By Maddy Court

Illustrated by Kelsey Wroten

My rating: 4 stars

Goodreads Rating: 4.0

Genre: LGBTQ Advice

Date Published: May 18th, 2021

Format Read: Paperback

Goodreads Summary: This illustrated book of advice on love, dating, and friendship—written by and for queer women and people of marginalized genders-is the new go-to queer relationship handbook. Fix yourself a cup of non-caffeinated herbal tea and prepare to laugh, cry, reminisce, and feel your feelings as you read through these quintessentially queer dating dilemmas. In The Ex-Girlfriend of My Ex-Girlfriend Is My Girlfriend, advice columnist Maddy Court (a.k.a. Xena Worrier Princess) answers anonymous queries from lesbian, bisexual, and queer women and people of marginalized genders.

Illustrated by comics artist Kelsey Wroten and based on Court’s viral zine of the same name, this book features never-before-published letters and responses about first loves, heartbreak, coming out, and queer friendship—all answered with the warmth and honesty of the gay big sister you wish you had.

Find the book: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Review

As you guys I have probably been able to tell, I’ve been on a self-help book journey, reading way more nonfiction books in the past few months than I ever had in the past. When I came across this book, I absolutely had to get it. The Ex-Girlfriend of My Ex-Girlfriend is My Ex-Girlfriend is essentially just an advice column written in book form. It features questions that readers submitted, and answers that the author, Maddy Court, (or the occasional guest author) wrote.

All of these questions were submitted specifically for use in this book, so if you’ve been a long term follower of Court (@xenaworrierprincess on Instagram and on Substack), you don’t have to worry about reading the same question twice. That being said, if you’ve been a long term follower of just about any queer advice column, you can probably guess ~90% of the questions that are going to come up in this book. I think Court did a great job of giving original advice that dove a bit deeper than most advice on the internet does, and that made this book enjoyable still.

One of the cool parts of this book is the illustrations. Kelsey Wroten illustrated every page with cute little cartoons that fit the questions being asked. This makes the book adorable to read, and the hot pink cover makes it a great addition to any bookshelf. If you’re going to read this book, I highly recommend you purchase it (or find it in a library or something) rather than reading the ebook version. Plus, having a physical copy of an advice book means you can write notes in the margins, and come back to reread your favorite sections without losing it somewhere in the depth of your search history!

This book was short enough that I read it in about two days, and really enjoyed every page of it. It’s really cool to be able to read advice from older queer people who have gone through many of the same things we are going through right now and get their perspective. I would highly recommend this book to any queer woman who enjoys reading advice columns, seeing cute illustrations, or is just a fan of Maddy Court in general.

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