Something about the cover of this
graphic novel caught my attention and convinced me to read it, and I’m very
glad I did. Most of my graphic novel reading tends to focus on narrative-driven
adventure stories, so this autobiographical and philosophical look at rape
culture, survival/recovery and societal trends related to the treatment of
women, was a powerful and thought-provoking change of pace.
Author/artist Una was the victim of
sexual assault relatively early in her life, and it was a defining experience
for her — one that colored the rest of her life and affected both her interactions
with others and how she viewed the world around her. She tells her own story,
interspersed with facts, figures and statistics about sexual assault, and
interwoven with observations on a famous case about a British sexual serial
killer and how he got away with multiple killings or sexual assaults and was
not identified or arrested for decades.
Una’s artwork has elements of
extreme simplicity, but also features moments of detailed and compelling
beauty. Pages can be jam-packed with intricate artwork, or can have one small
image surrounded by oppressive white space. She approaches the horrors of her
own assault, societal shaming, and the assaults on other women with stark and
often emotionless realism. But her story is powerfully moving. The Kirkus
Reviews quote on the cover — “A graphic manifesto for female empowerment
and a punch to the gut of predatory males” sums up the content of this
book with precise and accurate sentiment.
I particularly appreciated the way
she ended the book — artistically representing what 13 fatal victims of
male-on-female violence might have looked like decades after their assaults, if
they’d survived.
This is not a “feel good” story,
but it is definitely one that makes you think about the world around you. If
you don’t feel a sense of outrage by the end of the book, you may need to
re-evaluate your personal capacity for empathy.
[
publisher’s official Becoming
Unbecoming web page ] | [ official Una web site ]
Have you read this one? What
did you think? Did you find this review helpful?
New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!
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