Blankets

How satisfying it is to leave a mark on a blank surface. To make a map of my movement - no matter how temporary.

Harvey Awards for Best Graphic Album of Original Work

Blankets by Graig Thompson is a beautiful graphic novel featuring the struggles and riches of childhood and adolescence. This novel introduces Graig's challenges with family, faith, and school bullying. Graig finds salvation and comfort from his first romance and crush, Raina, and shows his passion towards sketching and art. Blankets is a beautiful story, and I am so happy to have found it. 

Magic of threes, everyone:

This novel is...

1. Beautiful and Captivating
   
   The black-and-white cartoons, and their narration, hooked me within the first pages, and I couldn't stop reading until I reached the back cover. Graig's story feels familiar, yet new and refreshing. His dynamic character is relatable, honest, and real. Graig's emotions feel almost touchable and are brutally raw and honest. I could not get enough of his adolescent triumphs and failures. Craigs story is beautiful but tragic and evokes great sympathy in the reader. 
   
   
2. Stunning and Shocking
   
   This is not the first graphic novel I would recommend to younger readers, not by a long shot. Craig's story features abuse, grief, drugs, and feelings of loss and confusion. While the story focuses on Graig's growth and self-development, there are plot twists and scenes that left me stunned and shocked. However,  this atmosphere of this novel is not hopeless as the story is filled with childhood happiness, adolescent love and passion, and beautiful self-reflection. 
   
   
3. Well-written and Illustrated
   
   While Blankets focuses on Craig and his encounters with life, the other characters do not seem bland or one-dimensional. Rather, within the simple illustrates, evidence of dynamic and multi-dimensional characters are found. From Raina's mother's pill popping to Craig's brother's drawings, there is depth everywhere to be found. I enjoyed the illustrations and style of this graphic novel, because it was reader friendly and the simplicity seemed to leave room for the impactful messages and themes within the novel.
   
   All in all, Blankets is a brilliant graphic novel, and I am so glad to have found this treasure!