With Why Don’t You Love Me?, Paul Rainey returns to the world of comics with this dark comedy that takes a futuristic turn. Being familiar with the genre, I thought I knew what to expect going into this book, but it caught me by surprise. Rainey tells the story of an unhappy marriage that tries to navigate taking care of themselves and their children while using a unique layout that makes every page read like a self-contained comic strip. What you may think is another story about two neglectful parents who can’t seem to cope is actually an intriguing, and sometimes confusing, sci-fi story about the paths we don’t take in life.

Why Don’t You Love Me? follows Mark and Claire, a married couple who are extremely miserable. Claire can’t get dressed in the mornings and spends her days on the couch chain-smoking, while Mark struggles to balance taking care of the children and his career. Ordering takeout for dinner, sleeping in separate rooms and forgetting their children’s names are a constant in this household. But is this the life they’ve always lived? Both Claire and Mark start remembering snippets of another life. One where Claire was with another man and Mark had a different job. Is this just wishful thinking or something more? What starts off with following this family in its dark humour about marriage, depression and alcoholism, the book you thought you were reading completely changes. Claire and Mark suddenly wake up in different houses, surrounded by things they don’t recognize and thrown into a new life that they now have to make sense of. Constantly hidden from the truth, we’re left wondering what’s happening until the characters finally decide to share their own theories about the world they live in.

The combination of comedy and sci-fi had already caught my attention, but the format of this book pulled me in even more so. Each page is condensed into a standalone comic strip, opening with the book’s title and credits. This layout surprised me, but I learned to love it as it adds so much to this story. You’re instantly reminded of the funny pages you would find in a newspaper where making sad jokes about a father forgetting his son’s name or a mother asking her child to buy her cigarettes and alcohol is a running gag. It’s the idea that every day’s the same — repeating this cycle of depression and hardship until it all changes with its plot twist, but even then, they’re placed back into a world of repetition. This layout enhances the comedic tone of this story perfectly, setting up that it’s a playful take on a dysfunctional family before completely pulling the rug out from under you right as you become familiar with it. Rainey brilliantly manipulates his simple, though sometimes boring, gags about a marriage slowly falling apart to make his plot twist more unexpected and I really enjoyed how this element brought the story to life.

I really enjoyed the crumbs of information that Rainey leaves us in this book, showing the development of his characters in an unusual way. He uses what he shares to his advantage while telling this story, flawlessly trickling in bits and pieces that slowly change everything. The first half of this book focuses on Claire and Mark’s inability to care for their children, presenting them as bad parents who don’t seem to love them. The second half, after the story’s first big twist, implements information that suggests why they’re awful parents. Once the curtain is pulled back, it’s like these characters are finally revealed. We get to see Mark and Claire through different eyes as we’re given new information to judge them by. What once was an estranged couple, are actually just strangers playing house together in a world that they woke up in only a few days ago. I loved the unique way the characters were revealed — getting to know them better based on their reactions to the new lives they’re placed in. We’re always told not to judge a book by its cover, but we naturally do so, then end up being surprised by a truth we didn’t expect.

Rainey creates an irresistible puzzle of a book that raises questions about how we live our own lives by adding this sci-fi twist, placing Mark and Claire in multiple unfamiliar realities. The chaos of this jump between lives causes Mark and Claire to question how they’re currently living and how they want to live in the future. Just like how we have to reevaluate the beginning of this story once we’re given more information, the characters have to reevaluate themselves. They need to deal with being thrown into a completely new life and question the control they have over their lives, even when it seems like they have none. I’ve been in situations myself where I feel like I’m stuck on one path, subject to whatever comes my way, but these characters make you realize that sometimes, you need to step back and question what you’re doing. Do you enjoy the path you’re walking on? If not, take control of it! In their new lives, Mark and Claire reconnect and reflect on why they were so miserable together, learning that they need to fight for the lives they truly want. In the end, this is just a story about two people trying to cope in this science fiction world, but it truly made me reflect on the life that I lead and the future I want to achieve.

The end of this novel throws Claire and Mark into yet another life, first making us consider what happens next for these characters, but then turning the narrative on ourselves, raising these questions about the lives not lived. We can get so caught up in the chaos of life, we often forget to take a moment to reflect on it. We move on autopilot, completing what needs to be done without questioning or contemplating it. This book doesn’t just ask us these questions, but it makes us ponder the consequences of forgetting our own path. Even when time is running out, we’re asked to make the most of it. Things aren’t always set in stone. And who knows, reevaluating your life may even lead to rediscovering who you are. In Why Don’t You Love Me?, Paul Rainey reminds us that even during the unimaginable, we can still grab hold of the reins.