Spent: A Comic Novel

by Alison Bechdel Narrated by Alison Bechdel, Holly Rae Taylor, Jenn Colella, Adenrele Ojo, Ali Liebegott, Christina Delaine, Renata Friedman, Joe Barrett, Maggi-Meg Reed, Kimberly Farr, Hayden Bishop, Keylor Leight, Dan Bittner, Bill McKibben, Gilli Messer, Naomi Liv Joseffy

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Delivering heaps of laughs, this adult graphic novel boasts all the ingredients Bechdel’s readers love. This quirky story that wrestles with modern-day issues, features a charming found family — oh, and rescued Pygmy goats.

The celebrated and beloved New York Times bestselling author of the modern classic Fun Home presents a laugh-out-loud, brilliant, and passionately political work of autofiction, adapted for audio by the author herself and brought to life with a full cast star-studded cast including Alison Bechdel as Narrator, Jenn Colella as Alison, and Ali Liebegott as Lois

In Alison Bechdel's hilariously skewering and gloriously cast new comic novel confection, a cartoonist named Alison Bechdel, running a pygmy goat sanctuary in Vermont, is existentially irked by a climate-challenged world and a citizenry on the brink of civil war. She wonders: Can she pull humanity out of its death spiral by writing a scathingly self-critical memoir about her own greed and privilege?

Meanwhile, Alison's first graphic memoir about growing up with her father, a taxidermist who specialized in replicas of Victorian animal displays, has been adapted into a highly successful TV series. It's a phenomenon that makes Alison, formerly on the cultural margins, the envy of her friend group (recognizable as characters, now middle-aged and living communally in Vermont, from Bechdel's beloved comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For).

As the TV show Death and Taxidermy racks up Emmy after Emmy-and when Alison's Pauline Bunyanesque partner Holly posts an instructional wood-chopping video that goes viral-Alison's own envy spirals. Why couldn't she be the writer for a critically lauded and wildly popular reality TV show...like Queer Eye...showing people how to free themselves from consumer capitalism and live a more ethical life?!!

Produced with immersive sound effects and music, Spent's rollicking and masterful denouement-making the case for seizing what's true about life in the world at this moment, before it's too late-once again proves that “nobody does it better” (New York Times Book Review) than the real Alison Bechdel.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Color? It’s the first sign that something new is afoot in a book full of familiar flourishes [including] the figure of Bechdel herself, drawn as a bit of a cross between Tintin and Waldo, vibrating with anxiety, doing her best to flee herself on bike or skis or simply afoot….It’s [an] accumulating ease we feel in this book—a supple, loose-limbed grace; an absence of fear that translates into simplicity, discipline and modesty.”  — New York Times on The Secret to Superhuman Strength

“Astonishing . . . utterly absorbing”  — The Atlantic on The Secret to Superhuman Strength

“[Bechdel] set out to write a light book about her lifelong commitment to exercise, including stints as a cyclist, climber, skier and yogi. As usual, her story and art are about so much more—the realities of aging, the quest for transcendence and the drumbeat of mortality.”  — Washington Post on The Secret to Superhuman Strength

“[Bechdel’s] work is known for its unique style of combining incisive insight, humor, emotional resonance, queer ethos, and visually stunning illustration. She brings all of that to her new graphic memoir, The Secret to Superhuman Strength.”  — Shondaland

“Graphic storytelling at its most profound.”  — Los Angeles Times, Favorite Book of the Year, on Fun Home

“[S]elf-deprecating and delightful . . . Bechdel takes a gentle approach toward her well-meaning characters, but wields a razor-sharp scalpel when it comes to the indignities of modern life. For Bechdel’s fans, it’s a dream to see her skewer fame with such hilarious precision.”  — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Thoroughly wonderful . . . Alison and her friends are beautiful and ridiculous and ridiculously beautiful, and Bechdel is such a master of her craft that it might take a little while to appreciate what she does here. Bechdel is incisive, tender, and funny—often at the same time.”  — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2025-02-01
The author ofAre You My Mother? (2012) andFun Home (2006) offers something that’s not quite a memoir and thoroughly wonderful.

We meet our protagonist, Alison Bechdel, when she’s been shocked from sleep by a shotgun blast. It’s her partner, Holly, trying to scare a bear away from the compost pile on their Vermont pygmy goat sanctuary. In addition to sharing a name, this character has a lot in common with her creator. Both are in middle age. Both made their names with a comic strip about lesbians. Both have written a much-lauded memoir in graphic-novel form. And both have seen their autobiographies refashioned by other artists. Bechdel the author could have written another story from her own point of view but, in creating an avatar, she gives herself some room to mess around, and the results are delightful. Alison the character is supposed to be finishing her next book, but she finds herself endlessly distracted. There’s her sister, who wants Alison to edit her manuscript. There’s a trio of old friends who have turned into a throuple. There’s the fact that Holly’s woodchopping videos and tool reviews are turning her into an Instagram influencer. And there’s the way Alison is trying to escape finishing her book by selling a reality show that’s kind of likeQueer Eye except that instead of making people look better she’ll help them live more ethically within capitalism. As Bechdel lets the lives of her characters unfold, her words and pictures become the reality show. Alison and her friends are beautiful and ridiculous and ridiculously beautiful, and Bechdel is such a master of her craft that it might take a little while to appreciate what she does here.

Bechdel is incisive, tender, and funny—often at the same time.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940190902242
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	07/15/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged