“He was a nobody. One of those shy kids who turned into social invalids when that first blast of adolescence hit, meekly accepted their fate, and became invisible.”

On a whim I grabbed this graphic novel back in spooky season, aka October aka why yes I am behind on reviews but committed to finishing out reviwing all the books I read in 2024 before the year is up. BUCKLE UP FOR LOADS OF REVIEWS, COMING AT YA. But I digress onto this review!

Sometimes I feel like an outlier as a 40ish woman who does not have an affinity for true crime podcasts. In my 20s and 30s I had a long relationship with the various Law and Order iterations, in particular SVU, but found myself getting spooked after a day-long marathon and decided maybe that kind of content was hurting me more than it was doing anything helpful. I’ve never really looked back and other than the occasional book, I tend to keep my entertainment on the lighter side. That’s a caveat to explain that books about horrific killers aren’t my typical fare, more an occasional pasttime, but this slim book is worth your time.

This is a new take on a story you’re likely familiar with, that of notorious murderer and cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer. Author and illustrator Derk Backderf was high school friends with Dahmer, hence this story is a telling of the Dahmer he knew, before the killings. Dahmer was unsurprisingly an outcast, mostly a joke, who drifted through high school in an alcoholic haze, likely trying to escape his inner demons. Backderf is very clear, both in the story and in the afterword, to explain that he is here to tell his story, and what he knew of Dahmer, but he is in no way justifying his actions, stating plainly that once he committed the first murder his only options were to turn himself in, or end himself. That said, Backderf does shed light on a lonely and isolating childhood, giving many examples of how the blind eye of those in Dahmer’s life left him free to walk down the path that led to horrific actions. Absentee parents, uninvolved educators, and schoolmates who found him creepy and made him the butt of jokes were all a rich breeding ground for the darkness that was within. But he is ultimately accountable for and solely responsible for his actions.