I don't want to give it away, but there is a genius section in this book that concerns a rhinoceros, and the delighted noise I made when I came across it probably had to be heard to be believed. A rhinoceros is perhaps not what you expect from a graphic memoir where Peeters falls in love with the single mother of a toddler, knowing that both mother and child are HIV positive. The openness and honesty with which he describes their growing relationship - both as a couple and as a family - are genuinely appealing, and the metaphor of the rhino is stunningly effective. This is subtitled A Positive Love Story, and that's accurate: it's a story primarily of optimism, and how compromised health doesn't stop love. I really did appreciate that part of it.

I was less enamoured by the art. Other than the rhino, I didn't much care for it... but that's a matter of aesthetics and no doubt others will really enjoy the visual style. The rhino made up for a lot, though, and I was going to give this four stars until the mammoth showed up. Yes, a mammoth - not so much a real mammoth, but a construct with which Peeters can have a philosophical discussion about his circumstances, and I'm sorry, but even a mammoth can't interest me in philosophy. The real life details of Peeters and Cati and the kid (always unnamed) are genuinely compelling, but that strongly abstract near-conclusion just couldn't hold my attention, I'm afraid.