puggreader's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Suicide, Eating disorder, and Death of parent
Moderate: Sexual violence
zorpblorp's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
noelles's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
mekeisha's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
kirstena's review against another edition
4.0
Intriguing what he did with this graphic novel. Super quick read, even with the heavy topics.
mhall's review against another edition
3.0
French teenagers in a small seaside village, eating disorders and parent issues, told with impressionistic, operatic grandeur and tragedy.
crowyhead's review against another edition
3.0
Mixed feelings about this one. I really liked the artwork, and I found portions of the plot captivating. However, I'm not sure how I felt about it as a whole.
Lucille is a teenage girl with anorexia. She is not doing too much to survive (she gains weight in the hospital, then takes it off again as soon as she is unsupervised) until she meets a teenage boy named Arthur. Arthur has his own problems: his relationship with his alcoholic father is very troubled. Arthur resorts to obsessive-compulsive counting to calm himself, and acts out in a myriad of ways. Overall he's not a bad guy, though.
Most of the novel is involved in setting up the moment when Lucille and Arthur first meet, and it is the set-up that is most rewarding and enthralling. After the pair meet and run away from home together, I started to lose interest. It seemed that things happened very quickly and without much context.
Apparently this is volume 1 in a series, so my hope is that the story will be further fleshed out.
Lucille is a teenage girl with anorexia. She is not doing too much to survive (she gains weight in the hospital, then takes it off again as soon as she is unsupervised) until she meets a teenage boy named Arthur. Arthur has his own problems: his relationship with his alcoholic father is very troubled. Arthur resorts to obsessive-compulsive counting to calm himself, and acts out in a myriad of ways. Overall he's not a bad guy, though.
Most of the novel is involved in setting up the moment when Lucille and Arthur first meet, and it is the set-up that is most rewarding and enthralling. After the pair meet and run away from home together, I started to lose interest. It seemed that things happened very quickly and without much context.
Apparently this is volume 1 in a series, so my hope is that the story will be further fleshed out.
athira's review against another edition
4.0
Teenager Lucille is having identity issues. The book starts off with her addressing her sexual needs and looking at her thin stalk-like body in vain. The boy she is interested in has jumped out of her research team to work with a girl he likes. She is worried that no one will like her, and her mother isn't too helpful when Lucille asks her about it, saying that Lucille's looks doesn't matter since she has brains. Lucille's identity issues soon escalate sending her into a spiraling abyss of anorexia. However, even after she is discharged from hospital care, she is still obsessed with losing weight, and is too weak to even move much.
Lucille, the book, introduces another character - Arthur, who I feel is the more important character of the book. Arthur has extreme OCD; he keeps counting - counting steps, counting slabs, counting just about anything. His father has severe alcoholism and rage problems, which often result in bar fights. After one such bar fight in Arthur's presence makes Arthur disfigure the face of an influential man, his father finds difficulties finding a new job, having just been laid off his previous one. Arthur also inherits his father's temper. Both kids - Arthur and Lucille - have issues, stemming from certain lonesome experiences as kids. As teenagers, they both struggle to fit into society and develop anorexia/OCD as a means to combat with their loneliness and low self-esteem issues.
Lucille and Arthur eventually meet up, and the story afterwards is as rich as the one before. Two people with issues don't always complement each other. Their destructive traits can bring the other person down. I was impressed with how the author played their dynamic relationship. This is a love story and yet not one either. It's about two misfits who find each other and relate with each other's weaknesses. They find comfort in the fact that they can be themselves with each other and not pretend to be someone else. And yet with that acceptance of each other, they also dawdle in their own obsessions and find it hard to overcome them. I found this a very moving story and it is a testimony to Ludovic's brilliant graphics that I found my emotions spanning a whole gamut as I followed the characters' lives. If I had one issue with this book, it was how their first meeting was handled. I thought it appeared a bit cheesy and unbelievable.
Ludovic uses very clean drawing that removes away any clutter in the picture. There's only the necessary amount of detail in it - nothing more, nothing less. And that allows the reader to feel the loneliness of the characters and their anguish in certain circumstances. Most of the focus is on the characters of the book. Their expressions, even when stripped of all emotions, tell a lot. Lucille is not told in a linear fashion, and we learn some things early and some later. This works well for the story because the author doesn't waste time and pages in dragging out a moment but the aftermath of the moments can still be felt. In addition to letting his pictures capture the raw emotions of the characters, he also uses dreams and internal dialogues to exhibit their restless minds. Both Lucille and Arthur dream of flying away from their problems.
This book deals with anorexia, alcoholism, dysfunctional relationships and OCD in a very delicate manner. Although that's a lot of issues, it doesn't feel like too much, because the graphic medium easily laps it up. Those who loved [b:Blankets|25179|Blankets|Craig Thompson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167595421s/25179.jpg|781193] by Craig Thompson and [b:Stitches|6407014|Stitches|David Small|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255727610s/6407014.jpg|6595917] by David Small will enjoy this one. Lucille shares the very expressive anguish of Blankets and the uncluttered, simple and articulate drawings of Stitches. The French original of Lucille has already won a lot of awards. At 545 pages, this is a huge book, but I finished it in an hour and a half. And it's just part one, so it ends with a lot of questions. The part two, [b:Renée|10850148|Renée|Ludovic Debeurme|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41TRxjl4zrL._SL75_.jpg|15764836], has already been published in French, and will be published in English next year. The publisher, Top Shelf Productions, is soon becoming a favorite of mine. They had published Blankets, which I absolutely loved, and also [b:The Complete Essex County|6096829|The Complete Essex County|Jeff Lemire|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1246923893s/6096829.jpg|6273933], which I can't wait to read. And I just finished another new one by them which I enjoyed.
Lucille, the book, introduces another character - Arthur, who I feel is the more important character of the book. Arthur has extreme OCD; he keeps counting - counting steps, counting slabs, counting just about anything. His father has severe alcoholism and rage problems, which often result in bar fights. After one such bar fight in Arthur's presence makes Arthur disfigure the face of an influential man, his father finds difficulties finding a new job, having just been laid off his previous one. Arthur also inherits his father's temper. Both kids - Arthur and Lucille - have issues, stemming from certain lonesome experiences as kids. As teenagers, they both struggle to fit into society and develop anorexia/OCD as a means to combat with their loneliness and low self-esteem issues.
Lucille and Arthur eventually meet up, and the story afterwards is as rich as the one before. Two people with issues don't always complement each other. Their destructive traits can bring the other person down. I was impressed with how the author played their dynamic relationship. This is a love story and yet not one either. It's about two misfits who find each other and relate with each other's weaknesses. They find comfort in the fact that they can be themselves with each other and not pretend to be someone else. And yet with that acceptance of each other, they also dawdle in their own obsessions and find it hard to overcome them. I found this a very moving story and it is a testimony to Ludovic's brilliant graphics that I found my emotions spanning a whole gamut as I followed the characters' lives. If I had one issue with this book, it was how their first meeting was handled. I thought it appeared a bit cheesy and unbelievable.
Ludovic uses very clean drawing that removes away any clutter in the picture. There's only the necessary amount of detail in it - nothing more, nothing less. And that allows the reader to feel the loneliness of the characters and their anguish in certain circumstances. Most of the focus is on the characters of the book. Their expressions, even when stripped of all emotions, tell a lot. Lucille is not told in a linear fashion, and we learn some things early and some later. This works well for the story because the author doesn't waste time and pages in dragging out a moment but the aftermath of the moments can still be felt. In addition to letting his pictures capture the raw emotions of the characters, he also uses dreams and internal dialogues to exhibit their restless minds. Both Lucille and Arthur dream of flying away from their problems.
This book deals with anorexia, alcoholism, dysfunctional relationships and OCD in a very delicate manner. Although that's a lot of issues, it doesn't feel like too much, because the graphic medium easily laps it up. Those who loved [b:Blankets|25179|Blankets|Craig Thompson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167595421s/25179.jpg|781193] by Craig Thompson and [b:Stitches|6407014|Stitches|David Small|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255727610s/6407014.jpg|6595917] by David Small will enjoy this one. Lucille shares the very expressive anguish of Blankets and the uncluttered, simple and articulate drawings of Stitches. The French original of Lucille has already won a lot of awards. At 545 pages, this is a huge book, but I finished it in an hour and a half. And it's just part one, so it ends with a lot of questions. The part two, [b:Renée|10850148|Renée|Ludovic Debeurme|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41TRxjl4zrL._SL75_.jpg|15764836], has already been published in French, and will be published in English next year. The publisher, Top Shelf Productions, is soon becoming a favorite of mine. They had published Blankets, which I absolutely loved, and also [b:The Complete Essex County|6096829|The Complete Essex County|Jeff Lemire|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1246923893s/6096829.jpg|6273933], which I can't wait to read. And I just finished another new one by them which I enjoyed.
nectarine_waffle's review against another edition
3.0
French teenagers in a small seaside village, eating disorders and parent issues, told with impressionistic, operatic grandeur and tragedy.