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bessadams's review
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Deportation, Racism, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, and Genocide
zombiezami's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, Racism, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Grief
Minor: Confinement, Cursing, and Genocide
Ethnic discriminationwka_628's review
adventurous
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
In LaGuardia, we follow the pregnant Future Nwafor Chukwuebuka in her return to America, where she was born, from Nigeria, where her parents and grandparents were born. Future is a doctor who was living in Nigeria treating humans and plant type aliens. For reasons yet unknown, Future decides to abandon her life in Nigeria and return to the USA. Upon arrival in America, she faces intense screening, including accusations that her baby's part alien. She manages to get through security when it is revealed that she in fact smuggled in an alien in her bag. Why? You'll have to read the book to find out. Here are my thoughts.
I picked this up on a whim from the library when I was looking for a graphic novel to read. Out of the 100s of options in front of me thanks to the average width of a comic collection or graphic novel, which are all grouped together in some libraries, I picked up this as the author's name was familiar to me.
This book was full of social commentary that wove our real-world issues surrounding racism, xenophobia, and immigration policies in with beautiful artwork and tales of aliens who made first contact in Nigeria. We explore many sides of each story in the collection, including the contrasting and evolving perspectives of Future and her fiance, Citizen, as well as a Letme Live, a plant alien that there's a proper term for that is important later in the book and to differentiate between plants from Earth and sentient aliens that strongly resemble plants that I cannot remember for the life of me. If you're wondering about the name (Letme Live, not the term for their species that I can't remember), the aliens in this story often choose their own English names when immigrating to America. Letme was a cool character, but there was some aspects of the ending that were extremely confusing to me to do with their culture, again no spoilers. It wasn't the execution that made it confusing, just the alien culture itself.
Future's grandmother, who she stays with when returning to America, is an immigration lawyer and a major badass. Yes, this sentence deserves its own paragraph because we stan characters over 50 with any personality at all.
I cried on two separate occasions while reading this in one sitting in the stairwell of the previously mentioned library where I borrowed the book. The first time was when there were scenes of protest and I recognised so many of the slogans from emotionally-charged protests I have attended myself. A nice touch with that particular scene, in which there are two protests going on run by people on opposite sides of the same issue, is that some signs were used by both parties. The second time I cried I can't mention the details because it will take away the impact of the scene.
I won't go into too much more detail in this review because of the length of the story but I will say that there was an interspecies friendship in here that, while not remarkable in any way, kind of reminded me of my friends and me after 10 pm when we start acting like humans and not machines that quote memes and make jokes about being gay (we're gay, not homophobic).
I have seen some criticism of this book lacking plot, but while I can see why people think that, I think it's more that it only has one plot rather than many and is more driven by its characters and message than plot, which I personally love in a book.
I don't know how to finish this off apart than saying that I'd recommend this book for the artwork alone, and if you don't require your political statements in books to be subtle, all the better. Personally, I think matters of people's right to live, such as the issues that are discussed in LaGuardia, shouldn't be considered politics, but since many do, I'll leave it at that. Also, to the people who walked all the way down the 100 stairs only to find me sobbing while you were trying to catch your breathe, sorry.
I picked this up on a whim from the library when I was looking for a graphic novel to read. Out of the 100s of options in front of me thanks to the average width of a comic collection or graphic novel, which are all grouped together in some libraries, I picked up this as the author's name was familiar to me.
This book was full of social commentary that wove our real-world issues surrounding racism, xenophobia, and immigration policies in with beautiful artwork and tales of aliens who made first contact in Nigeria. We explore many sides of each story in the collection, including the contrasting and evolving perspectives of Future and her fiance, Citizen, as well as a Letme Live, a plant alien that there's a proper term for that is important later in the book and to differentiate between plants from Earth and sentient aliens that strongly resemble plants that I cannot remember for the life of me. If you're wondering about the name (Letme Live, not the term for their species that I can't remember), the aliens in this story often choose their own English names when immigrating to America. Letme was a cool character, but there was some aspects of the ending that were extremely confusing to me to do with their culture, again no spoilers. It wasn't the execution that made it confusing, just the alien culture itself.
Future's grandmother, who she stays with when returning to America, is an immigration lawyer and a major badass. Yes, this sentence deserves its own paragraph because we stan characters over 50 with any personality at all.
I cried on two separate occasions while reading this in one sitting in the stairwell of the previously mentioned library where I borrowed the book. The first time was when there were scenes of protest and I recognised so many of the slogans from emotionally-charged protests I have attended myself. A nice touch with that particular scene, in which there are two protests going on run by people on opposite sides of the same issue, is that some signs were used by both parties. The second time I cried I can't mention the details because it will take away the impact of the scene.
I won't go into too much more detail in this review because of the length of the story but I will say that there was an interspecies friendship in here that, while not remarkable in any way, kind of reminded me of my friends and me after 10 pm when we start acting like humans and not machines that quote memes and make jokes about being gay (we're gay, not homophobic).
I have seen some criticism of this book lacking plot, but while I can see why people think that, I think it's more that it only has one plot rather than many and is more driven by its characters and message than plot, which I personally love in a book.
I don't know how to finish this off apart than saying that I'd recommend this book for the artwork alone, and if you don't require your political statements in books to be subtle, all the better. Personally, I think matters of people's right to live, such as the issues that are discussed in LaGuardia, shouldn't be considered politics, but since many do, I'll leave it at that. Also, to the people who walked all the way down the 100 stairs only to find me sobbing while you were trying to catch your breathe, sorry.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism
readingwithkt's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I REALLY enjoyed this one! I believe it would fall within the afrofuturism genre, and the wider sci-fi genre, but I’m no expert.
Set in a future world where aliens live among us on Earth, yet are treated as second class citizens, LAGUARDIA interrogates our need to create divisions within society, to fear difference, and to discriminate against others. I found particularly interesting the nods to anti-African policies, something which was perhaps heightened by the news that the UK has enforced a travel ban on mostly African countries very recently. I also found myself learning some about the history of Nigeria, something I’d like to do more research into. While intellectually stimulating, this was also a complete joy to read in places. The bond between parent and child (and my goodness the illustrations of the baby!!), the relationship between Future and LetMeLive (so pure), and the immediate admiration I had for Future’s grandma all had me turning the pages on this graphic novel, intent on finding out how it would conclude.
I genuinely cannot recommend this enough. A brilliant read!
Set in a future world where aliens live among us on Earth, yet are treated as second class citizens, LAGUARDIA interrogates our need to create divisions within society, to fear difference, and to discriminate against others. I found particularly interesting the nods to anti-African policies, something which was perhaps heightened by the news that the UK has enforced a travel ban on mostly African countries very recently. I also found myself learning some about the history of Nigeria, something I’d like to do more research into. While intellectually stimulating, this was also a complete joy to read in places. The bond between parent and child (and my goodness the illustrations of the baby!!), the relationship between Future and LetMeLive (so pure), and the immediate admiration I had for Future’s grandma all had me turning the pages on this graphic novel, intent on finding out how it would conclude.
I genuinely cannot recommend this enough. A brilliant read!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Xenophobia
Minor: Death of parent
nyoom's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Racism
Moderate: Genocide
Minor: Sexual content
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