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mehsi's review
5.0
Re-read 2021: Decided to do some rereading of graphic novels, this one was the first on my pile to read. I really enjoyed this re-read, especially since now, despite it being 5 years later, I knew what to expect of this book. I loved seeing the family explore the island and see what happened to the buildings and stuff and remember memories of their time there. From ordering pizza, going to school on the mainland, friendships, and more.
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4.5 stars. Not entirely what I was hoping for/thinking this one was.
What I was thinking this would be (based on the blurb + cover) was a book about a girl who lived a big part of her youth on a prison island. About her struggles, about living life on such a place, on making friends. Starting from the beginning, until the moment they had to move again/she was moving because she was older.
Instead it was just bits and pieces here and there, hotchpotch in ages, and mostly triggered due to the island shutting down and them taking one last trip.
It was good, don't get me wrong, but again, I expected a totally different book. I kept re-reading the blurb to make sure I had the right book/that I wasn't missing anything. So I do have to deduce a half a star for it being totally different.
Of course, like I said, the book was still good, it was really interesting to read about her experiences on the island, to see the island itself, and see how everything looked. I can imagine that kids might get bored on the island. They couldn't play in the forests, because it was a protected area. They couldn't play in the ocean, because of the currents. They only could go to the park, or if they really wanted go to the mainland, though that seemed to be quite a Russian roulette of trying to get there on time to do stuff + then having to get back on time for the last boat.
It also seemed quite exciting, living on an island with inmates in a prison. Inmates who at times escape, or are unaccounted for and thus causes a lockdown.
So I did enjoy the book, it was interesting, though I wish it was a bit more in-depth. It felt a bit bare bones at times. Maybe also because of my expectations, maybe because it was truly just that.
The art was pretty decent, it is a style I see often in graphic novels, it looks quite good close-up, but when it gets to further away perspective it turns into stick-puppets, which is not really so great.
But all in all, I would recommend this one. Don't be fooled by the blurb though.
Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
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4.5 stars. Not entirely what I was hoping for/thinking this one was.
What I was thinking this would be (based on the blurb + cover) was a book about a girl who lived a big part of her youth on a prison island. About her struggles, about living life on such a place, on making friends. Starting from the beginning, until the moment they had to move again/she was moving because she was older.
Instead it was just bits and pieces here and there, hotchpotch in ages, and mostly triggered due to the island shutting down and them taking one last trip.
It was good, don't get me wrong, but again, I expected a totally different book. I kept re-reading the blurb to make sure I had the right book/that I wasn't missing anything. So I do have to deduce a half a star for it being totally different.
Of course, like I said, the book was still good, it was really interesting to read about her experiences on the island, to see the island itself, and see how everything looked. I can imagine that kids might get bored on the island. They couldn't play in the forests, because it was a protected area. They couldn't play in the ocean, because of the currents. They only could go to the park, or if they really wanted go to the mainland, though that seemed to be quite a Russian roulette of trying to get there on time to do stuff + then having to get back on time for the last boat.
It also seemed quite exciting, living on an island with inmates in a prison. Inmates who at times escape, or are unaccounted for and thus causes a lockdown.
So I did enjoy the book, it was interesting, though I wish it was a bit more in-depth. It felt a bit bare bones at times. Maybe also because of my expectations, maybe because it was truly just that.
The art was pretty decent, it is a style I see often in graphic novels, it looks quite good close-up, but when it gets to further away perspective it turns into stick-puppets, which is not really so great.
But all in all, I would recommend this one. Don't be fooled by the blurb though.
Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
erincataldi's review
3.0
A cute, eye opening graphic novel about what it was like growing up on a prison island. Nothing profound or amazing, but it's a quick informative read that teens and adults will both enjoy. Plus, it's a little snapshot of history, it's a mini-memoir about a time past, and quite recent as well. While it is told through the perspective of a girl, boys would still enjoy it too. There are also several funny moments that made me smiles. The prison island was just closed in 2011. For fans of graphic novel memoirs, and prison history.
pdestrienne's review
informative
reflective
fast-paced
2.25
Frakes engages with what she knows about prison from growing up on the island but isn't interested in adding any deeper analysis about the systemic implications of a prison system, (for example, she draws a scene where a friend is criticizing the practice of having prisoners fight fires for bascially no pay, and her response is "they want to do it! It gives them experience!" rather than pausing and wondering why they don't deserve at least the same amount of pay as non-prisoner firefighters for risking their lives) so this ends up being an exercise in nostalgia rather than anything thought-provoking or having something to say about prisons.
saidtheraina's review
4.0
McNeil Island is the former location of the last prison in amerika accessible only by air and sea.
Colleen Frakes was one of the kids who grew up there.
The island is in the southern Puget Sound - the ferry to the island leaves from Steilacoom, a small waterfront town a short drive from my library. Frakes went to The Evergreen State College, which is in my town, and apparently works in a library in Seattle at the moment. One of my mom's friends grew up on the McNeil Island, too.
So there's a local connection. Since I'm also a lover of memoir GNs, I knew I had to own this.
Frakes structures her memoir using a framing mechanism - a last visit with her family of origin which occurred when the prison closed, in 2011. As they toured the island one last time, she flashes back to her memories of each place - the different houses they lived in, the beach where she had her birthday party, the community center. She talks about the challenges of living on an island - taking the ferry to school early each morning, not being able to have friends over very easily, ordering a pizza... Having spent some time (including a semester of college) in isolated locations, I can identify with both the pluses and minuses of this very unusual way to grow up.
And it makes me reflect a bit on the notion of "normalcy." I believe in the adaptive abilities of kids. In not treating one way of living as the "normal" way. But for Frakes, she lived years both before and after off the island, and went to school with mainland kids. Perhaps there is a personality element.... These are ill-formed thoughts. But anyway...
Frakes doesn't do a tonne of reflecting, herself. The telling is pretty straightforward, and relatively vague. We never go into the prison itself. We don't get attached to the characters in the story (her friends, or even her family). There isn't a big climactic plot moment. The illustrations are black and white, and use a variety of panel layouts. You get maybe one or two scenes of OITNB juiciness (mostly revolving around escape attempts).
It's true. Which kinda means it's boring. Which is probably a good thing, really.
Colleen Frakes was one of the kids who grew up there.
The island is in the southern Puget Sound - the ferry to the island leaves from Steilacoom, a small waterfront town a short drive from my library. Frakes went to The Evergreen State College, which is in my town, and apparently works in a library in Seattle at the moment. One of my mom's friends grew up on the McNeil Island, too.
So there's a local connection. Since I'm also a lover of memoir GNs, I knew I had to own this.
Frakes structures her memoir using a framing mechanism - a last visit with her family of origin which occurred when the prison closed, in 2011. As they toured the island one last time, she flashes back to her memories of each place - the different houses they lived in, the beach where she had her birthday party, the community center. She talks about the challenges of living on an island - taking the ferry to school early each morning, not being able to have friends over very easily, ordering a pizza... Having spent some time (including a semester of college) in isolated locations, I can identify with both the pluses and minuses of this very unusual way to grow up.
And it makes me reflect a bit on the notion of "normalcy." I believe in the adaptive abilities of kids. In not treating one way of living as the "normal" way. But for Frakes, she lived years both before and after off the island, and went to school with mainland kids. Perhaps there is a personality element.... These are ill-formed thoughts. But anyway...
Frakes doesn't do a tonne of reflecting, herself. The telling is pretty straightforward, and relatively vague. We never go into the prison itself. We don't get attached to the characters in the story (her friends, or even her family). There isn't a big climactic plot moment. The illustrations are black and white, and use a variety of panel layouts. You get maybe one or two scenes of OITNB juiciness (mostly revolving around escape attempts).
It's true. Which kinda means it's boring. Which is probably a good thing, really.
helpfulsnowman's review
2.0
There were three main problems with this book.
1. It kinda jumps around to different times and events, which makes it hard to get in the mindset of how cool and weird it is to live on a prison island. There was a nice sequence about how hard it is to get a pizza, which is a true struggle in the best of times, and I wish more of the book had been like that, and that the timelines were better separated or the story was more linear or something.
2. Again, like the Wonder Woman book I just read, the thing on the cover doesn't happen in the book. I'm like, 90% sure. The cover image makes it seem like the prison is going to play a much bigger part, but it barely has anything to do with the story, honestly. Points off for that!
3. Finally, island prison is not on Pete's List of Best Prisons. Sorry, Island Prison, but you need to get in line behind several others:
Face/Off Magnet Boot Prison
Yes, the prison that had built-in, weird movie screens with pictures of deer on them, which seemed kinda almost like they were supposed to make prisoners crazier. Plus, magnetic boots. What better way to stop a riot than just forcing all inmates to wear magnet boots? Bonus, the prison was totally an offshore oil rig or something, which was a nice reveal, but ultimately pointless because it seems like the only thing it takes to swim to shore is to no longer be wearing magnet boots, which is what needs to happen so you can get to the top of the prison anyway. Pretty decent prison, but only because you can't smell it. A prison where the prisoners are wearing metal shoes 24/7? That place reeks of feet, at best.
Lockout's Space Jail
You know, it seems to me that a jail in space would totally work. I mean, what are you gonna do? Tunnel out? Swim? The big hitch is that the cost of shipping a person to space is like millions. So until they invent that space elevator doohickie, which I still don't understand at all, Space Jail is out. Not to mention that, based on most other films I've seen, the chance of space jail being taken over by aliens, leprechauns, Jason X's, or the chances of the prison traveling through a hellmouth, are pretty high. I guess I'm a lefty, but I think prisoners probably have the right to not be stalked and killed by supernatural horrors.
Demolition Man's Cryo-Prison
Mostly, my questions with this one have to do with why the inmates have to be naked, and also why their ice blocks are just hanging out in the open room. Why not put them in tall, cylindrical freezers or something? Freezing technology hasn't developed to the point where the prisoners could wear little shorts? Or be in opaque ice?
Escape Plan's Glass Boxes
The best feature of Escape Plan's prison was having Stallone and Schwarzenegger in the same movie. Okay, also, the weird glass box prison was pretty great. And the sunlight torture room that hurt people because it was really super bright(?) Oh, and the reveal that the prison is on a barge that's just driving around in the ocean, which means they're in international waters and can do whatever they want(?) And then the Jesus guy from The Passion movie gets blown up. It's really a movie that should be a lot better than it was. I don't know what happened, but I was pretty drunk for the first half.
Escape From New York's...uh, New York
This is a prison island done right. Sorry, Prison Island: A Graphic Memoir, but if your prison island doesn't contain Isaac Hayes in a limo equipped with a chandelier, OR a fight to the death with baseball bats with nails in them, I ain't interested.
1. It kinda jumps around to different times and events, which makes it hard to get in the mindset of how cool and weird it is to live on a prison island. There was a nice sequence about how hard it is to get a pizza, which is a true struggle in the best of times, and I wish more of the book had been like that, and that the timelines were better separated or the story was more linear or something.
2. Again, like the Wonder Woman book I just read, the thing on the cover doesn't happen in the book. I'm like, 90% sure. The cover image makes it seem like the prison is going to play a much bigger part, but it barely has anything to do with the story, honestly. Points off for that!
3. Finally, island prison is not on Pete's List of Best Prisons. Sorry, Island Prison, but you need to get in line behind several others:
Face/Off Magnet Boot Prison
Yes, the prison that had built-in, weird movie screens with pictures of deer on them, which seemed kinda almost like they were supposed to make prisoners crazier. Plus, magnetic boots. What better way to stop a riot than just forcing all inmates to wear magnet boots? Bonus, the prison was totally an offshore oil rig or something, which was a nice reveal, but ultimately pointless because it seems like the only thing it takes to swim to shore is to no longer be wearing magnet boots, which is what needs to happen so you can get to the top of the prison anyway. Pretty decent prison, but only because you can't smell it. A prison where the prisoners are wearing metal shoes 24/7? That place reeks of feet, at best.
Lockout's Space Jail
You know, it seems to me that a jail in space would totally work. I mean, what are you gonna do? Tunnel out? Swim? The big hitch is that the cost of shipping a person to space is like millions. So until they invent that space elevator doohickie, which I still don't understand at all, Space Jail is out. Not to mention that, based on most other films I've seen, the chance of space jail being taken over by aliens, leprechauns, Jason X's, or the chances of the prison traveling through a hellmouth, are pretty high. I guess I'm a lefty, but I think prisoners probably have the right to not be stalked and killed by supernatural horrors.
Demolition Man's Cryo-Prison
Mostly, my questions with this one have to do with why the inmates have to be naked, and also why their ice blocks are just hanging out in the open room. Why not put them in tall, cylindrical freezers or something? Freezing technology hasn't developed to the point where the prisoners could wear little shorts? Or be in opaque ice?
Escape Plan's Glass Boxes
The best feature of Escape Plan's prison was having Stallone and Schwarzenegger in the same movie. Okay, also, the weird glass box prison was pretty great. And the sunlight torture room that hurt people because it was really super bright(?) Oh, and the reveal that the prison is on a barge that's just driving around in the ocean, which means they're in international waters and can do whatever they want(?) And then the Jesus guy from The Passion movie gets blown up. It's really a movie that should be a lot better than it was. I don't know what happened, but I was pretty drunk for the first half.
Escape From New York's...uh, New York
This is a prison island done right. Sorry, Prison Island: A Graphic Memoir, but if your prison island doesn't contain Isaac Hayes in a limo equipped with a chandelier, OR a fight to the death with baseball bats with nails in them, I ain't interested.
tswanson103's review
reflective
medium-paced
2.0
I expected this story to be more about the author’s life on the island. It did give some information about that but felt very brief and like it was just skating over the surface. I wanted more information about the day to day experience.