Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman

26 reviews

charliewarliee's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.75

Maus is a beautiful graphic biography of Art Speigelman's father's experience during the holocaust as a survivor. This book is just stunning and every single person on this Earth has to read this book. I personally believe it should be made essential reading due to how important these topics are. The book is also not trying to glorify his father, even though he was a survivor, he is still flawed. Most history textbooks will only share an experience by the mass, but this is a personal experience that has such significant impact. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide, Grief, Hate crime, Abandonment, War, Animal death, Confinement, Deportation, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Violence, Vomit, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Mass/school shootings, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Slavery, and Torture

annabeth_jackson's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Police brutality, Self harm, Slavery, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, War, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Confinement, Grief, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Child death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Genocide, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Racism

ezra_tm's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, War, Death, Torture, Gun violence, Self harm, and Racism

Moderate: Blood

oceanwriter's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

I didn't realize first going into this that this was a memoir. I guess from the cover I assumed it was a depiction of the Holocaust with a 'cat and mouse' metaphor. I realized as soon as I started reading that this wasn't fiction and it made the analogy all the more powerful.

Comic writer and illustrator Art Spiegel tells his father's WWII survival story in a series of two books (combined into one edition in this printing). Though not illustrations of humans, the imagery of the concentration camps (and what Jewish people went through in general) is as grim as you'd expect them to be. This isn't a watered-down narration that tried to spare the reader from the horrors. It's a raw and honest account.

The book is told brilliantly going back and forth between Art's conversations with his father as he relayed his story to that story unfolding on the pages. There are some abrupt starts and finished here and there, but it added to the tone of the book. There is still so much we don't know about what happened during the Holocaust that we may never learn.

In addition to being a book about the Holocaust (namely in Poland), it's also a book about the relationship between a father and son. Intergenerational trauma is a fascinating psychological phenomenon. This has often been seen among children with parents who have had traumatic experiences before their children were born. This along with the natural generational gap between parents and children makes up a lot of the subtext in Art and Vladek's story.

Perhaps it's needless to say that this book is going to stay with me for a long time. It's right up there with The Diary of a Young Girl and The Boy on the Wooden Box. The stories of these victims must be kept alive. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Racism, Murder, Blood, Genocide, Violence, Antisemitism, Mental illness, Gun violence, Excrement, Confinement, and War

Moderate: Animal death

salemwasinyouryard's review

dark hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

I have a newfound appreciation for activists everywhere. I learned so much about the atrocities of the holocaust that I’ve never read anywhere else, and it makes me want to work harder to ensure nothing like this ever happens again.

There were many moments where I felt like I should’ve been crying, but I didn’t. Not because I didn’t feel the pain, but because I had to acknowledge that it was real and it happened to somebody. This wasn’t some made up, horrible scenario that we never have to worry about—it was real life. I think everyone should try to read to read this at some point in their life, wherever they’re at, because it will leave an impact on you, whether you want it to or not.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Genocide, Hate crime, Slavery, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Death, Cursing, Murder, Police brutality, War, and Torture

lynxpardinus's review

dark emotional informative reflective

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Grief, Mental illness, Suicide, Torture, Antisemitism, War, Genocide, Mass/school shootings, Child death, Racial slurs, Self harm, Gun violence, Confinement, Medical content, Murder, and Death of parent

Moderate: Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Excrement, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Dementia and Car accident

sonaea's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Physical abuse, Confinement, War, Antisemitism, Genocide, Death, Deportation, Violence, Child death, and Murder

Moderate: Racism and Mental illness

Minor: Blood, Death of parent, Suicide, Self harm, Gun violence, and Sexism

flowerssss's review

dark emotional funny informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Murder, Grief, Gun violence, Antisemitism, Genocide, War, Confinement, Death, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Mental illness, Body horror, Blood, Violence, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Child death

Minor: Xenophobia, Cursing, Excrement, and Racism

caelysium's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Genocide, Murder, Police brutality, Death, Child death, Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Antisemitism, Torture, Violence, Blood, and War

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

walskishere's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense

I don't feel comfortable rating this, but I did want to make a "review" to say I enjoyed this. I read both parts in a single day. I liked the present-day-to-flashback thing that was going on. I think adding in how Mr.  Spiegelman is in the present caused reflection on how the Holocaust experiences affect the survivors.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, War, Police brutality, Hate crime, Gun violence, Murder, Genocide, Torture, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Gore, Death of parent, Death, Blood, Grief, and Deportation

Moderate: Excrement, Xenophobia, Child abuse, and Suicide

Minor: Terminal illness