Review: For the love of God, Marie! by Jade Sarson

For the love of God, Marie! is a delightful comic created by Jade Sarson and published last year. It tells the sweet story of Marie, a Catholic schoolgirl who decides to love everyone, as told in the Bible. She loves people fully and passionately, in a beautiful way. For her it includes loving them sexually, which doesn’t really get the approval of her parents or her school. The comic covers a wide part of her life, from her childhood to her mature years. She goes through a lot of different experiences regarding friendship, sex and love. She has great joys, but also great losses, and the reader feels these emotions with her. This comic is incredibly positive and represents diverse sexualities and queer identities with a lot of kindness.

This is the definition of a feel-good book. It makes the reader feel like they can be whatever they want and do whatever they want, and as long as a form of love is involved it will always be fine. The book is not cheesy either; Marie goes through pretty tough times and doesn’t always have easy relationships with her loved ones. Sarson doesn’t let the story fall into cliché either; for instance some character pairings might seem meant to be, but it doesn’t mean they will end up together. Because that’s how life goes: sometimes it just doesn’t happen, and that’s okay.

These joyful feelings are amazingly served by Sarson’s art style. It’s colourful and expressive, with close attention paid to the page structures: the characters’ bodies and the panels seem to mix with each other in a joyful and sensual mess. The layouts are as enjoyable as they are original, and that is a pretty important point for me.

All the happiness and love give the book a great energy, but to be completely fair, it also takes away somewhat from the development of the characters, which could have been deepened further. The scenario feels like some joyful and messy rush: some actions happen a bit fast, some seem a little artificial… This comic is not about a detailed and realistic journey; it’s more about positive energy and emotions, and in this reviewer’s mind that’s enough.

For the love of God, Marie! is Sarson’s first work, and it was selected and published for the Myriad First Graphic Novel Competition. I came across it by complete chance; I had not read a lot about it otherwise. That’s why I’m really happy to have this occasion to share my wonderful find. If you feel as if life is a bit too hard for you right now, trust me, go read this book.

Having graduated with too many degrees, Louise hasn’t decided yet what her field is. For now, she is curating exhibitions while editing a book and working as a librarian and a translator. Originally from France, Louise likes to spend time abroad (mostly to try out the food) and learn new languages. She is passionate about feminism and has a deep interest in everything related to genre, sexuality and bodies.