Review: IT'S ALL ABSOLUTELY FINE

With brutal honesty and a sharp wit, London-based illustrator Ruby Elliot sets out to normalize mental health issues and struggles through her often hilarious but mostly poignant illustrated memoir, It's All Absolutely Fine. Published in 2016, it just came to my attention this year when another book blogger reviewed and it and spoke about its relevance and its truthfulness.

A quick Google search landed me on Ruby Elliot's webpage, Rubyetc, where I could revisit her quirky illustrating style. Since I'm not on Instagram, it is a good source to see her illustrating style. I love her description of herself, especially about humor since it is so evident in her book.

Ruby Elliot, also known as Rubyetc, is a cartoonist, illustrator and author who draws about sad things in a funny way and vice versa. She has been published in print (The New York Times, Random House, Orion) online (BBC, Tate Galleries, The New Yorker, Time To Change) and her mum's fridge (The Kitchen). She also runs popular drawing workshops for people of all ages and abilities, in educational settings and beyond. She takes silliness very seriously.

As I read It's All Absolutely Fine, I recollected times as a librarian where only illustrated books could reach students struggling with issues when regular printed material couldn't. Inside Out: Portrait of an Eating Disorder (Shivack) and Blankets (Thompson) are two that I found especially helpful. If I were still a teen librarian I would snatch up It's All Absolutely Fine and place it prominently in my library for those same students, those struggling to make sense of their lives, to find. It is a gem.

Sample page about feelings from It's All Absolutely Fine by Ruby Elliot

I see that Elliot has two newer books, Silly Me and Silly Us, published for the Pound Project in 2021 and '22 and I'm guessing the target of these books is children, based on their size and page count. I will look to see if my public library them.

Now for a quibble with the e-book publisher of It's All Absolutely Fine. It have a Kindle Fire which is several years old and also smallish. The publisher decided to put both sides of the page on one screen shot. There was nothing I could do to read the print and see the illustrations except to enlarge the font which distorted the page and meant I had to manipulate the screen and toggle it around to read everything which was a lot of work and irritating. It was so irritating, as a matter of fact, I nearly abandoned the book altogether. But I did finish the book, through gritted teeth, only because the illustrations and Elliot's disarming humor carried me along.

Publishing issues aside, I recommend this book to anyone who has experienced any kind of mental health issues, eating disorders, disordered thinking, bi-polar disorder, or knows someone who has. I think you will find it helpful and enlightening like I did. And you'll have a laugh while you are reading it.

-Anne