Review: I Thought You Loved Me (2023)
30 Comics in 30 Days - I’m reviewing a comic every day in November!
Day 6 - I Thought You Loved Me by MariNaomi
This is a memoir about the relationship between love and memory: The way heartbreak can also break your memories; and the way putting back together the pieces of memory might mend what’s left of your heart.
MariNaomi’s goal in crafting the book is quite explicit: They want figure out just what the fuck happened to a fourteen year friendship that is now in ruins — and, perhaps more importantly, determine why they can remember barely anything about this friend. I Thought You Loved Me is thus as much an investigation and procedural as it is a narrative, relying heavily on the copious journals MariNaomi kept throughout the years, as well as photographs, letters, postcards, emails, text messages, and comics.
The resulting collage can be quite beautiful. Found documents and drawings are layered on top of background images that all seem to have deep significance, especially the copious flower patterns. The friend in question, Jodie, is linked with a pattern of white blossoms and green leaves, while MariNaomi’s figure on the page is often filled with red or pink flowers. It’s a striking visual conceit that, along with other such patterns (like the repeated appearance of purple lilacs), helps bind together what could’ve been, in less capable hands, a fragmentary or disjointed book.
I haven’t read anything quite like I Thought You Loved Me before, but it definitely expanded my perception of what comics (and especially graphic memoirs) can look like!
Go follow and support Mari’s work @marinaomiart
