Blankets by Craig Thompson Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Blankets
Book Review: A piece of Art
Summary: 5 Stars
The combination of the illustrations and the development of his story are hunting. The reader lives his childhood and coming of age. This book can be read many times to savor all the details of his illustrations.Book Review: A story that comes alive off of the pages and into your heart and mind forever awakening feelings that u might have long hidden
Summary: 5 Stars
You will completely lose yourself in this story. This is the type of story you can read at a horrible place like the doctor's office and completely forget where you are! This is a true life story. A story about a first love and growing up in general, but also in a very religious family. This book will make you laugh, make you want to cry, and make you feel completely at peace. I was genuinely upset when this book ended. I read it in 3 days! I almost want to read it again because the photos contain so much emotion and useful background that they are worth a second look. I took a lot away from this story that I will not soon forget. It awakened feelings in me and it will do the same for any and everyone that is human! Do not miss out on this one. Up until this point I was yet to find a graphic novel that I could really get into. I found storylines to be lacking and conclusions abrupt. This one was truly magical. (and its super cheesy that I just wrote that, but it's true)Book Review: A work of art
Summary: 5 Stars
It's hard to tell whether Thompson is an artist who happens to be a terrific storyteller, or a storyteller who happens to be a fantastic artist. Either way, this is a wonderful, poignant story of a young man's first love and his questioning of faith. Throughout the book, Thompson very effectively jumps back and forth between his childhood and his teen years. Episodes in his life fold back on one another, with certain rhythms and patterns being formed. His relationship with his brother, Phil, is wonderfully explored as is, obviously, his relationship with his first girlfriend, Raina. Craig's sensitive treatment of his parents is admirable, given their seeming propensity for over-the-top Christianity. I would offer up the observation that this memoir is to the world of graphic novels what Dave Egger's "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" is to the world of young man's memoirs. Both were amazingly even-handed in their depiction of what could be considered difficult young lives.Book Review: Absolute brilliance
Summary: 5 Stars
Even though the book weighs in at a hefty 600 pages, I blew through this amazing graphic novel in two days
It seriously has rocketed to probably my top 3 books I have ever read. Thompson did something with the book that's almost magical.
Maybe it's just because the book really resonated with me. Outside of some of the details, Craig could have been me. I live in the midwest, and while my parents aren't as hard-core Christian as his parents were, there was still always that little bit of pressure to just fall into the faith, and I know plenty of families that are like the one portrayed in the book.
The book really just made me miss everything about my childhood. I miss just having fun with my brother before he branched out and became his own person. I also miss those incredibly powerful feelings of first love, and while I didn't have an experience like he did with Raina, I can absolutely relate with how the character felt.
Thompson did such a great job with everything, especially the characters. I honestly felt that Raina is one of the most beautiful comic book characters I've ever seen. I know that sounds weird, but it's how I feel. Whenever she wasn't on the page, I wanted her to be on the page. It's an absolute feat that Thompson has achieved by putting so much emotion and beauty into characters with such a spare drawing style. How exactly he's able to capture every single subtle emotion with four or five lines, I'll never know.
The art is also beautifully complementary to Thompson's restrained writing style. He has the ability to go from the sharp, angular forms of the world surrounding him into the wispy curves of Raina's world. There are also lots of little details that might not add much to the story, but they are beautiful little surprises. For example, when one character is sliding along the ice of a lake, Thompson has simply written the word "slide" underneath the character's foot in flourished letters. It somehow absolutely captures the scene
OK, so I'm rambling...pardon me
If you haven't read it, go do it. Even though it's 600 pages, you'll be upset when it ends because you want it to be 1200 or 6000 pages, seriously
Book Review: Absolutely Phenomenal
Summary: 5 Stars
This is by far one of the most outstanding pieces of literature i've ever had the pleasure of reading. I would have to say my only negative thought is that it rips me out of my terminal state of uniqueness. It's the first thing i've ever read that tells my story growing up to a T. I remember vividly some of the same exact thoughts the protagonist encounters (and even some of the same events). As oddly close to my own experiences it may be, this book finnaly put an answer to that eternal question i've had of "what happened to her?" And what exactly I could do about it. You have to read it to find out.