I enjoyed this non-fiction graphic novel that delves into the author's life. The art style is adorable, and I loved the little recipes and drawings of food. It wasn't exactly what I expected. The title is a little misleading. It's more about the disgust surrounding most foods, complex relationships and family dynamics, and how these relate to the author's life. I thought it was quirky, and I loved the art style so much! Especially the colourful pages, they were so adorable! I have never read a memoir in art form but I enjoyed it.

Hilary is a picky eater and has been all her life. In this graphic novel, she documents some of her struggles with family, her boyfriend and her weight and how she finds comfort in her safe snacks. I enjoyed the little snack "recipes" throughout the book as well as the artwork. However, the story didn't really resonate with me and Hilary came off as whiny at times.


Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing, the author and NetGalley for the eARC!

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Please note trigger warnings for eating disorders in this book.
The Joy of Snacking was a book that personally didn't connect with me unfortunately. I thought the book was a celebration of food and a love of it and eating it but it was more about the struggles the author has had with food, eating, weight, etc.
The illustrations are fun at times, but I found it hard to read as some of the text in my earc was illegible/too small to read.
The ending seemed to end very abruptly, which I found confusing too.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought the way Hilary told the story, going back and forth in time, was really interesting, and it's a great way to talk about something that many people struggle with: their relationship with food. I did find some of the writing difficult to see and read in this format, but other than that I thought it was great.

While I feel that there were a lot of important things addressed in the memoir, I do feel that the title was a bit misleading, as I went into it expecting a much more lighthearted story about love of food, rather than a deeply emotional read about the pain and struggles the author had with eating food throughout her life. While it was a great story for what it was, I wish it had been clearer going in about what you were going to be getting, and that it included some trigger warnings, as I feel that some of this content could be really triggering for people who struggle with eating disorders. Additionally, I feel that, while the more messy art and writing style of the book worked well with the emotional story it was telling, it did make it somewhat difficult to decipher some of the pages, at least in digital format. Overall, while I did enjoy this book, there were a few things about it that kept me from loving it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-ARC.

This was a great book. Very entertaining and enjoyable to read. I would highly recommend this book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the Publishers for the ARC.

This comic book reminded me so much of the Cathy comics I read in the Sunday newspaper as a kid. I verbally chuckled several times. So fun!

Thanks to Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for the e-ARC; these opinions are my own and freely given.

I love graphic novel memoirs, but this one doesn't quite hit the top tier of the genre. I think the title this book is a little misleading; it talks about snacking, but so much of the story is about the hatred of types of food and the inability of the author to enjoy eating. Overall it was good, but it's hard to say if I would recommend it.

Things I liked:
- The general arc and final conclusion
- As a former (and somewhat still) picky eater, I connected with a lot the author's problems. Not to her level, but certainly could empathize
- It was written pretty well, and the inclusion of the foods that mattered to the author was a unique touch

Things I didn't like:
- I don't know if it was the quality of the e-ARC I received, but there was a lot of text that was just illegible. This would probably be better in print.
- The art style wasn't the most attractive (personal taste)
- The final conclusion was so rushed. When the author finally has her epiphany, it felt like the book was over in 5 pages where I wanted more details about the change in her mindset.

Neutral things:
- Should definitely be warning-labelled for eating disorders/bulimia

The title of this graphic memoir was a bit misleading in that there was a lot of pain and struggle around snacking/food rather than joy. The art wasn't my jam, and the legibility was questionable in parts. I appreciated the exploration of the author's relationship with food alongside her relationships with people, but overall this wasn't my favorite.

A graphic novel about the love of snacks and finding your true self through them.
It's hilariously funny and so realistic.  Though I will argue you can be a snacker and a foodie, I can relate to her feelings on so many foods and how that alone can make you feel like a freak.
I loved this graphic novel and think every woman should read it. I'll be having cheese curls. You can have the hummus

Recommended.  Expected publishing date 10/07/2025

Thanks to @netgalley and Andrew McNeel Publishing  for the opportunity to read this eArc in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me a copy of The Joy of Snacking.

Graphic novel about food?? Sign me up!

I really enjoyed reading about the author’s relationship with food through the years and also her memories with her family, it was so nice. I could relate to so many moments (I also hate bananas).

It was also nice to have recipe style moments filed with funny remarks!

It was so much more than a graphic novel about food, it was about the different relationships we have in life, the obstacles we face and what we feel whilst facing them.

I found it a bit long, but still really good!

“I fear change in every shape and form”
“I am lucky to be alive, lucky to have survived”
Recieved an ARC! Really enjoyed it. It covered deep topics such as eating disorders, relationships and our relationship with our bodies but done in a way with heart and laughter. I really liked the illustrations and really liked how she used colour on some pages.

This is a sort of food-based memoir wherein the artist describes her rather unique relationship with food and tries to make connections to the food habits of others in her family (particularly her father). Due to a wide variety of issues including anxiety, extreme fear, difficulty with new situations, texture sensations, and some behaviors that seem coded as possibly autistic, there's quite a bit of disordered eating displayed (although it is not generally labelled as such). I found it a little bit stressful and anxiety inducing just reading it. I think it could potentially be genuinely triggering for some people with eating disorders and possibly needs to be better labelled as such.

Came expecting nice talk about snacking not trauma dumping. I'm only really interested in reading about this kind of stuff either when I know the person, I find the person interesting or the stuff they're talking about sounds interesting. As rude as this is going to sound, there is nothing terribly out there to her story: teenage girl snacks a lot, puts weight, feels self concious, has low self esteem, developes ED that eventually kind of learns to get under controll in her 20's/30's. And the ending of the book kind of had nothing to do about snacking? It is true that a big reason why she fought often with E. was her picky-ness with food, but fundamentally, that relationship wasn't a healty one, she herself mentioned fighting with him all the time. Good for her getting out of that toxic dynamic tho.

Also, the art is totally not my style, I'm not really a fan of these "unpolished" cartoons.

You had me at the title, and the intrigue of the graphic storytelling. Sadly, it wasn’t quite as much about the food that was eaten, but more about the food that wasn’t. (And maybe, this is my fault for not fully understanding the description of the book!)

I don’t know Hilary’s prior work so this was my first foray into her world and I enjoyed her illustration style, it just wasn’t quite what I was expecting. There was a lot of joy in elements of the book, but I appreciate the heaviness of her personal story that makes the book what it is.

The common thread is food, a lot of it is based on the struggles she faced in her relationships (with others and herself) because of food. The title is somewhat misleading, but I appreciated her honesty in sharing her personal story and history with food and how she found herself again.

The story was hard to follow at times, with chapters feeling like they abruptly ended, and some of the red fonts were tricky to read. Overall an easy and informative read about the impact of eating disorders and the knock on effect this can have in every area of life.

Thank you for the eARC NetGalley & Andrew McMeel Publishing!

The illustration style is very accessible and lends itself to the way the story is told, jumping from childhood memories to recent past events and current conversations. The story feels relatable to a part of the population that is bumping up against the current food culture. I know a certain swath of the population will feel very seen by this work. The more I read the more I grew to appreciate author/illustrator's voice and point of view. The recipe pages add humor to an already funny narrative. There are also some challenging and heart wrenching moments with interpersonal relationships in the tale. The author/illustrator really lays bare how food has shaped her life and affected her self-image. The honesty in this story is admirable.

A woman's messy life told through her painful and complicated relationship with food.

This graphic novel memoir chronicles the life of Hilary, a middle-aged white female cartoonist, from her awkward childhood in California when she first has her first awkward encounters with food to her teenhood experiences with vomiting and disordered eating to her adulthood, especially her relationship with the selfish and casually cruel "E", Hilary's insecure long-term boyfriend.

I appreciated the emotional honesty that I could feel behind every panel and the seemingly casual way that Hilary told her quite personal story. There were several times though, that Hilary didn't quite let the audience in on something that happened in her life and just vaguely alluded to it, which made me wonder, why mention it if you're not actually going to tell us about it? That tendency created a distance between me and the book, which lowered my enjoyment and thus rating of it.

An example of a lack of detail is in her relationship with "E".
His often cruel opinions of Hilary were mentioned, but her opinions of him were not really told, leaving the book feeling a bit empty, which it never really recovered from.

I recommend this for fans of intentionally messy stories like the HBO show Girls.

Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the DRC.


(I will wait to post this to my socials till September, unless otherwise instructed.)

I picked up the book because of the fun title, but I found that it's not what I expected. I was unable to complete the book.

I liked the idea but found the art style chaotic and the story hard to follow. The bright red text was distracting, and the tone felt messy rather than charming. The snack recipes were honestly the best part.

It’s not for me, but it might click with the right readers.

Wasn’t able to fully complete as app kept on crashing when opened it at 56%. But thoroughly enjoyed what I read. As an AuDHD parent with two littles with Autism, sensory issues around food aren’t strangers to us, It was so refreshing to see a graphic novel based around that, which will be a positive thing for my littles to read when they’re older to know they’re not alone.