It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth: This Book Is for Someone, Somewhere.

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There’s the deepest profundity to the flippancy with which Thorogood often dismisses her struggles and worth here.

Some people are simply unable to experience positive emotion around personal accomplishments and creations. At times she doubts her own anxiety, characterising it as a performance and equating it with self-indulgence. The self-conscious aspects there are real, and its a great technique (and you can quietly admit to yourself that the lofty moments actually are beautiful while still getting to laugh at yourself for it).IT’S LONELY AT THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH is an intimate metanarrative that looks into the life of a selfish artist who must create for her own survival.

This was distressing to read because she's really embracing her illness instead of seeking help, and that's concerning to me. This subject matter isn't easy to talk about, because these very real thoughts process through each brain different, making you feel and do things, and it's not always easy to say why. The book isn't really "about" anything, so if you can stifle those expectations, you will enjoy it more. She begins to realize her earlier work The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott is very much about creating a narrative of who she is becoming who she wants to be, while this book about writing this very book is more a look at who she is afraid she is becoming.

There's no humility to aid feelings of sympathy; in fact, she comes across as obnoxiously obsessed with her depression and how 'not like other people' she is because of it, which also makes her super relatable. To say I am far more interested in Zoe Thorogood’s work when it’s her own pure and unfiltered artistic vision rather than when she’s illustrating someone else’s stories would be a somewhat entitled statement. if i had read this book a couple of months back when i was fully suicidal it would've just made me enjoy my misery more if you will. Thorogood elevates the dark material with her expressive use of the comics medium and the urgency of her voice.