Take a story's temperature by studying its tone. Is it hopeful? Cynical? Snarky? Playful?
Dark and Ominous
From the first page of Stitches, you know things aren't going to go well. Sure, it could be a happy love story that takes place in cold, gray Detroit, but how many of those are there? We've got a stark, black-and-white illustration style in which the action takes place in heavy shadows, adult characters have no eyes behind their glasses, and a small, terrified narrator suffers unwanted injections and home enemas, all by panel 1.42.
When we see the first X-ray of six-year-old David's skull in panel 1.49, we know this is going to be a story about medical atrocities. So though Stitches may be a trip down memory lane, we know from a few pages in that it's not going to be a fun one.