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amazelan's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.0
je pense que c'est important d'avoir ce genre d'histoires, parce que vivre en faisant partie des LGBT+ dans les années 50 et après c'était loin d'être facile (euphémisme), donc montrer ça c'est essentiel.
mais j'ai trouvé Karl vraiment horrible comme personnage, heureusement qu'il a des regrets au bout du compte. c'est un mauvais père et un mauvais mari mais tout est "excusé" par le fait que c'est dur pour lui d'être gay à cette époque, et nan déso ça prend pas avec moi, ça complique effectivement sa vie mais la façon de traiter sa femme et sa fille you could have done better quand même.
bref à part ça les dessins sont chouettes et ça se lit vite.
mais j'ai trouvé Karl vraiment horrible comme personnage, heureusement qu'il a des regrets au bout du compte. c'est un mauvais père et un mauvais mari mais tout est "excusé" par le fait que c'est dur pour lui d'être gay à cette époque, et nan déso ça prend pas avec moi, ça complique effectivement sa vie mais la façon de traiter sa femme et sa fille you could have done better quand même.
bref à part ça les dessins sont chouettes et ça se lit vite.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Outing, and Alcohol
Moderate: Suicide
indeedithappens's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol
shaipanda's review against another edition
emotional
sad
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Even knowing the plot and general subject matter beforehand, I was surprised by just how difficult this was to get through. This is an incredibly sad and and at times frustrating story of a man making terrible choices and never seeming to learn from his mistakes, effectively alienating almost everyone in his life. Additionally, this is a very long graphic novel relative to most others which added to my difficulty finishing it. Although I generally finish graphic novels in one or two sittings, this took me at least 3 or 4 sittings and due to the content, was not something I necessarily looked forward to continuing.
Another thing I wanted to note was the art style. Because of how the novel is drawn, it is very hard to keep track of the characters and tell them apart from each other, especially as it switches between the different timelines. However, despite this difficulty the art style was absolutely beautiful and does a good job of accompanying the writing in telling this complicated story.
That is all not to say that it was not good necessarily. Telling the stories of queer history is important and often not happy, but because of the subject matter and the way it was told this was not personally something I enjoyed or particularly liked. However, because I appreciated the story and heart behind seeing more queer historical characters, I am in two minds over the rating and think I'm going to settle on 3 stars.
If you do not mind frustrating characters and sad stories and are looking to read a graphic novel pertaining to queer characters in history, I would recommend this!
Even knowing the plot and general subject matter beforehand, I was surprised by just how difficult this was to get through. This is an incredibly sad and and at times frustrating story of a man making terrible choices and never seeming to learn from his mistakes, effectively alienating almost everyone in his life. Additionally, this is a very long graphic novel relative to most others which added to my difficulty finishing it. Although I generally finish graphic novels in one or two sittings, this took me at least 3 or 4 sittings and due to the content, was not something I necessarily looked forward to continuing.
Another thing I wanted to note was the art style. Because of how the novel is drawn, it is very hard to keep track of the characters and tell them apart from each other, especially as it switches between the different timelines. However, despite this difficulty the art style was absolutely beautiful and does a good job of accompanying the writing in telling this complicated story.
That is all not to say that it was not good necessarily. Telling the stories of queer history is important and often not happy, but because of the subject matter and the way it was told this was not personally something I enjoyed or particularly liked. However, because I appreciated the story and heart behind seeing more queer historical characters, I am in two minds over the rating and think I'm going to settle on 3 stars.
If you do not mind frustrating characters and sad stories and are looking to read a graphic novel pertaining to queer characters in history, I would recommend this!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia and Infidelity
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Sexual content, and Suicide
Minor: Police brutality, Pregnancy, and War
hanyentreletras's review against another edition
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
• english below • rating with CAWPILE •
Parallel es una historia cruda sobre el ser homosexual en la Alemania del siglo XX. Karl, nuestro protagonista, siempre quiso una familia, su mayor miedo era llegar a estar solo cuando estuviera viejo. Sin embargo, durante la guerra, crea un lazo con un compañero y desde entonces su vida se divide entre: querer una familia o ser él (con todos los peligros que eso conllevaba).
Como todo humano, es egoísta y, aunque le hace mucho daño a otras personas, sigue allí tratando de obtener ambas cosas. Sin darse cuenta que no pueden coexistir la una con la otra.
Karl no es un protagonista que vayas a querer pero, sí lo entenderás (aunque no estés de acuerdo a sus decisiones).
Y si bien él sufrió por su sexualidad, la historia nos muestra a personas que la pasaron peor. Como esa sociedad los repudiaba, los perseguía, les hacían la vida imposible hasta cansarse.
Tuvo sus momentos tristes.
Con el final entendemos que puede haber un futuro donde Karl sea libre, tal vez con ello logre ser mejor persona.
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•
Parallel is a gritty story about being gay in 20th century Germany. Karl, our protagonist, always wanted a family, his biggest fear was to be alone when he was old. However, during the war, he creates a bond with a partner and since then his life is divided between: wanting a family or being him (with all the dangers that entailed).
Like every human, he is selfish and even though he hurts other people a lot, he is still there trying to get both. Without realizing that they cannot coexist with each other.
Karl is not a protagonist that you are going to love, but you will understand him (even if you do not agree with his decisions).
And while he suffered for his sexuality, the novel shows us people who had it worse. Since that society repudiated them, persecuted them, made their lives miserable until they got tired.
The book had some sad moments.
With the end we understand that there may be a future where Karl is free, maybe with it he will be a better person.
Parallel es una historia cruda sobre el ser homosexual en la Alemania del siglo XX. Karl, nuestro protagonista, siempre quiso una familia, su mayor miedo era llegar a estar solo cuando estuviera viejo. Sin embargo, durante la guerra, crea un lazo con un compañero y desde entonces su vida se divide entre: querer una familia o ser él (con todos los peligros que eso conllevaba).
Como todo humano, es egoísta y, aunque le hace mucho daño a otras personas, sigue allí tratando de obtener ambas cosas. Sin darse cuenta que no pueden coexistir la una con la otra.
Karl no es un protagonista que vayas a querer pero, sí lo entenderás (aunque no estés de acuerdo a sus decisiones).
Y si bien él sufrió por su sexualidad, la historia nos muestra a personas que la pasaron peor. Como esa sociedad los repudiaba, los perseguía, les hacían la vida imposible hasta cansarse.
Tuvo sus momentos tristes.
Con el final entendemos que puede haber un futuro donde Karl sea libre, tal vez con ello logre ser mejor persona.
~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•
Parallel is a gritty story about being gay in 20th century Germany. Karl, our protagonist, always wanted a family, his biggest fear was to be alone when he was old. However, during the war, he creates a bond with a partner and since then his life is divided between: wanting a family or being him (with all the dangers that entailed).
Like every human, he is selfish and even though he hurts other people a lot, he is still there trying to get both. Without realizing that they cannot coexist with each other.
Karl is not a protagonist that you are going to love, but you will understand him (even if you do not agree with his decisions).
And while he suffered for his sexuality, the novel shows us people who had it worse. Since that society repudiated them, persecuted them, made their lives miserable until they got tired.
The book had some sad moments.
With the end we understand that there may be a future where Karl is free, maybe with it he will be a better person.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Infidelity, and Sexual content
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: War
james1star's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-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
4.25
Thank you to NetGalley and Oni Press for accepting me to be pre-publication review of this graphic novel.
This book begins which our main character Karl Kling being pushed into retirement and at a loss for what to spend his time on. A longtime friend, Adam, suggests he tries to reconnect with his daughter Hella who disowned him eight years prior. Unsure, he begins to look through old photos transporting him back to his youth starting towards the end of WW2 up through the 1980s and decided to write Hella a letter. In it he tells about his failed marriages, fractured family life and his love for men.
This is a really great book focussing on the internal and external dilemma queer people had during the time. Karl so desperately wants to fit into social norms and hide his ‘unnatural’ - and illegal - sexuality, keep up the illusion of the good family man and be ‘normal’. There’s this big divide between what he should want, what’s expected of him by society, and his needs that feels great at the time but constantly leads to regret. This quote from the books description perfectly sums this up ‘Lehman poignantly depicts the story of a decades-long yearning to live an open and free life, and the price Karl and those he loves must pay for it’ and the path to accepting yourself in a time where you’re forever told you are wrong. I felt there was maybe a few too many rehashings of the same conversations and events but it didn’t detract too much. The characters were quite realised and held nuance despite not getting to know them all that well. Like real people, they make mistakes and have their good and bad qualities which Karl mostly being lovable - there’s things he does that are wrong I guess but the context and time period has to be taken into account, as well as attitudes in the post-nazi divided German states.
The artwork was definitely well executed and added lots to the narrative. It is consistent, a bit messy at times but for the most part it’s quite clear what is being shown. It wasn’t my favourite in all honestly but certainly not bad by any means. The drawings really helped in brining the characters to life and shows their emotions well which isn’t always the case. I also loved how as the story develops Karl and other characters age which was done well.
I would for sure recommend this book, I haven’t read anything set in Germany during this time but am intrigued to do so again. The queer representation and internal dilemmas was great and although not the nicest story is a realised account of a gay man dealing with the parallels of a life he should live and one he wants to live.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia
Minor: Hate crime, Suicide, and Police brutality
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