katara42's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0


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bessmonet's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

4.75


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eamily's review

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challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0


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jstalnaker's review

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emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

Such a lovely graphic novel with a beautiful and unique collage style. Admittedly, I’m predisposed to enjoy a) graphic novels and b) anything about genealogy or history, but I found this exceptionally well-done. I found it very informative and most importantly very honest. 

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elude's review

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0


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derschnauzbart's review

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emotional hopeful informative reflective sad

3.5


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anna_wa's review

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challenging emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

That's the longest it's ever taken me to finish a graphic novel. It was so full of serious and solumn material that I could not take more than two chapters a day, and sometimes even two chapters was too much.

I won this book in a giveaway my University was doing. As soon as I saw the title I knew I wanted it, and I also knew it was going to be very heavy (I was right about that).

Krug is an amazing author and artist. She uses both the text and the art to place you in her shoes, make you feel the guilt, the fear, the sadness, and (at times) the hope that she also feels. She utilizes so many fantastic tools that the graphic novel has to offer. For example, we see her face when she is a kid and a teenager, but during all the times she is an adult, her face is turned away from the readers, echoing the theme of the book - the struggle for identity and knowing who you are/where you belong. 

If you have any sort of eye problems whatsoever, I would highly recommend trying to find an audio book to read along with this book. There were certain parts where, just as an example, she would make the words fainter and fainter as the page went on to echo that feeling of absense, that feeling of being far away from her late family members. Even with my 20/20 vision I had to squint during certain points. It's a very good artistic choice, as I said, but if you have any eye problems (including dyslexia) I would really really recommend an audio-book because of the choices she makes on pages like that.

This book was very informative and I learned a lot about the Holocaust I did not know before. She doesn't /only/ talk about her family (even though that is the primary focus of the book), she also talks about certain events that happened during and after the Holocaust that I either did not know about or forgot about. It was very educational.

I don't know how to talk about the content more specifically without spoiling it, but if you can handle the subject matter, I definitely recommend reading it. It was beautiful and had a very bittersweet ending. I am glad Krug shared her journey with the world through this book, and I wish her the best. <3

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avvai's review

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informative reflective medium-paced

3.5


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aliceofbattenberg's review

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emotional informative reflective fast-paced

4.5


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betweentheshelves's review

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

This was filled with tons of facts Krug's journey to learn about her family's history was fascinating. So much German history focuses on what happens during WWII, and it was interesting to see how many Germans reacted after the war. The secrecy, the not wanting to talk about what happened. This is all stuff I didn't know, and I could tell Krug had done her research.

However, there were pieces of this graphic novel that I felt could have been designed a bit better. I wasn't a fan of the images cutting the text in half; it made it difficult to follow at times. This doesn't take away from the meat of the story. For the most part, the images and illustrations really add to the story Krug is telling. Can't wait to discuss this at my book club!

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