adore the art in this book. The art style is absolutely stunning and is probably the most gorgeous graphic novel I’ve ever seen. Beside that, I honestly couldn’t tell you what the plot and story of this book was but I still found myself enjoying it anyway?? I really didn’t like any of the characters but for some reason they all worked so well in this.

Overall, I will probably continue with this graphic novel some time in the future because I oddly really liked it.

Maggie Gordon

For whatever reason, I thought Snotgirl was going to be a superhero story. Why I thought O'Malley was going to write a superhero story, I do not know, but that is definitely not what I got. Snotgirl is a thriller that feels like it took its inspiration from Perfect Blue. Lottie is a fashion blogger. An incredibly irritating, vapid fashion blogger. But her life is... strange. She's started some new allergy medication, met a new best friend, but then that person dies accidentally in bathroom. Or not? Lottie's perceptions and memories are a bit off, and she steadily gets a bit more out of control with each passing day. It's subtle, but rather effectively creepy. It all culminates in a fantastic cliffhanger! I am super pumped for the next volume now!

As fair warning, Lottie herself is irritating as well. But there's an interesting plot here and I am curious to see it through...

Edit for reread: Damn, I cannot believe what a good thriller this is. The entire comic just trembles with tension as you as a reader just can't be sure exactly what is going on. Lottie seems like such a shallow ditz, but what exactly is going on in her life? Why is she so messed up, and why are there all these people with strange desires to be near her? Rereading this was a real delight given now I knew what I was getting into, so the thriller aspects caught my attention sooner. Cannot wait for May :D

Melanie Richards

The premise is interesting, the art is great (yay Leslie Hung!), but I do not like the writing. I am so done with men writing stories about how fashion is dumb and vapid and women should feel dumb for "falling" for its allure. I'm sure there are people who really believe fashion bloggers are living this wonderful, glamorous life, but I also think there are many people who like fashion blogs BECAUSE they are an escapist fantasy, and they enjoy living that fantasy vicariously. And then there probably are bloggers who are happy, well-adjusted lovely people...my point is that the writing feels flat, one-dimensional, and angry, and life is more nuanced than this. I would have liked to see this same story written by someone who had the context to give it more dimension, because it's an interesting idea. Stop letting men write this story, keep paying Leslie Hung to draw.

Alli

main character was super vapid and annoying, but I guess there’s something interesting about reading and disliking the main character. I would continue reading the series just to find out wtf is going on.

allie

3 stars. 

going into this, i knew it was going to be weird (i mean it's written by the guy who made scott pilgrim so what else can i expect?), but overall i really enjoyed myself! graphic novels are always pretty fast reads for me, but the art style is so gorgeous that i found myself going a little slower to look at everything. the story is unique to say the least and even though most of the characters are not entirely likable (lottie does have her moments, and caroline is something else lmao), i'm invested enough after that cliffhanger that i'm excited to start reading the next volume.

Melissa Benavente

I did not like it
Its werid and confusing and like super full of stuff that doesn't make sense

Nat Welch

Funny, but kind of confusing. Hoping later volumes explain what is going on.

Cameron Austin

I'm like too conflicted to rate this.* I didn't know what to expect going into it. Maybe I expected O'Malley to have another winner like he did with his others (although I've yet to read Lost at Sea). In the beginning, I found it somewhat comical, but then it just became obnoxious, although it might have been Lottie herself. The art style was good and fit the story, but I didn't understand the direction it [the story] was going. Even after reading the ending I'm still unsure. I want to give it a 2.5, since it wasn't the worst graphic novel I've read, but it doesn't quite deserve 3. And maybe it's just a flatout 2-star book. 

*I don't want to erase any of this so I'm just going to give it 2

Green Hair Don't Care

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