Checked Out
Checked Out by Katie Fricas, published by Drawn & Quarterly Publications on May 20, 2025, is a graphic novel that follows the journey of Louise, a queer library worker in New York City. As an aspiring cartoonist, she navigates her day job at a shoe store while pouring her heart into her graphic novel about a heroic carrier pigeon from WWI. Louise’s new position at a private library offers her hope for artistic validation and access to valuable resources, but her true discoveries unfold in unexpected ways.
Readers will find a vibrant exploration of love, ambition, and self-discovery set against the backdrop of New York’s iconic library and city life. The narrative delves into Louise’s personal and artistic challenges, intertwining her quest for the perfect book with her family history and relationships. With its lively illustrations and engaging storytelling, Checked Out captures the essence of both the library and the city, making it a unique addition to the LGBTQ+ graphic novel genre. This edition spans 356 pages and is presented in English.
Official synopsis Publisher
In which a queer library worker searches for love, artistic validation in New YorkCity, and the perfect book
An aspiring cartoonist and book lovin’ lesbian, Louise works a dead-end day job at a shoe store, where she spends most of her time brooding over a coworker who will never quite love her back. By night, she works diligently and obsessively on her graphic novel—the true story of a carrier pigeon who rescued a battalion of soldiers in WWI.
When Louise unexpectedly lands a new job at a private library on the Upper East Side, she feels like her graphic novel will finally take off—surely the oldest library in New York has excellent holdings on pigeons and WWI. But what she finds in the stacks might be less revelatory than her discoveries between the sheets and buried in her own family history.
A graphic novel set against a perfectly cartoony NYC backdrop—complete with landmark haunts, street fashion, and quintessential characters of the city—Checked Out is at once a valentine to libraries and New York, and the story of an artist working to make her dreams come true. Drawn in a delightfully vivacious style, Checked Out buzzes with Katie Fricas’s vibrant energy, quick wit, and storytelling aplomb.
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