STORYBOOTH

An illustrated anthology of submissions from young people to the Storybooth YouTube channel.

Anonymous contributors of varied ethnicities narrate vignettes presented through text and comics panels. Suffering dominates, as the protagonists confront subjects of perennial concern (such as racism, abuse, and challenges in friendships and romantic relationships) as well as other problems that reflect newer, present-day issues. They worry about infecting others with Covid-19, the isolation of remote schooling, and humiliating themselves in an online classroom. They’re bullied with AirDropped nudes and embarrassing photos gone viral on someone else’s Instagram. The lack of systematic organization or content warnings prefacing certain topics results in troubling juxtapositions, as when a deeply traumatic story about being raped at the age of 10 is followed by one about feeling guilty for kissing a boy at summer camp who was not the subject’s boyfriend. A contribution about self-harm is situated next to a piece about not being able to afford expensive sneakers. The cartoon-style illustrations show a trans boy who appears feminized compared to the portrayals of cis boys; a story about homophobia from a gay Muslim boy shows a terrifying, witchlike, chador-clad teacher in black waving a wandlike pointer; stories of victimized fat contributors are pure prose, lacking any images, but some antagonists are needlessly shown as fat; and the moms are sometimes oddly sexualized. Readers deserve to have their voices told, but they also deserve a coherent, ethical arrangement of their misery.

Stories of genuine trauma reduced to jumbled, comfortless pain tourism.