Review: The Fire Never Goes Out: A Memoir in Pictures by Noelle Stevenson
I, like a massive amount of other people, really really like Noelle Stevenson. I have been a casual follower of hers for years. I cannot pinpoint exactly when I first found her, only that when I read the published version of Nimona, I found out I was already following Stevenson's tumblr and was pretty familiar with her art. So long time casual fan. I am looking to upgrade the causal status. I plan to watch her show and catch up on Lumberjanes very shortly.
The Fire Never Goes Out is a graphic memoir of Stevenson's life since 2011 (with a brief mention of 2009), it is by no means an in-depth look exactly what happened the whole time, and the thrust of the narrative is Stevenson ruminating on her own mental health in little vignettes about her year. It is super quick, is packed full of her wonderful art, and is engaging.
I do think maybe that it maybe could have been a bit more? I don't know what more I wanted, just that I maybe wanted more depth at certain points. The end was a super cute and hopeful wrap-up, but I wanted a bit more rumination on how she actually got to this point. Maybe it is just I wanted to spend more time in the book? I am very unsure about my exact feelings.
I do recommend this book to anyone who has liked and consumed any of Stevenson's previous work. It really does give some fantastic context to her work and life. Maybe super mega invested fans will not find tons of new information in here, but more casual fans will certainly gain a lot from this read. Also, it is just incredibly charming and will absolutely pull you through. I read the whole thing in two sittings, and it would have been one had I not been hungry.
I settled on a four-star rating because though I wanted more from the narrative at times, I don't think the book was poorly thought out or rushed, and I did find the reading experience enjoyable. Also, I just think Stevenson did a good job.
I gave this book four stars on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.
