TW: ED behavior and language

This book made me feel a lot. Obviously, I wasn't around for the Riot Grrl phase of the 90's, but I've read a lot on it and think it's a really interesting time. Yes, the book was fast paced, but it followed the very classic timeline (maybe bordering on cliché?) of most Riot Grrl stories (if you were to combine them into one). As someone who has both done dance, and struggled with ED behaviors, I very much would have liked a TW at the beginning of the book. Just some indicator that this is a major part of the initial story.

I would have liked more, it to be longer or the idea that it was a series, since the characters were so loveable. All in all though, this was a solid story and the art was beautiful!

I was pretty disappointed by this graphic novel. The main character's development was ok, though it hinged way too much on how transformed she was (as a white girl) by witnessing the violence of a race "riot." The book seems to skirt the very surface of racial tensions without dealing with them aside from having the white girl pair at the center stand up for their Black friend and colleague a couple of times. It felt like it used Black and Latinx trauma to center white girls (and I know, I know, Riot grrl was fairly white, but it's 2020...). I wanted to know more about Rudie, but her character was particularly under-developed. Also, the ending seemed rather abrupt. Content warning for body dysmorphia, eating disorders, and sexual harassment.

Sometimes you fail to be moved by an artist's work and unfortunately that's just what happened with this graphic novel. I haven't found it original and didn't relate with the characters.

Thanks anyway to NetGalley and Oni Press for this ARC :)

Such a lovely art style, I really enjoyed it and I'd love to see more from this author/illustrator.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received a copy of this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My Riot is a graphic novel about a teenage girl exploring body image, sexuality, sexism, eating disorders, independence, art, and dance.

In many ways this graphic novel reminded me of classics like Ghost World and I think it would be compelling for other fans of Kathleen Hanna and the riot grrrl scene.

I thought the art was really well done and compelling, and I liked the subtle use of color that kept us focused on our protagonist. I was intrigued by the story and it kept me reading. I think the biggest issue I had with this was the dialogue and some of the believability that it broke for me. There were times when our protagonist spoke with adults or her parents, or her parents spoke to her, in ways that I found completely unrealistic. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing and artistic license of course applies, but when these moments happened it did pull me out the story and make me like it less.

I think the other issue I had with this was the relate-ability factor. As someone who loves riot grrrl music and is no stranger to teen angst, something bout this just fell short for me and felt inauthentic in terms of teenage identity and voice. I could tell the themes and emotions this was going for, but it lacked authenticity and almost an...honesty? and that made it less successful. Which is weird to say because this dealt with very hard and personal subjects. I think those topics were there, but they lacked the emotional rawness that I was looking for. Overall, I think the characters seemed unrealistic and the overall messages fell flat.

My Riot is a graphic novel set in the 90's and is about a girl who has conformed to societies standards, but decides she needs to be her own person, so she starts an all girl punk rock group.

The first thing that I noticed about this graphic novel was the cover. I loved the old school feel of it, with the Polaroid and the cassette tape. Also, I am all about the 90's, so that was also a bonus to reading this. I liked the story. Val was a ballerina, who was told that she had to look a certain way and that at 115 lbs. she was too fat. She makes herself miserable in order to make society happy. She meets some new friends, and finds herself in her new found love of music and expression.

I do have to say, some parts of the story seemed rushed, especially the ending. I also felt like some parts weren't consistent. For example, Jake comes off as supportive and kind. I didn't feel like he would be petty and storm off in a huff and act the way he did.

All in all, this was a good story, and I think a lot of people would really love it.

An angsty, rage-fueled feminist romp through the Riot Grrrl ’90s.

** Content warning for racist violence, eating disorders, sexual harassment, and slut shaming. **

For as long as she can remember, ballet has been Valerie Simmons’s escape; when she’s dancing, everything else falls away and she’s allowed to just be. But lately, it’s starting to feel like more of a nightmare: the stringent weight requirements have caused eating disorders in many of her classmates, and her instructor even suggested Val take up smoking to drop the “extra” five pounds that will otherwise prohibit her from performing in the troupe’s production of Swan Lake. Not to mention, all that prim and proper gender performance is starting to feel suffocating.

Several chance meetings with a quirky, punk rock cigarette thief and TP artiste named Kat threaten to upend everything Val thought she knew about herself – and her place onstage. Before you can say “Bikini Kill,” Val and Kat have formed a two-girl band, ironically dubbed “The Proper Ladies.” With a little help from Val’s crush Jake (and a general thirst for the nascent Riot Grrrl genre), The Proper Ladies are soon killing it at clubs and house parties up and down the East Coast. Eventually they’re joined by bassist Rudie, a black Skinhead (SHARP – Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice) who’s way out of their musical league.

The culmination of the group’s success is an invitation to a music festival in Olympia, Washington, necessitating a cross-country tour during which they crash on the couches of fans, meet other up-and-coming women artists, learn new crafts, and feast on girl power like whoah. But their journey isn’t without its hitches: their moderate success leads to fighting, both within and without; the girls are sexually harassed by misogynist “fans” (in what is weirdly one of my favorite scenes); and a scuzzy record exec tries to package them into a more palatable commodity.

Raw, funny, and compelling, MY RIOT is a nostalgia-fueled romp through the Riot Grrrl era of the ’90s – and female adolescence. Punk music provides Val an outlet for expressing all her frustrations – with slut shaming, sexual double standards, rigid beauty ideals, and violence against women – and the lyrics will have you itching to crank up Live Through This or Sleater-Kinney. Kat and Rudie are fierce supporting characters, though I’m not gonna lie – I think Rudie’s backstory might have proven more interesting than Val’s, if altogether a different beast. The whole subplot with Jake feels predictable, though you do love to see a mediocre dude go down.

My only complaint is the sort-of parallel Spears attempts to draw between a protest (“riot”) against police brutality and the chaos raging, first in Val’s psyche, then in her life. With everything going on out there, using an uprising for racial justice to further the story of a white woman just feels weird and icky. The story would have worked just as well – if not better – without it. Though I have to admit, the scene where Val’s dad stays up all night watching the news and brandishing a golf club felt all too real and close to home.

This book was such a fun read! As a person whose primary introduction to feminism came from listening to Bikini Kill and reading zines in the bedrooms of my friends in Seattle (even in 2014!), I loved this book. It was fun and sharp and the art style was fantastic too! I definitely recommend picking up this book!

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

My Riot is a story that centres on a high school/ college age female protagonist (Val,) who has always made ballet the centre of her world, but is starting to feel like an outsider as the mental and physical pressures surge.

A couple chance encounters leads Val to make friends with a local punk, Kim, who introduces her to the underground music scene and the riot grrrl movement. In this new scene, Val finds herself able to find catharsis in the music, trying new things, and gaining in confidence.

The story does a good job of using common touchstones of youth— social beauty/ body of reassures, dating, parents— to ensure it is not just for readers who might be dreaming of their own adventures in the local or underground music scenes.

Bonus points because there is a Black, female, skinhead character. It’s noted that she identifies as SHARP (Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice) which is a very real part of the subculture. I love an author who knows their oi! history.

I am not okay with this graphic novel.
Maybe it's trying to say how bad it was in the 90s for the coming of age kids but no, it is just too horrible to read.

I do appreciate the efforts of the author and the team (love the illustrations even though the art sequence gets a bit haphazard here and there) but no, it seems like I am reading a nightmare of encouraging someone to have a poor image of themselves.

First of all, I am not okay with the fat shaming or body shaming even though it is still happening in real.

Second, adults encouraging bulimia or eat less leading to eating disorders is a big no for me to read anyday.

I have so many other issues like drugs, misguided sexual education, assaults just into chapter two.

No, I cannot do this.

The book may turn out good.

I don't know but I couldn't think straight anymore.

And then I still kept on reading because I know how teens get confused and misguided too often.

Everything started so that the main character had to please others in authority and to qualify for the ballet dance group.

Then somehow she joined a band and she just lost focus.

Nothing much developed.

Lots of smoking, lots of bulimia, lots of abusive scenes,

I feel like the characters did not develop at all.

No, I just couldn't like this one at all.

Thank you #NetGalley for the ARC.

My Riot is a graphic novel about a riot grrrrl band in the early 90’s. The main character is Val, and over the course of the novel, she goes from a ballet dancer to the leader of a feminist grrrl band.
The art style of the novel is absolutely beautiful, with different colour washes for different moments of Val’s life. The lyrics are scrawled over the pages, forcing the music to take up space, for the band to be loud and unapologetic. Also, the characters had body hair! Justice for women with hairy armpits.
I really loved the character of Rudie, a black skinhead who is definitely a lesbian but it’s never brought up. (There are no queer characters in the book, which is suspicious.) We don’t really get to know her, or the other member of the band Kat, which is annoying. I wanted to know so much more about the world! Tell me more authors!
(Also, who was Val having sex with prior to the novel? She has condoms, and mentions that she’s sleeping with a guy, but we never meet him? I honestly think it was just included so that Val could tell Jake that she didn’t lose her virginity to him, which is ehhhh.)
I hated Jake, which I think was the author’s intention – He went from praising Val’s band to calling her a slut and telling her that he was the whole reason she was famous. The graphic novel definitely has a radical feminist slant to it – so I was surprised when both authors were male. (Does this sound terf-y? Can male authors sum up the experience of a teenage girl struggling with representation/body issues/slut shaming in the 90’s? More news at 11.)
Overall, I think this was a really good graphic novel, but the ending was rushed. It went from Val being on top of the world, to everything just being over in a couple of pages. I think the ending could had been expanded, or at least cut some of the opening to free up more pages.
Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC.

My riot is about a 17-year-old girl discovering who she really is, finding new friends along the way and falling head over heels with rock music. it has romance, drama and lots of mosh pits.

the best way to describe this book is a girl's journey to becoming emo...
no, but really I didn't hate this graphic novel it had its moments but it also had things I hated
*HUGE TRIGGER WARNING FOR EATING DISORDERS.*
it was funny and good when you didn't take it seriously, my boyfriend read it after me because he thought it sounded interesting and I wanted a second opinion and he enjoyed it a lot more than I did. So it all depends on the views of the reader.
overall I do think there are better graphic novels out there but it's still a GN I would recommend.

My Riot features fresh art and an enjoyable story. A wonderful young adult graphic novel experience.

CW: Drug use, Eating Disorder, Fat-shaming, slut-shaming, rioting

4 stars

**slight spoilers**

My god, I absolutely adored this graphic novel. I felt so empowered reading it.

It starts with Val, a ballerina who is content with her life, but not exactly living it to the fullest. That’s when she meets Kat who helps her get out of her shell and this snowballs into Val and Kat forming a feminist punk band with their friend Rudie. This is a story of loving yourself, sticking it to the man, and never letting anyone tell you what you can and can't do.

Let’s start with Val, our main character. I loved her from the first page. Throughout the story, she grows so much as a character. She starts as someone who is merely content with the life that she’s been given. However, after her ballet teacher tells her to lose some pounds (by using smoking as an appetite suppressant btw!!) and after she meets Kat, she starts to feel restless and decides to change her life. She cuts/dyes her hair and starts a band. She becomes wholeheartedly herself and doesn't take sh*t from anyone.

The side characters, from Kat to Rudie, from Jack to Danny aren’t the most fleshed-out characters, but I guess that’s a drawback to having it in a graphic novel format.

The message that this story is sending to readers is great. It tells them to be unapologetically themselves. It is feminist and strong and loud. I feel like girls/young women can get a lot out of this book, I know I sure did.

One of the things that I found lacking was the pacing. The beginning felt solid and substantial, but as we progress the pacing gets faster and faster. It seems as if all the important stuff happened at the beginning but the ending felt...incomplete.



I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I went into this with no expectations and was pleasantly surprised :)

This graphic novel is set in 1991 and follows a girl who wants to become a ballerina but who struggles to fit the expectations of her teacher, family and society in general, so she starts a band to rebel against these norms.

Enjoyable, but nothing special/ground-breaking.

it's a fine graphic novel about a riot grrl band in the early 90s. it's not terribly edifying, but it's cool, and hopefully will inspire people to look into punk more, although it's not really a richly-textured book, so perhaps not.

This was a great coming of age graphic novel! I loved that it dealt with peer pressure, body image, eating disorders, and relationships. I did find it a little unrealistic that The Proper Ladies were so great so fast and Val’s mother’s actions to certain situations. The illustrations were perfectly messy and the color scheme fit the atmosphere of the punk ‘90s theme. The tone was very feminist and empowering, encouraging other females to find themselves and screw anyone who doesn’t approve. Although the story is mainly about Val’s journey, I would’ve liked to have seen more into Kat and Rudie’s lives and perspectives. I wish the ending didn’t feel rushed, but the story did come full circle with the FMC finally being happy with who she is and her life.

A really lovely coming of age story about a seventeen year old, and her journey to find her own voice and happiness.

Set in the early 90s, we find Val, a ballerina rehearsing for Swan Lake, who is trying to figure out who she really is and what she likes, beyond the path which her conservative family have set out for her. She feels unable to conform to who her parents want her to be, and their overbearingness is starting to wear her down.

After being persuaded to start smoking to help her lose weight so she can be the perfect ballerina, she meets Kat and Rudie and together they form a punk rock band. Over the course of the story we meet more characters, some who help Val, and some who try to hold her down, and many who project their feelings of inadequacy on to her.

Overall, I really enjoyed this. I really liked the artwork and the story had a timeless quality to it. Whilst I was not a ballerina, nor did I join a band in my youth, as a fellow emo kid, many of the issues that Val deals with are so relatable. It is a great story of female friendships and girl power. About where to find positive support from others and when to gain independence away from toxic relationships.

Content warnings: eating disorders, body shaming, sexism, self-harm

Young Adult novels, and in this case, comics, tend to follow a similar formula (or at least from my experience they do): Young girl challenges the norms of her society in order to discover herself. My Riot is no different in that respect, however rather than settle for a dystopian future setting, we go way back to the 1990s and follow Valerie Simmons as she discovers and contributes to the RiotGrrl movement.

We join the story as Valerie is taking part in a ballet lesson, a past-time that her parents have encouraged her to partake in since she was a little girl. Her tutor pulls her to one side and tells her she is too fat for a male dance partner to lift and with them preparing for a performance of Swan Lake, well, Valerie needs to shed some weight and may want to consider taking up smoking. She follows this advice, tries to buy some cigarettes but her age is challenged by the cashier. Out in the parking lot, she meets Kim, who has stolen a pack for her, this first interaction and Valerie’s increasing unhappiness during ballet practice leads her into an entirely new world of sweaty bars, loud guitars and boys.

As Valerie spends more time in this world and begins a relationship with the lead singer of a band, she begins to long for being a larger part of it. She learns to play the guitar and encourages Kim to learn to play the drums and the two eventually form a covers band. But that’s not enough, she begins to write her own songs and as her band grows in popularity (and adding a third member, black female bassist Rudie) tensions grow between her and her boyfriend. This is all played out alongside her rebelling against what her parents want for her and the challenges they face in seeing her become her own woman.

The formula here has been tread before, there’s a lot of similarities to the biopic The Runaways (starring Kristen Stewart), but where that film often felt exploitative (especially in casting a very young Dakota Fanning as the equally very young Cherie Currie) My Riot doesn’t take that route. A few 90’s female rock bands are named dropped along the way (Bikini Kill, Sleater Kinney) and there does feel like a genuine effort has been made here to portray that scene as it’s been documented and the movement and attitudes of the time being challenged, but it can only go so far by using a fictional account within a scene that was easily shot down by the music industry of the time.

However, that does the book a disservice, artist Emmet Helen’s artwork, in particular, brings a kinetic punkish energy to the book, it genuinely feels like an indie comic book about an indie music scene. Keeping the core cast small works in the books favour and the differences between the brutal but aesthetically pretty world of ballet and the dirty, grungey world of punk music are portrayed really rather well and for me, we got enough of a look into that entire movement to satisfy my own interests and with a resurgence in female-led punk/rock outfits over the past 5 years or so (Marmozets, Dream Wife, Petrol Girls, Tonight Alive and Pale Waves are all favourites of mine), this feels perfectly placed for any teenage girl who is also wanting to pick up a guitar and rebel.

My Riot is an empowering coming-of-age story that revolves around Valerie, an aspiring ballerina whose life is radically changed by her new friend Kat and the civil unrest that’s building in her city which results in her starting a feminist punk rock band.

It carefully handles sensitive issues that are all too relatable in that in weird period between being a teenager and an adult. For instance, it covers identity (including sexual, romantic and gender), body image, the complexities of relationships in all shapes and sizes and of course, finding yourself. I especially enjoyed the dynamic between mother and daughter and how that relationship evolved throughout.

My favourite part of the story was actually the ending and the reminder that we’re all constantly changing, that over time we become different versions of ourselves. So while this is primarily about that transition from teen to adult, this graphic novel can be relevant and relatable to anyone who’s identity is shifting at any stage of their life.

Another thing I loved about My Riot is that the artwork is brought to life in striking pink, purple and blue hues which is a nice contrast to the graphic novels I’ve read previously. It’s a much softer colour palette without being overly feminine.

The only things I disliked about My Riot were the derogatory remarks and slurs that were there to highlight relevant social issues such as racism, transphobia and fat-shaming – which I obviously understand were needed in order to fully understand the context of the story. I’d also add that I didn’t enjoy the use of expletives but that’s just personal preference really.

Content warnings: fat-shaming, eating disorders (bulimia), addiction (nicotine), racism, transphobia, riots

Many thanks to Rick Spears, ONI Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.