Graphic Novel Review: Woe: A Housecat’s Story of Despair by Lucy Knisley

Posted on December 26, 2024 at 7:48 am by Gene Ambaum

Woe: A Housecat’s Story of Despair by Lucy Knisley. RH Graphic, 2024. 9780593177631. 208pp.

Knisley and her family adopted the apricot-hued Linney when she was an adult, and it feels like she was already full of personality, which Knisley’s drawings express perfectly. The words she puts in Linney’s mouth include many over-articulations of sadness and despair only a cat could feel — after pooping, chiding her owners for their bad behavior, when being placed into a cat carrier. She hides her sweetness with loud vocalizations, and it’s unclear which she despises more, bad haircuts or her excited puppy friend Flora.

This is my favorite book of cat comics; it’s right up there with Trondheim’s Bludzee, Jeffrey Brown’s Cat’s Are Weird And More Observations, and the first time I read a Garfield collection when I was a kid. Well before the end of Woe, I absolutely loved Linney.

My friend and librarian Sarah, who used to post on Book Threat with me, said the book is being marketed as YA. We both agree it’s really not YA though. It’s for everyone — Lucy and her husband and their young son are big presences in the book, and it would be a great read-aloud for younger kids — and it is the perfect gift for families missing departed cats that were big presences in their lives.