Illegal: A Graphic Novel
Ratings17
Average rating4.3
I took way too long to read this. This is really good and really emotional. I was lucky enough to meet the author at a signing.
I read this in one sitting and will be keeping it for rereads. A really good comprehensive story about the sacrifices and travels of refugees. Highly recommend.
This is such a hard book to review. It really... I mean, it is fiction because the characters don't exist, but really this is so real, so true, and feels like such an accurate look at the journey many people endure in the hopes to one day be safe.
It is raw, it is sad and hopeful at the same time, and at all times intense because their journey is one of life and death with death having the advantage.
The chapters alternate between the ‘now' when Ebo is on a boat in the sea on his way to Italy... they hope, and ‘then' which starts from him realizing his brother, Kwame, left him behind to try making his way to Europe. While these chapters may seem like they would be less intense because we know they will make their way to the boat, they really are anything but. Their journey is brutal.
The story is gripping and you can't help but to root for these characters, hoping they will one day be safe.
Powerful, poignant, and bittersweet.
A stark reminder that for many immigrants the journey to their new home is an agonizing undertaking – they are often fleeing from their home country due to war, persecution, poverty, etc.
Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC copy of this graphic novel.
Quote from Elie Wiesel, Nobel Laureate & Holocaust Survivor
“You, who are so-called illegal aliens, must know that no human being is illegal. That is a contradiction in terms. Human beings can be beautiful or more beautiful, they can be fat or skinny, they can be right or wrong, but illegal? How can a human being be illegal?”
The story of two migrants headed across the Sahara, to Tripoli and eventually into Europe. Perfect for the older child/teen reader.