A review by dinipandareads
Passport, by Sophia Glock
3.0
I kind of feel weird rating someone’s memoir since it’s so personal and obviously real but I think I was expecting something a little different to what we got. Passport is Sophia Glock’s coming-of-age story. We follow her tumultuous teenage thoughts and feelings as she comes of age in a foreign country, surrounded by people she’s not sure are really her friends and parents who are secretive and distant. There were things that I found relatable as someone who had a similar(ish) upbringing and I thought this was an interesting memoir!
Things I enjoyed:
- As someone who grew up in a somewhat similar situation (minus the secret agent parents), I related to her teen experiences. I really related to the author’s feeling of not belonging where she grew up but also not belonging where she was born because yes, it’s such a stark and confusing feeling, and it sticks with you!
- The art style perfectly complemented the story! The characters all seem to blend with the same/similar physical features with minor differences between them, which seems to indicate how the author has distanced herself or feels unattached towards the people around her. The only people who seem to have distinctive features are her family, especially her parents and sister, and I think that's a great way to show who were the significant players in her life. I also loved how certain items were suddenly in a different colour which to me indicated how important or impactful it was to her (like that red dress)!
- One of the main reasons I requested to read this was because I had a somewhat similar upbringing minus the secret agent parents. However, growing up as a Third Culture Kid is such a unique experience and has such a lasting impact on all of us and I always love to see how others experienced it. I definitely related to some of the author's restlessness and the air of anticipation and expectation for something to happen. I also related to a lot of the sneaking out to the dodgiest places in foreign countries with that air of danger but also feeling invincible and anonymous enough to get away with it and have nothing happen to me (which is honestly ridiculous lol)!
Things I enjoyed:
- As someone who grew up in a somewhat similar situation (minus the secret agent parents), I related to her teen experiences. I really related to the author’s feeling of not belonging where she grew up but also not belonging where she was born because yes, it’s such a stark and confusing feeling, and it sticks with you!
- The art style perfectly complemented the story! The characters all seem to blend with the same/similar physical features with minor differences between them, which seems to indicate how the author has distanced herself or feels unattached towards the people around her. The only people who seem to have distinctive features are her family, especially her parents and sister, and I think that's a great way to show who were the significant players in her life. I also loved how certain items were suddenly in a different colour which to me indicated how important or impactful it was to her (like that red dress)!
- One of the main reasons I requested to read this was because I had a somewhat similar upbringing minus the secret agent parents. However, growing up as a Third Culture Kid is such a unique experience and has such a lasting impact on all of us and I always love to see how others experienced it. I definitely related to some of the author's restlessness and the air of anticipation and expectation for something to happen. I also related to a lot of the sneaking out to the dodgiest places in foreign countries with that air of danger but also feeling invincible and anonymous enough to get away with it and have nothing happen to me (which is honestly ridiculous lol)!