Although I enjoyed the writing and illustration style for me the content was a bit lacking. The theme was an interesting one but on the whole it was a very short insight into the authors fascination with exercise.
There were some genuinely comedic and relatable moments and on the whole an intriguing theme.

This is a sampler, which I can't read on any devices. This should have been clearer in the Netgalley description. I look forward to reading the book - when I have access to it.

As it's a sampler there wasn't a whole lot to see here but what there was lives up to expectations of something new from Alison Bechdel. Really keen to dive into the whole book and will certainly be stocking it in the shop.

Uplifting, funny and thoughtful, The Secret to Superhuman Strength sees Alison Bechdel at her best. Using intimate, honest storytelling coupled with her original artistic style, Bechdel takes the reader on a journey, letting us explore questions of the self, perceptions of the human body, gender, and strength.

Bechdel’s memoirs are always profound, thoughtful, hilarious - and this is no exception. Obsessed with exercise since day dot, Bechdel’s new memoir sets out to discover why she has dedicated so many hours of her life to it. If it sounds too much like yet another self help book, don’t worry - it’s not. It’s way more than that. Packed full of honesty, joy, intuition, and a genuine hunger to sate the reader, Bechdels new work is just as wonderful as her others.

This was a ten-page sampler. Bechdel seems to be on top form but it is difficult to give a full review based on the preview. Bechdel's dialogue and panel composition are as usual great. Her trademark earnestness also seems to be something that runs through the book.

Highly excited to read the full book.

This was a ten-page sampler, and while that's not enough to judge an entire book, it contained all the spice and wit that made me enjoy Are You My Mother and Fun Home. Definitely interested in reading the rest of the book

This sample of the opening pages suggests this book will be everything we want and love from Alison Bechdel - honesty, warmth, humour, and a little more honesty for good measure. Can't wait to see the whole thing!

Its hard to give too much feedback on a ten page preview - particularly when considering her two previous autobiographical graphic novels clocked in at over 200 pages each. This appears to be a book about ageing and mortality, wrapped in a conversation about being obsessed with fitness. And the last page of the preview we flash back to Bechdel's parents again - the ostensible subject of her two most celebrated books. That well may be dry, but this is a peppy start to something I will read when it comes out. The most notable change from her usual style here is working with a colourist, to go beyond one or two colour washes. Its not much of a difference, though it does make the art pop and feel more immediate (we are still looking at flat, washed out colours, rather than eye popping colour jobs).

I adore Alison Bechdel, and Fun Home is one of the most incredible things I have ever read.

I was therefore very excited to check this out, especially as it is on a topic (exercise) that I find interesting.

Although the ARC is only a 10-page snapshot of the entire book, it immediately reminded me of all of the parts I love about Bechdel, especially her ability to find humour in everyday life, and how to link everyday life to much bigger questions and concerns.

I am excited to read the full edition of the book when it comes out, and I am sure it will be a joyful addition to many people's shelves.

Just a 10-page sampler? How disappointing! I've read all of Bechdel's books and this is one of the 2021 releases I've been most looking forward to. I hope the full text can be made available to reviewers at some point soon.

Brilliant - really funny and a true human fixation.
This line made me laugh a lot:

'And forget triathlons, now you have to run for days over a mountain range or through an obstacle course designed by counter terrorism experts to get any cred'.

Look forward to reading the full book on publication!

I really enjoyed this sampler, it is nice to see older characters featured in a graphic novel and there was plenty of Bechdel's dark humour

This ARC review (as are all NetGalley Reviews for this title) is based solely on a sampler containing the first 10 pages of this graphic novel. For that reason any critical reader should probably add a pinch of salt to all ARC reviews for this title, because from 10 pages it's hard quite hard to judge a book. This is difficult for me even despite the fact I've read and enjoyed both 'Fun Home' and 'Are You My Mother?' by Alison Bechdel.

It's difficult and unappealing to be too critical of Alison Bechdel, because many of her comics are memoirs and are deservedly inspirational to the LGBT community, especially to representation in comics and media. Fun Home was a breakthrough for the indie comics scene and it was so, so great. However, I hate to admit that I feel that since Fun Home, we are receiving B-sides. Every book is a new angle of the author's life, but it seems like the books are becoming more impersonal with time which makes them less effective as memoirs and to a readership who are familiar with the other books. I really wish Alison Bechdel would write a fictional story. Try something completely new, because the content and format of these books often relies on tangential ideas or theories which makes them share too much in common. It feels like a continued conversation, perhaps one that should've ended or radically changed location by now. We see Bechdel return to comparing her parent's generation to her own in this 10-page sampler, and from that I see that there's too much familiarity already. If Bechdel must narrate and appear in their comics it'd be cool to see the author show up in a fictional story, from the outside for once. But alas, an author will and should write what they like and to whom they like so none of my opinions here might be relevant, I just suspect others might be feeling the same.

I guess to be critical on another angle, it's hard to be engaged by the story of someone's fitness journey when they are neither professionally good or bad at a sport. We live in a world where everyone wants to tell you to watch something or do something (the irony of writing this review is not lost on me), and so hearing someone's perspective on fitness just isn't that interesting to me. Everyone's talking about what is healthy, which is why I don't want to hear more of it from someone outside of my real life!

Writing this review was strange, because I just 4* and commended Bechdel's Foreword in another book. Truth is Bechdel can write good books and I'm sure many will like this, but I think her Fun Home crowd might be feeling a distance growing from their original interest.

A third graphic memoir from an author I’ve been aware of for years, but never actually read. This time, her focus appears to be exercise. I enjoyed the conversational tone, the fact the author/mc seems to be talking directly to me, and the busy detail of the illustrations.

Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage for the chance to read this short sampler. It’s difficult to get a feel for a book in just the first few pages, but it left me keen to read more - I will be looking out her other books.

It is really frustrating to request a book only to realise upon downloading that it is just a sampler, and only 16 pages at that! Please do inform Netgalley users of this on the information page, or ideally in the book title. As a sampler, I cannot assess for pacing, sensitive content or plot structure, and with such a small sample I can hardly say I even understand the tone or style of the book.

Like her previous graphic novels, Fun Home, and Are You My Mother?, The Secret to Superhuman Strength is yet another existential triumph.

I’ve received this 10 page digital sampler and it does not disappoint. Bechdel’s inner monologue and illustrations really come alive in these 10 pages and it pains me that it isn’t this sampler isn’t longer! When I put down this book, I cranked up YouTube and looked up yet another fitness video to torture my pandemic body with, Bechdel’s thoughts still in my head.

The digital sampler of The Secret to Superhuman Strength is great! The protagonist being born towards the end of the baby boom, and moving through life — exercising, thinking about her father. Looking forward to the published book

Alison Bechdel always gives me refreshing way to look at a stayed topic. Perhaps having an existential crisis over my physical activity regime, or lack there of, will get me moving.

Based on a sampler that I received thanks to the publisher and netgalley, this is Alison Bethel's latest book about her obsession with physical fitness, opening with her wondering how humans became so concerned with keeping fit. The drawings are lovely as ever and I recognised some characters from Dykes to watch out for in the gym scenes which was fun. We also have colour unusually but certainly adds an extra fun dimension. I look forward to reading the book when its published.