 | Improve : how I discovered improv and conquered social anxiety Author: Graudins, Alex | |
| Price: $14.75 | ||
Summary:
A memoir about the author's efforts to overcome her social anxiety by learning improv comedy. In graphic novel format.
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (07/15/22)
Booklist (07/01/22)
Full Text Reviews:
Booklist - 07/01/2022 This autobiographical comic is both a look at one person’s journey with anxiety and a class on improv. Graudins reveals that she’s suffered from crippling anxiety since childhood; moving to a small town after college made her feel even more isolated. Having more casually participated in improv while in school, she forces herself to enroll in an improv class where she must interact with strangers and learn to not beat herself up over every imagined failure. While describing in detail how each improv game works, Graudins shows how the various games help her identify and often overcome her fear. The art is vibrant and clear and characters are easy to follow through the different stages of her growth. Graphic memoirs about anxiety are not uncommon, but Graudins’ unusual take explores how facing fears and a willingness to try something new—even something as straightforward as improv—can be a significant step in changing one’s life. - Copyright 2022 Booklist.
Booklist - 07/01/2022 This autobiographical comic is both a look at one person’s journey with anxiety and a class on improv. Graudins reveals that she’s suffered from crippling anxiety since childhood; moving to a small town after college made her feel even more isolated. Having more casually participated in improv while in school, she forces herself to enroll in an improv class where she must interact with strangers and learn to not beat herself up over every imagined failure. While describing in detail how each improv game works, Graudins shows how the various games help her identify and often overcome her fear. The art is vibrant and clear and characters are easy to follow through the different stages of her growth. Graphic memoirs about anxiety are not uncommon, but Graudins’ unusual take explores how facing fears and a willingness to try something new—even something as straightforward as improv—can be a significant step in changing one’s life. - Copyright 2022 Booklist.
School Library Journal - 10/14/2022 Gr 7 Up—A personal and surprisingly comprehensive introduction to improv for the uninitiated. After struggling with social interactions in college and weathering the emotional nosedive of post-graduation loneliness, Graudins tentatively attempts to end her self-isolation by enrolling in improv classes in her small Rhode Island town. Though many imagine improv as a purely comedic form, Graudins's personal experience reveals its essential emphasis on the building blocks and nuances of human interactions. The book's illustration style is at once mercilessly cute and satisfyingly precise, echoing the work of such memoir-documentary cartoonists as Erika Moen and Lucy Knisley. With a bevy of improv exercise examples (and an appendix with more!) and excerpts from texts on the form, this graphic memoir is a love letter to the theatrical practice that helped Graudins grow. VERDICT Part memoir, part handbook, this title is poised to pique the interest of socially cautious readers and the theatrically inclined.—Emilia Packard - Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.
