In This Issue

In this topsy-turvy world, there's a wealth of reassurance to be found in books that take you for a wild ride both gracefully and humorously. Anxietyland (Gallery Books) is a graphic memoir in which Gemma Correll cleverly frames the ups and downs of her experiences with mental illness as an amusement park with treacherous attractions. The foul-mouthed animals in Robert Isaacs's hilarious, heartfelt novel, It's Hard to Be an Animal (Grand Central), may make life challenging for the hopeful romantic at its center, but they also manage to set him on a journey of self-discovery. Meanwhile, the quick-witted yet prickly protagonists in Violet Allen's Plastic, Prism, Void (LittlePuss Press) accelerate full-throttle through interdimensional collapse in pursuit of an out-of-this-world romance. The universe may be cold and unsympathetic, but a healthy dose of laughter is sure to keep us resilient.