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A review by caedocyon
Julio's Day by Gilbert Hernández
4.0
As a 100 page graphic novel, this is a quick read. It's hard to rate---I can't say I personally loved it, but it is fairly high in overall quality. Shades of [b:One Hundred Years of Solitude|320|One Hundred Years of Solitude|Gabriel García Márquez|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327881361s/320.jpg|3295655] all over, but with more small-town body horror. It's choppy, but a person's life isn't a single story thread. The disjointedness could almost have been a commentary, even as Julio's life is mythologized overall: .
Julio's mother should have stolen the show, bearing and burying generations. There's some weirdness with her character, both homophobic and sexist, which I don't think Hernández was fully cognizant of.
I loved the art, although the characters were sometimes hard to tell apart. (It probably would have helped to have a physical copy I could backtrack in easily, rather than a PDF that was loading very slowly.)
Spoiler
dying in the same bed he was born in at 100 years old, held by his motherJulio's mother should have stolen the show, bearing and burying generations. There's some weirdness with her character, both homophobic and sexist, which I don't think Hernández was fully cognizant of.
I loved the art, although the characters were sometimes hard to tell apart. (It probably would have helped to have a physical copy I could backtrack in easily, rather than a PDF that was loading very slowly.)