Reviews

September 11, 2001: The Day the World Changed Forever by Héloïse Chochois, Baptiste Bouthier

wintrovia's review

5.0

A beautifully illustrated of September 11th and everything that followed as a result of the atrocity. There’s a good mix of individual stories and a more global view of events that followed. I think this book would be particularly useful for young people who didn't live through the part of history as it helps to put many of the future world events that followed into context, such as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. As the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 approaches we are still dealing with the consequences, as the US withdrawal from Afghanistan plunges that region into turmoil again.

dame_samara's review

5.0

It feels weird even now as an adult to realize that there are other adults who weren't alive at all during 9/11 because it is something I remember quite well from when I was a small child. So to read something as a depiction of History feels odd to me.

But this was an amazing work to read especially as we are coming up on the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Baptiste Bouthier does an amazing job of capturing the humanity of the situation, while also showing us an outside perspective that is hard to find in the US of what 9/11 looked like to others.

While also taking time to touch on very real things like the United States past in the Middle East, and the fact that it is not uncommon to find conspiracies around this event.

I would definitely recommend this book, it does a good job of representing the events without being traumatizing as some pieces of media can be. (Being forced to watch people jump from the towers in High School is something that still haunts me to this day and I do not believe is an appropriate way to teach history)

_ilacima06's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.75

ziyal's review

4.0

I received an arc of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I gave this book four stars. There was a lot of details in the book that I appreciated. Since I learn about 9/11 almost every year there’s not a lot of the information about the order of events or the big stuff that happened that day that is new to me, but there is always new information about the people or some of the smaller details about the day and the people involved.
The first detail that stuck out to me was that the point of view was from a French girl. To me this really showed how 9/11 impacted the world and not just America. I also appreciated the detail of including masks when jumping forward to 2021.
The fact that I have learned about 9/11 almost every year made this book impact me more. For example, on one of the pages the author shows one of the office spaces in the South Tower and says that “the second plane struck the South Tower just a few floors below theirs”, and while the author doesn’t mention the damage to the stairs till later, I have enough knowledge of 9/11 to realize the severity of that. Or when the author mentioned that at first the twin tower workers didn’t realize the danger, they were in at first. There were a couple instances where the author mentions groups of people inside the buildings whether they are workers or firefighters and then the author would make a comment about how “none of them survived” or “those who didn’t follow, wouldn’t have enough time to make it out” and those lines impacted me more then just simply saying this person died. Also learning that only four people from above the impact of the South Tower survived was something I had not known before.
It also still amazes me that there are people missing from this. Another thing that I appreciated about this book is that the author didn’t just cover the direct aftermath of the attack and call it a day, but also went into the long-term effects for example covering other terrorist attacks in other countries and the questions surrounding healthcare of the first responders (learning that the first responders’ health was not taken into consideration pissed me off so much). That showed the amount of research the author put into this book and really demonstrated why this book deserved the title of “The Day the World Changed Forever.”

christelesavage's review against another edition

5.0

J'adore ce type de BD qui raconte en image des événements réels. J'ai trouvé que c'est une vision européenne dee répercussions des cette tragédie. J'en suis ressortie quand même toute chamboulée de me rappeler cette journées atroces.

ana_reads_books's review against another edition

4.0

4.5 ⭐

Sinceramente para todos aquellos que sientan que leer un libro muy denso de historia es demasiado "aburrido", les recomiendo esta novela gráfica que a mi entender hace una narración excelente del 11/9 de forma muy rápida.

Este libro me hizo cuestionarme muchas cosas, sobretodo el hecho de que el 11/9 no es un hecho aislado, no es el único hecho terrorista de los últimos años, ni lo será desgraciadamente.

Es un libro que me dejó devastada y con el cual casi lloro. Yo no había nacido cuando estos acontecimientos pasaron, pero conozco que estos hechos fueron un antes y un después en la historia no solo de los Estados Unidos, sino del mundo entero.

Para todos aquellos que les interese el tema y para aquellos que tampoco le tienen tanto interés, lean este libro. Es corto pero preciso.

skavansieur's review

5.0

What I know about the September 11 incident is limited. I've heard of it, know a little of what happened, but this is the first book that I've read about this day. It definitely helped me understand the severity of it, as it is more than about the thousands of people who lost their lives that day. There were also plenty of events that happened shortly after.

From the September 11 incident, it branched out into the Patriot Act, the NSA, terrorism and war. It showed me something new that I never knew about, which I'm very thankful for. Unfortunately, there was only a short part on Islamophobia and racism, which I wished they could've highlighted more of. Although, they covered a bit on the Guantanamo detention camp.

My favourite part was when Juliette's mother asked "from what angle?", in regard to Juliette telling her mother about the discussion her history class had regarding the incident. It was a brief moment, but that question was impactful.

It seems strange to comment about the illustrations when such a heavy and important matter is at hand, but it is great. I particularly liked the airport scenes, the one with the firefighters going up the stairs, and the one on the many U.S. intelligence. I liked how they fit multiple ideas into just one frame of a page.

It is sad to say not much has changed, but I'm still glad to have been able to learn about world history through this book.

ljrinaldi's review

4.0

I almost didn't read this book. I didn't want to be reminded of what happened, now, 20 years ago.

But, reading it this way, from that of a young French 14-year old school girl, and how she reacted, and how people in France reacted, it gave a whole different perspective, and I kept reading.

And it doesn't just dwell on Sept. 11, but goes on to all the other events that followed, the war, the other terrorist attacks, and ends with her visiting Ground Zero, 20 years hence.

So, yes, hard to read, but very interesting to see it all collected in one story.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

whatmadsreads's review

4.0

This is the first graphic novel I have read in probably 6 years but I was immediately intrigued by a graphic novel about 9/11. The "main character" in this is actually a French woman, and the story rotates between facts/timelines of 9/11 and following days in America, and how other countries (like France), heard and responded to the attacks. The story talks about months and years following the attacks and how the world shifted - NSA, Patriot Act, war in the Middle East, and even some other terrorist attacks in other countries. The story ends with the French woman from the beginning making it to NYC and going to Ground Zero.

This story shared a bit of a different perspective and, I think, does a good job of giving an overview of not only that day in history, but what followed. I would recommend this especially to middle and high schoolers who are learning about 9/11 as a day in history, rather than remembering that day in their own memories

Thank you NetGalley and Europe Comics for a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

thewoollygeek's review against another edition

5.0

September 11, 2001, I found was a difficult read for me, being 43 and living through that day , I watched on TV step by step just as Juliette did with her mum, except I was in the UK not France, I watched as the second plane hit , we never stopped watching for that whole day like a lot of the world and this for me brings back all the fear, the memories, the sadness and devastation. I liked the fact this is being done for a younger generation who grew up in the wake of this tragedy, but also that it looks at the wider consequences of that day and what followed. I did however feel it could have covered more on the persecution that anyone of Arabic descent or looks suffered at the time and since. We get the Views of several on the day, first hand accounts from the inside of the tower, first responders, journalistic photographer and the White House. It’s detailed and should come with a warning, as I found it quite triggering that they drew the people jumping, I had watched this and they’ve never shown it since on TV out of respect, I don’t think that it should be drawn either, at the least it should have a warning before they do ! It is a very good and strong read and will help in educating generations that weren’t there and others that have been naive to the affects it had and things those attacks caused in the world. Go in with a prepared mind though.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion


I read the English version of this .