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notbanana's review
2.0
2.5
Dang, this is a depressing book. I felt nothing for the author/main character so the attempt at connecting the stories of ruin to her own life felt empty. A few pages shine but most feel hopeless and pretentious. I did enjoy the combination of line drawings, photographs, and unique layouts.
Dang, this is a depressing book. I felt nothing for the author/main character so the attempt at connecting the stories of ruin to her own life felt empty. A few pages shine but most feel hopeless and pretentious. I did enjoy the combination of line drawings, photographs, and unique layouts.
ashleyholstrom's review
4.0
A gorgeous graphic memoir about life, loss, architecture, ruins, history, and humans. When her uncle dies, Kristen Radtke sees a deserted city and becomes obsessed. She journeys across the globe looking for places that people came, saw, conquered, and left behind. Life is impermanent. Our footprints are only around for a little while. Imagine Wanting Only This is the tale of those places.
From the Best Books We Read in May 2017 at Book Riot.
From the Best Books We Read in May 2017 at Book Riot.
tlindhorst's review
2.0
“We forget that everything will become no longer ours.” I love this author’s drawing style. This book felt less impactful to me than Seek You which I loved. It’s interestingly that I have less connection to this book when the issues of grief, heart disease, sudden death resonate so strongly with me. It feels like she touched the edges of those things and favored the metaphor that interested her of ruins and abandonment.
saidtheraina's review
4.0
My favorite part about this was the urban exploration stuff (urbex, UE, etc.).
It's unsettling to me how many unused ruins amerika has left by the wayside, even in our relatively short history. It feels like a waste. To build a building, use it for a few decades, then leave it empty, while cutting down more of the natural environment to build a different building - the cycle makes me sad.
So I liked that this story brought that phenomenon into relief.
That said, I found the book itself to be relatively forgettable. It took me way too long to remember that I'd actually read it. I consumed it in just a sitting or two, but wish it had made more of an impact.
Extra star bc of the UE stuff.
It's unsettling to me how many unused ruins amerika has left by the wayside, even in our relatively short history. It feels like a waste. To build a building, use it for a few decades, then leave it empty, while cutting down more of the natural environment to build a different building - the cycle makes me sad.
So I liked that this story brought that phenomenon into relief.
That said, I found the book itself to be relatively forgettable. It took me way too long to remember that I'd actually read it. I consumed it in just a sitting or two, but wish it had made more of an impact.
Extra star bc of the UE stuff.
zellm's review
2.0
I appreciate the author sharing her experience, but this felt grim and nihilistic and didn't seem like it said much of anything. I walked away from it feeling a little numb and existential dread-y, which isn't what I want in a book.
tracithomas's review
3.0
The images are gorgeous and the idea is really smart and interesting. The execution was very debut feeling. It was disjointed and unclear. I enjoyed reading it but often felt like I was missing pages.
jvillanueva8's review
4.0
I deeply love this book and its themes. The fascination with ruin, impermanence, time, death. The relationship between text and illustration is masterful. A few parts felt out of place (long history of Peshtigo Fire?) but overall a beautiful story.
keight's review
1.0
I didn’t write about this book when I read it, as I felt disappointed in it but also felt like I should like it more. My friend Abby recently wrote a great review looking at Radtke’s lack of self-awareness of her privilege and callousness in dealing with photographs she and her boyfriend found while exploring an abandoned cathedral. The photographs turned out to be a memorial for a young man, but Radtke never returned them or made any effort to contact his family before or after the publication of this book. Shameful.
thehappybooker's review
5.0
Memento mori
Ruins are the tangible remains of lives of others, some parts familiar and relatable, other parts incomprehensibly different and forever out of our grasp. This book weaves disparate threads into an honest, searching narrative about impermanence. I give it five stars because it talks about things I've thought about for most of my life. That may not be a good basis for the rating, but everything is subjective.
Ruins are the tangible remains of lives of others, some parts familiar and relatable, other parts incomprehensibly different and forever out of our grasp. This book weaves disparate threads into an honest, searching narrative about impermanence. I give it five stars because it talks about things I've thought about for most of my life. That may not be a good basis for the rating, but everything is subjective.