When you think you live in a Norman Rockwell painting—married 18 years, three kids, beautiful old house in the country, successful career as a writer—you don’t expect there’s another side to the canvas. Until you read a lovesick e-mail to your husband . . . that didn’t come from you! Good Riddance is an honest and funny graphic memoir about suffering through and surviving divorce. New York Times bestselling author Cynthia Copeland chronicles the deep pain, confusion, awkwardness, and breakthroughs she experiences in the “new normal” as a wife who’s been deceived, a mom who’s now single, a divorcée who’s dating, and a woman who’s on her own figuring out what she truly wants from her life. Copeland tells her story with an emotional candor and spot-on humor that makes Good Riddance poignant, painful, and hilarious all at once.

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Using the graphic novel / memoir format, Cynthia Copeland unveils the story of her marriage of 18 years, and the subsequent divorce after discovering her husband had been unfaithful. Copeland shares her story with readers a decade after things first went down, but some of the emotions that are wrapped up in such an event prove universal and timelessly relatable. 

Copeland explains the guilt she had to learn to work through, coming from a family where no one had divorced before, as well as the secret stress and anxiety she shouldered while trying to protect her young children from the truth of why mom and dad weren't going to live together anymore. 

This story is no different from other divorce memoirs you've read in the way it conveys that there are no real winners in this kind of life upheaval. Copeland paints her husband as a selfish, immature man possibly suffering a mid-life crisis. Trying to recapture his youth yet still keep close to his wife, his actions were that of someone trying to have their cake and eat it too. He seemed more concerned with being "cool dad" than responsible grown up. Copeland makes it clear she wasn't having it, but at the same time some of her actions towards him struck me as tiptoeing into control freak territory. or such a tough topic, the choice of cool blue-grey tones on the art were strangely calming. Don't know if that was intentional or not... regardless, it was kinda nice, diffused the tougher moments a bit. The blue tones combined with the art style itself ... something about it brought to mind vintage hospital pamphlets! 

I’ve given this series three tries now. That’s three tries too many and two more than usual. I have been disappointed for the final time. I Am Done. Done with the stagnant, shallow, and (in Ever’s case) stubbornly dense characters. Done with the New Age nattering on about energy fields and Wicca 101 lessons. Done with the endless faux sexual tension and the strung out destined to be together soul-mate crap.

I should probably have some wine and chocolate and calm the hell down but I need to get this review over and done so I can move on and purge it from my memory which fortunately for me (in this case) isn’t very good anyway.

If you haven’t read the previous books in the series they are Evermore and Blue Moon and you really haven’t missed much. I’ll do a super quick synopsis to spare you from the unnecessarily long brain melting info. dump that goes on in the first few chapters of Shadowland. Ever is a pretty blonde cheerleader type who lost her entire family in an accident. But don’t fret because she doesn’t. She’s too busy mooning over dreamy guys. In Evermore she was made an immortal by drinking “immortal juice” given to her by her perfect, gorgeous, immortal boyfriend and soul mate Damen. They want to have sex (oh so very bad) but can’t touch because braniac Ever trusted a villain named Roman in Blue Moon and now her body fluids are toxic to Damen. They can’t kiss or bump any naked naughty bits or do anything else unless fully covered and there’s really no fun in that now, is there? They can’t even hold hands because Ever might get all clammy and sweat on him causing his ultimate fiery demise. Ahhh, the tragedy! So there you go.

In Shadowland, they attempt to find an antidote so they can finally “be together” (euphemism courtesy of the author, I would’ve used much naughtier terms), Ever doesn’t listen (again) and gets herself into further trouble and then a new character named Jude (who is gorgeous and dreadlocked and gets Ever all a-flutter, shameless hussy that she is) is introduced because what the world needs now is another lame love triangle.

If I sound a mite sarcastic I’m sorry but I’m beyond irritated by these shallow and dimension-less characters. I had all three of these books on my Ipod and kept reading them hoping desperately that things would improve. But Damen is still totally amazing and crapping out white tulips and we are continually brutalized with Ever’s endless descriptions of his physical perfection. At one point she even waxes poetic about his “perfect rubber flip flop shod feet”. I Kid You Not. Oh and Haven is still a royal beeyatch while Ever continues to be Ever. No one grows at all in these books and it makes me crazy.

But the worst fault here is that Shadowland blathers on for chapters without anything much of any excitement, importance or plot advancement happening. I could deal with this if I were enjoying even one of the characters but they continually disappointed and frustrated me with their perfection, self-centeredness or outright stupidity. And then the bit about Haven becoming . . . well, I won’t go there and spoil things for you in case you’re still wanting to read it.

I realize I’m rambling but this series is just not a good one, if you’re asking me. It’s not interesting, the characters are mostly jerks who I can’t work up any sympathy for and it’s not one I can recommend at all. I’m stopping here even though I think I still have two more of these books on my Ipod. I’ve already wasted too much time and if someone tells me they get better I am sticking my fingers in my ears and refusing to listen! Which is what I wish I had done with these audiobooks!

This weeks bag of sad and unloved books are headed out the door to find a better home. This is such a PIA to do because I have most of these books listed at paperbackswap and half.com where they've been languishing for years. So instead of just tossing them all in a bag and getting on with my life, I have to look them all up and delete them. One bag at a time to a clutter free home . . . 

Another bag of unread and unloved books is headed out to the donation bins. Yay me. It's hard letting them go but I've held on to some of them for over a decade and seeing them around, doing nothing but collecting dust, makes me feel like a hoarder and overwhelms me. I've culled the oldest, mostly those given to me by my mother-in-law and friends who no longer wanted them (I can never say no to more books!), because I'll never get around to reading ALL the books ever written in this lifetime. My dream is to one day have tidy shelves filled only with books that I'm dying to read. I've bought so many books that I no longer have any interest in reading that it's embarrassing. This is probably the 8th bag I've donated in the past year and it feels so good to set them free!