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A review by sararose_cozy
Mothballs by Sole Otero
4.0
Thank you to NetGalley and Fantagraphics for this ARC. My review is 100% my own.
Set to release in August of 2024, Mothballs is a beautiful graphic novel set in Argentina following Rocío, a teenage woman who after the funeral of her grandmother, moves into her grandmother’s house which was left to her and uncovers the story of her grandmother’s past. Believing her grandmother was unliked, she realizes the truth of the past and how it can affect one’s life and poses the question of “is it possible to stop repeating the mistakes of the past”?
This books has hands down the most incredible visual story telling I have ever seen. More is being said/shown than what we get to read as written text. It’s is incredibly moving and poetic.
We see themes of persecution, religious trauma, generational trauma, and sexual violence.
The sexual violence plays a big role in this story and is depicted in a very poetic, however, graphic way.
The text is in handwritten cursive which is beautiful, but I found it somewhat hard to read at times.
Although the story of this family was emotionally moving and beautifully told, I found the ending abrupt. I believe this was done on purpose by the author, to leave it as an open-ended question, but I’m a sucker for endings with no loose ends. Some questions go unanswered which is hard for me to sit with.
I want a physical copy of this book for the artwork alone!
Set to release in August of 2024, Mothballs is a beautiful graphic novel set in Argentina following Rocío, a teenage woman who after the funeral of her grandmother, moves into her grandmother’s house which was left to her and uncovers the story of her grandmother’s past. Believing her grandmother was unliked, she realizes the truth of the past and how it can affect one’s life and poses the question of “is it possible to stop repeating the mistakes of the past”?
This books has hands down the most incredible visual story telling I have ever seen. More is being said/shown than what we get to read as written text. It’s is incredibly moving and poetic.
We see themes of persecution, religious trauma, generational trauma, and sexual violence.
The sexual violence plays a big role in this story and is depicted in a very poetic, however, graphic way.
The text is in handwritten cursive which is beautiful, but I found it somewhat hard to read at times.
Although the story of this family was emotionally moving and beautifully told, I found the ending abrupt. I believe this was done on purpose by the author, to leave it as an open-ended question, but I’m a sucker for endings with no loose ends. Some questions go unanswered which is hard for me to sit with.
I want a physical copy of this book for the artwork alone!