Reviews - Les indésirables

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1.37k reviews for:

Les indésirables

Kiku Hughes

4.36 AVERAGE

bookishmillennial's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial

This is a historical fiction (but partial auto-biography) graphic novel about a teenager who time travels to the time when her grandmother was sent to a Japanese displacement camp during World War II. I think this was a timely (unfortunately) story to read this year, and I highly recommend it to everyone. I thank the author for reminding us of this history.

Content Warnings

aloha_wendys_fries's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative sad 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

ayaladegroot's review against another edition

3.0

The illustrations are amazing in this graphic novel, and deserve all the hype. However, I wasn’t as impressed by the storytelling as I thought I would be.

It was quite preachy at times, which is understandable to an extent given the content of the story, but also was a bit distracting. It’s also very wordy. While many pages are only illustrations, others were filled with so much text that I felt my eyes skipping over them.

Also, what was the random LGBT+ “theme” that was never explored further? It seemed kinda queerbaiting to just put that in and then never get into it. Maybe it was intended to be a like “this shouldn’t be a big deal so I’m just not gonna mention it” thing, but it would have been a big deal in 1943 so??? It just made no sense.

However, I wouldn’t not recommend it so I’ll still give it three stars.

cdorfmeyer's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

aprilbooksandwine's review against another edition

4.0

emotional informative inspiring sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

boxerrebellion1's review against another edition

3.0

A part of history many Americans don't even know; and a part that many white Americans choose not to acknowledge

I'm not a big fan of graphic novels, but many of my students are- so I sometimes read them. This tells the story through the eyes of a teen who never knew the Grandmother that was interned It recognizes that there were resisters - not because they hated the US, but because what was being done to them was wrong. This book does a good job of telling the story, making it personal (to the characters) and recognizing the whitewashing of the experience, and Japanese Americans.