Where to Start with Booki Vivat’s Books
For most readers, the absolute best place to start is at the very beginning of the Frazzled series with Frazzled: Everyday Disasters and Impending Doom. This book introduces Abbie Wu, a highly relatable and perpetually anxious middle schooler who feels completely defined by her everyday crises. Starting here allows you to experience Abbie’s emotional growth and follow her journey as she attempts to carve out her own unique identity in a school where everyone else seems to have already found their niche.
However, if you are looking for a complete, standalone story that is fully in a graphic novel format, you can easily begin with Vivat’s 2024 release, Meet Me on Mercer Street. Because this book features an entirely new cast of characters and a different setting, it requires no prior knowledge of the Frazzled books and serves as an excellent introduction to Vivat's signature visual storytelling style.
The Frazzled Series in Publication and Chronological Order
The Frazzled series follows a linear timeline, meaning that the publication order matches the chronological story progression. It is highly recommended to read these books in the order they were released to appreciate the character development and the ongoing storylines. Below is the recommended sequence for the main series:
- Frazzled: Everyday Disasters and Impending Doom (2016): We meet Abbie Wu as she starts middle school. Lacking a specific "thing" like her siblings or peers, Abbie navigates the chaotic school environment, leading up to a hilarious cafeteria-based rebellion where she finally finds her voice.
- Ordinary Mishaps and Inevitable Catastrophes (2017): In the second installment, Abbie faces new challenges, including locker issues, a complex science project, and the stress of keeping up with her friends' changing interests.
- Minor Incidents and Absolute Uncertainties (2019): The final book in the main trilogy sees Abbie wrapping up her tumultuous middle school journey, learning to cope with big changes, transition, and the absolute uncertainty of what comes next.
The Digital Spin-Off: Abbie Wu’s (Not So) Epic Quarantine Diary (2020)
In 2020, Booki Vivat launched a webcomic series on her Substack newsletter titled Abbie Wu’s (Not So) Epic Quarantine Diary. Created to channel Vivat's own pandemic-induced anxiety, this series serves as a direct companion to the main books. In the story, Abbie's teacher assignments a quarantine journal, prompting Abbie to process the weirdness of lockdown through doodles. While not published as a traditional physical book, the series was eventually compiled into a downloadable 115-page digital PDF e-book containing all the comic strips and an exclusive epilogue. Chronologically, this fits immediately after the events of the third book.
Transitioning to Graphic Novels: Meet Me on Mercer Street
In 2024, Vivat published Meet Me on Mercer Street, marking a significant milestone in her bibliography. Unlike the hybrid text-doodle format of the Frazzled series, this book is a full-color graphic novel published by HarperAlley. The story is a heartfelt middle-grade mystery reminiscent of classics like Harriet the Spy. It follows Kacie, a young artist who returns to her city neighborhood after a summer away only to find her favorite corner store boarded up and her best friend Nisha mysteriously missing. This book is a standalone work that explores themes of community, change, and childhood friendship.
What to Know Before You Start
Before diving into Booki Vivat's books, it is helpful to understand their unique format. The Frazzled books are not traditional novels, nor are they standard comic books. Instead, they are illustrated hybrid novels where Vivat's hand-lettered fonts and expressive black-and-white doodles are embedded directly into the text. The illustrations are not decorative; they carry the narrative weight, showing Abbie’s exaggerated emotional reactions, flailing limbs, and internal panic in ways that words alone cannot capture. This layout makes her books highly appealing to reluctant readers and fans of series like Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Jeff Kinney's works.
Additionally, while the stories are funny and lighthearted, they deal honestly with real-life anxiety, friendship shifts, and the struggle to fit in. Vivat draws heavily from her own childhood experiences and planner doodles, giving the narrative a highly authentic and empathetic human tone.