Kirkus Star
THE KIRKUS STAR
Awarded to Books of Exceptional Merit

BROWSE BOOK REVIEWS




Graphic Novels


Cover art for TRINITY
NONFICTION
Released: June 12, 2012

"Succeeds as both a graphic primer and a philosophical meditation."
Powerfully understated in both text and art, this matter-of-fact account of the atom bomb's development renders scientific complexity intelligible. Read full book review >
Cover art for BYE BYE BABYLON
NONFICTION
Released: April 1, 2012
by Lamia Ziadé, illustrated by Lamia Ziadé, translated by Olivia Snaije

"Stunning in both the art and the audacity."
Visually arresting and emotionally devastating, this graphic memoir of war and childhood feels like an art book and explodes like a car bomb. Read full book review >
Cover art for TANGLES
NONFICTION
Released: May 1, 2012
by Sarah Leavitt, illustrated by Sarah Leavitt

"Not simply the story of a disease, but of the flawed, complex, intelligent people whose lives it transformed."
The power of this graphic memoir is not that its story about a family dealing with Alzheimer's is so extraordinary, but that it has become so ordinary. Read full book review >
Cover art for ARE YOU MY MOTHER?
NONFICTION
Released: May 1, 2012
by Alison Bechdel, illustrated by Alison Bechdel

"Subtitled "A Comic Drama," the narrative provides even fewer laughs than its predecessor but deeper introspection."
A psychologically complex, ambitious, illuminating successor to the author's graphic-memoir masterpiece. Read full book review >
Cover art for MY FRIEND DAHMER
NONFICTION
Released: March 1, 2012
by Derf Backderf, illustrated by Derf Backderf

"An exemplary demonstration of the transformative possibilities of graphic narrative."
A powerful, unsettling use of the graphic medium to share a profoundly disturbing story. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE GRAPHIC CANON
FICTION
Released: May 22, 2012
edited by Russ Kick

"If artists, as British sculptor Anish Kapoor famously said, make mythologies, then this volume is genuinely a marriage of equals."
Classic literature gets desterilized with the help of the modern world's most daring graphic artists. Read full book review >