Twelve Percent Dread Review

A fast-paced, laugh-a-page graphic novel about friendship, capitalism, and never putting your f***ing phone away!

Katie and Nas are best friends, exes, co-dependents. They share everything, including a tiny room in a North London townhouse belonging to their landlord Jeremy, former host of the hit 90s show 'Football Lads'.

While Katie bounces from job to job and obsesses about falling behind in life, Nas has bigger things in mind--waiting endlessly for their visa to come through, while working on a seismic art project that will revolutionize politics and society as we know it. Their friend Emma, meanwhile, seems to have it all figured out--job, mortgage, engagement--yet the long hours working for tech giant Arko and endless wedding admin prove equally dread-inducing.

But when Katie's latest job finds her tutoring the daughter of Arko's formidable CEO, Michelle, and Emma welcomes the eccentric and enigmatic Alicia to her team at Arko, none of the three women are aware that their lives--and possibly the future of society itself--are about to change forever.

Twelve Percent Dread is a fast-paced, laugh-a-page graphic novel about friendship, capitalism, and never putting your f***ing phone away from Emily McGovern, author of Bloodlust & Bonnets and the hugely popular webcomic My Life As A Background Slytherin.

General Impressions

I was really excited about breaking up my reading routine with"Twelve Percent Dread" since I'm a huge fan of graphic novels but have a much harder time getting ahold of them than my usual fantasies and romances.

I was completely blindsided by the kind of story this turned out to be since I barely paid the synopsis any attention. Perhaps I should start actually reading them before starting my books but I found so many amazing works that way that I don't think that will happen :)

If you are looking for something cute and lighthearted, maybe put this in your TBR for a while until you are in the right mood because this is not filled with colourful panels or laugh out loud scenes. In fact, I almost put this book aside a couple of times with how hopeless and close to reality it all felt - I know the world is doomed and my generation has no future since I'm alive right now. That's why I read so much, to avoid thinking about it and this book did not help me in that, let me tell you! It wasn't until I got through midway through that I really got into the rhythm of it and start getting what the author was trying to say (I hope).

"Twelve percent dread" follows a bunch of characters in their mid-twenties, some who know what to do with their lives and just don't have the tools or willpower to fight astronomic odds, some that are in a kind of limbo with no goals in sight, others that are getting everything they want but the price they pay starts to feel like too much.

If you are in your mid-twenties too and can recognize those situations, this book will be hard-hitting and necessary. There were scenes that I recognized from my own life word for word and made me feel seen and called out in equal measure.

While the characters the book follows more closely are young and still trying to figure themselves out, they are surrounded by a lot of older characters that have already either accomplished a lot or are trying to do a comeback. I thoroughly enjoyed the inter generation conversations and how the author was able to portray the space between them: the things that the younger generations are going through that no one else has had to struggle with before, the disregard and belittling by the older generation, the privilege that comes from being young and being alive now, the fear of being too old to matter. What touched me the most though was the portrayal of how much it costs to cling to a dream and the multitude of ways that things could go wrong: maybe you were not born in the right place, have the right name or gender, or maybe it's on you - clinging to half a dream while not putting in enough work or not prepared to sell your soul. Of course, the biggest hurdle is not having been born rich and how easier it is to change the world and accomplish your dreams when you are born in a mansion.

This is not a book to feel comforted by but it will definitely stay with me forever.

Thank you to Black Crow Pr, Picador and Panmacmillan for kindly sending me this copy.

Rating: 4/5