Kent State

Super informative and super stark, especially in folding in examinations of minute details of the days leading up to the massacre alongside historical deconstruction of the details we know, years after the fact. Incredible.

Graphic novel = an amazing way to tell the history of Kent State shootings. Disturbing ..... honestly felt like it could happen again.

I really enjoyed this and got really emotional reading it. Backderf does a great job with background, calling out politicians lies in little narrative asides, and telling readers about the victims. A must read for anyone interested in history, anti-war movements, and the shady shit that the government gets up to!

Really well done and incredibly well-researched. The end notes explaining his research and choices were so additive. I knew some of this story but not all, so Backderf's research helped to fill in my knowledge gaps, making it easier to draw continued modern parallels to how this massacre happened. I appreciated that he spent a lot of time giving voice to Bill, Sandy, Allison, & Jeff and also included information about the other students who were shot. As a warning, the scenes of the shooting are very realistically graphic. This would be good for upper highschool to adult and would pair well with Deborah Wiles' audiobook of her novel-in-verse, Kent State.

This is a fascinating, exhaustively researched account of the Kent State Massacre. If you're not familiar with the event, the book provides all the background and context you need. I highly recommend it if you're interested in historical graphic novels.

4.5/5 stars