There is this really awesome book by Lynda Barry. It's called Cruddy and it is probably the best horror book I've ever read, except that it isn't really a horror book.

Cruddy is about a teenage girl named Roberta. She is writing her suicide note, explaining why she is killing herself and out comes this amazing story.

Roberta talks about her childhood and her teenage life at the same time and you get a pretty good mixture of events that range from her first sexual experience, massive ammounts of drug usage, self mutilation, parent on child physical abuse and countless murders.

But none of it is actually meant to be scary.

There are moments where the author dogs religion; "Some nights looking at him scares me so bad I can hardly move and I start doing a prayer for protection. But when the thing that is scaring you is already Jesus, who are you supposed to pray to?"

moments of pure teenage angst and disseffections; "Once upon a cruddy time on a cruddy street on the side of a cruddy hill in the cruddiest part of a crudded-out town in a cruddy state, country, world, solar system, universe..."

And the map on the inside covers has markings "Dead bodies left here" and 'Places where there was blood".

Anyway, everybody should read this book. It's fucking awesome and Lynda Barry is one of my favorite writers now. Even though she isn't a particularly technical writer. She is just fucking insane and delightfully so.

The thing about Cruddy, though, is that it is funny, moving, dark as all hell, intense and sad. All at the same time.

You should all go read it, now.

I remember loving that book. I should read it again.

i read lynda barry's book The Good Times Are Killing Me toady, not as dark but wonderful still.

I just ordered her newest What It Is.