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A review by saidtheraina
Hostage by Guy Delisle
4.0
I love the concept of this book. Andre went through this horrific, ripped-from-the-headlines, terrifying experience. There are no visual records of that experience. Delisle interviews Andre and draws a graphic novel based on the play-by-play life of one hostage experience.
It's an amazing story. The ending, especially, blew me away. And Delisle's illustrations are simple enough that they seem like they could be accurate. At least as far as Andre could remember.
This is a thick tome. 432 pages. And most pages have a fair amount of captioning as Andre tells the story. Delisle frames the story in a basic six-panel page, with small variations for emphasis. Like what is seen on the cover, the illustrations are basically grayscale with both beige- and blue-toned grays (color-expert I am not - feel free to correct me if I'm using the wrong terms!).
In some ways, the simplicity of the illustrations and context of the story pulls a big chunk of the emotion out of it. Andre communicates his thoughts and feelings and mental state as things progress, but those words are still framed by relatively simple illustrations and the knowledge that it's all being told "after." He is now safe enough to tell this story publicly. And you know that all the way through. That distance reminded me a bit of [a: MariNaomi|4078358|MariNaomi|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1468804810p2/4078358.jpg]'s [b: Kiss and Tell: A Romantic Resume, Ages 0 to 22|8433530|Kiss and Tell A Romantic Résumé, Ages 0 to 22|MariNaomi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327956389l/8433530._SX50_.jpg|13296987], and several other nonfiction graphic novels.
It's an amazing story. The ending, especially, blew me away. And Delisle's illustrations are simple enough that they seem like they could be accurate. At least as far as Andre could remember.
This is a thick tome. 432 pages. And most pages have a fair amount of captioning as Andre tells the story. Delisle frames the story in a basic six-panel page, with small variations for emphasis. Like what is seen on the cover, the illustrations are basically grayscale with both beige- and blue-toned grays (color-expert I am not - feel free to correct me if I'm using the wrong terms!).
In some ways, the simplicity of the illustrations and context of the story pulls a big chunk of the emotion out of it. Andre communicates his thoughts and feelings and mental state as things progress, but those words are still framed by relatively simple illustrations and the knowledge that it's all being told "after." He is now safe enough to tell this story publicly. And you know that all the way through. That distance reminded me a bit of [a: MariNaomi|4078358|MariNaomi|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1468804810p2/4078358.jpg]'s [b: Kiss and Tell: A Romantic Resume, Ages 0 to 22|8433530|Kiss and Tell A Romantic Résumé, Ages 0 to 22|MariNaomi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327956389l/8433530._SX50_.jpg|13296987], and several other nonfiction graphic novels.