sweetsimplenothing's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, and Confinement
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Grief
readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Death, Blood, Murder, Confinement, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gun violence, Medical content, Deportation, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Colonisation, Grief, and Hate crime
Minor: Cancer, Xenophobia, Terminal illness, War, and Death of parent
Incarceration camps, disconnection, WWII, Donald Trump, Pearl Habor, Anti-Muslim rhetoric (critical stance), Anti-Black racism, Pearl Habor, Civil Rights Movement, cigarettes, starvation, suffering, poor living conditions.sallytiffany's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Wow. This was a quick and engaging read. It helped me learn a lot of history and had a powerful message of generational trauma. I really loved this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Deportation, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Colonisation, and Hate crime
Moderate: Gun violence, Grief, Emotional abuse, War, Violence, and Death
emily_mh's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
This story is about Kiku, a displaced girl who is landed in the displacement of a whole group of people, namely Japanese-Americans in WWII. She’s on a journey learning about why she feels so disconnected from her Japanese heritage; that it’s because her ancestors were forcefully disconnected from theirs. Her story is about generational trauma and how this can reach through time to affect the present and future. Hughes draws parallels between the generational trauma of Japanese-Americans from WWII, and the generational trauma being generated right now in the US with racist, xenophobic, and Islamophobic immigration policy that lands people in border detainment/incarceration.
Hughes also emphasises the power of memory, of remembering. Both are galvanising and unifying and instructive. I particularly loved this quote on the topic: “But when a community comes together to demand more, when we do not let trauma stay obscured but bring it up to the surface and remember it together - we can make sure it is not repeated.” I also loved this quote, how it implies the consequence of not remembering the past: “Being from the future meant very little when my education on the past was so limited.”
Overall, this story provided a massive learning curve for me regarding the incarceration camps. This is the first book I’ve read on them and I learnt so much. The book is written with Kiku as both MC and narrator which works well, as the story she tells is deeply informative and takes you through all kinds of aspects of the incarceration. Specific facts that have stuck with me are the information about No-Nos, and the discussion on how white people used Japanese-Americans’ history of incarceration camps to feed into model-minority myth in the 60s.
I think that in terms of the medium, there could have been a bit of editing of the panels. There was an excess of landscape and context panels that was unnecessary and led to repetition. But the art style was good; I particularly liked the cleanness of the lines and the fact that the panels weren’t overcrowded.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Xenophobia
Moderate: War, Death, and Grief
Minor: Death of parent, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Blood, Excrement, Cancer, Islamophobia, Racial slurs, Confinement, Vomit, Drug use, and Gun violence
Major: Japanese-American incarceration camps Moderate: forced separation fro loved ones, loss of a loved one Minor: nuclear warfareshaipanda's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
So important and well done
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, and Confinement
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Grief
Minor: Murder
bleuennreads_'s review against another edition
emotional
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I am very happy to have found this graphic novel because I was able to really learn more about a period of history that I didn't know much about.
In this story, the author stages herself, following in the footsteps of her grandmother to learn more about her past and that of her community. She therefore finds herself in the 1940s (this present/past transfer brings a little bit of science fiction to the story which is quite pleasant), sent to a detention camp alongside other Japanese-American citizens (including her grandmother). Kiku will live there for more than a year, which allows us to get a vague idea of the daily life of these people who were unjustly and forcibly detained. The only small negative point that is that I would have liked to know more, but the book is still very interesting and quite light while dealing with an important subject. An ever topical subject : the story takes on the backdrop of Trump's anti-Muslim speeches, allowing this trip to the past to echo the present and alarm about the potential risk of a return to the past (by registering immigrants).
To end on a lighter note, the designs are really beautiful although quite minimalistic. There is also a bit of lesbian romance and even if it's absolutely not the main subject of the book, it's always nice to see representation !
In this story, the author stages herself, following in the footsteps of her grandmother to learn more about her past and that of her community. She therefore finds herself in the 1940s (this present/past transfer brings a little bit of science fiction to the story which is quite pleasant), sent to a detention camp alongside other Japanese-American citizens (including her grandmother). Kiku will live there for more than a year, which allows us to get a vague idea of the daily life of these people who were unjustly and forcibly detained. The only small negative point that is that I would have liked to know more, but the book is still very interesting and quite light while dealing with an important subject. An ever topical subject : the story takes on the backdrop of Trump's anti-Muslim speeches, allowing this trip to the past to echo the present and alarm about the potential risk of a return to the past (by registering immigrants).
To end on a lighter note, the designs are really beautiful although quite minimalistic. There is also a bit of lesbian romance and even if it's absolutely not the main subject of the book, it's always nice to see representation !
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Racism, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Grief
Minor: Murder and Racial slurs
daycia's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Racism, Confinement, and Grief
Moderate: Death
Minor: Islamophobia
courtneyfalling's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
This is probably between middle-grade and young adult as an educational and personal graphic novel, and it was beautifully and hauntingly written, spanning generational trauma, vulnerability and loss, political responsibility and survival, and ongoing histories. It packs in a lot of information and emotion about the 1940s US internment camps where Japanese Americans were forcibly incarcerated. Kiku Hughes thanks Octavia Butler's influence and you can see the direct Kindred echoes, with how time travel and speculative elements pull out deeper, more emotional racial and political lineages. I'd 100% buy this for any middle schoolers I knew if I knew any middle schoolers.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Confinement
Moderate: Police brutality and Grief
brookey8888's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This is a really great graphic novel if you want an easier to digest history of the Japanese Camps. I did learn a lot and it also refreshed the knowledge I did have. At first I was confused about the going back in time but how the author tied that in was good. There was also LGBTQ+ representation.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Islamophobia, Murder, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Xenophobia
thesaltiestlibrarian's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Xenophobia, Racism, and Racial slurs
Moderate: Death of parent and Grief