Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
One night, multiple narrators—from the young and indecisive protagonist Annah Billips to pigeons, magicians, dogs, and convenience store employees—several beings take turns to guide readers through Annah’s life and her peculiar theories. Or theory. Annah believes her father, a mad scientist, removed a tiny sliver of her brain and created a sister, a twin who is always with her through thick and thin until she decides to vanish. Is this twin real? Or is it just Annah’s deluded way of coping with her parents’ ugly divorce, which occurred at the same time she claims her twin was created.
Yeah, that’s one hell of an interesting premise for “Gingerbread Girl” by Paul Tobeen and Colleen Coover. The graphic novel begins with a fun scene where Annah is getting ready for a date, but she has promised to spend the evening with two different people, whoever knocks on her door first, gets to take her around. Thanks to her freckles, Annah feels a little like the female version of Archie Andrews, from the popular teen comics, you know the guy who cannot decide between Betty and Veronica. But Archie comes from the 1940s, so he doesn’t have childhood trauma or mental health issues, or confusion over his sexual identity. Annah comes with all that, and more.
The artwork by Colleen Coover is what keeps “Gingerbread Girl” fun for most parts, it’s cute, with clean lines and the character illustrations are adorable. However, the “pass-the-parcel” narration style, where the narrator keeps changing, was only comically entertaining the first few instances and then the novelty quickly wanes to become annoying.
“Gingerbread Girl” unfurls over the course of a single night, as Annah finds herself on a date with Chili, a gorgeous gal with a bouncy afro. This condensed timeframe adds excitement to the story, yet also leaves one wishing for a bit more depth to capture additional nuances. Unlike a Shakespearean epic where myriad events unfold within 24 hours, here it’s merely different narrators pondering the reality of Annah’s sister, a question whose answer is pretty evident.
Overall, it’s probably a decent one-time read over how childhood trauma can really make someone go cuckoo and develop attachment issues. Annah struggles to maintain long-term relationships, often using her sister as an excuse, citing the need to locate her lost sibling. The notion of the “missing sister” metaphorically represents Annah’s own fractured childhood, as she remains unable to move past the painful events involving her parents’ divorce. So the question isn’t whether Annah’s sister exists, but if Annah can exist without having to hold on to the fantasy of a “mad scientist father” tampering with her head. But of course, that’s never answered.
Rating: 3 on 5. “Gingerbread Girl” is also on Kindle Unlimited.
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