So Much for Love: How I Survived a Toxic Relationship

by Sophie Lambda, Montana Kane (Translator)

Overview

A 2023 Eisner Award Nominee for Best Graphic Memoir

A 2023 YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens Selection

Part memoir, part self-help book, So Much For Love offers hilarious and empathetic advice on how to survive a relationship with a master manipulator.

Sophie had always been cynical about love—until she meets Marcus. His affection and doting praise melt away her defenses. The beginning of their relationship was a whirlwind romance, but over time she finds herself on uneven footing. Marcus lies. He's violently angry and bewilderingly inconsistent. Yet somehow he always manages to explain away his behavior and to convince Sophie that it's all in her head.

The whiplash of this toxic relationship has Sophie’s head spinning. When she hits rock bottom, she fights her way out with fierce honesty, irreverent humor, and the help of Chocolat, a wisecracking, booze-drinking bear.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250785992
Publisher:	First Second
Publication date:	05/03/2022
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	485,032
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Sophie Lambda is a French illustrator and comic artist. She studied foreign languages, has made web comics since 2013, and released her first book, Tant Pis Pour L'amour, in French. Her favorite drink is soy cappuccino with extra vanilla and cinnamon.

Editorial Reviews

03/07/2022

Lambda’s winning debut is an achingly direct, darkly funny memoir about surviving a nightmare relationship and an accessible guide to recognizing and dealing with predators. On the outside, Lambda’s whirlwind relationship with Marcus, a charming actor, is picture-perfect: the two meet in Paris, instantly click, and spin a cocoon of affection that leaves Lambda feeling that “the world was superfluous.” Privately, though, the red flags abound. Marcus undermines Lambda’s confidence and flies into jealous snits, then escalates to drunken rages, lies, cheating, and threats of self-harm whenever she stands up to his abuse. “I can’t tell if I’m crazy or not,” she worries. Moving to be near her increasingly erratic boyfriend only leaves her more isolated. Lambda relates traumatic experiences with insight and a sardonic sense of humor; she depicts her manipulated feelings with a fluctuating “Ego-Meter” and gets hard truths from her inner voice, represented here as a chain-smoking teddy bear, who points out all the cracks in her desperate fantasy that everything is fine. In the last section, she shares practical information on abusive behavior, showing readers how to recognize tactics like love-bombing and gaslighting. Lambda’s cute, expressive characters, bounding through elegantly drawn European city streets, provide a coating of sweetness to bitter lessons. Readers recovering from a toxic relationship will find this invaluable, but the frank, personal story is enough to win over anyone. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"A scarily accurate depiction of toxic relationships, So Much for Love is a survival guide filled with helpful tips and hope." —Pénélope Bagieu, author of Brazen

"[So Much for Love] is both a solidarity-building balm and a guide out of a bad situation... Lambda’s depiction of her hard-won recovery and the advice and resources (bolstered by robust back matter) that helped her get there are genuinely valuable, emphasizing that abusive relationships don’t have to involve physical violence to be dangerous." —Booklist

""Lambda’s winning debut is an achingly direct, darkly funny memoir about surviving a nightmare relationship and an accessible guide to recognizing and dealing with predators." - Publisher's Weekly

From the Publisher