Blankets

            I wasn’t too sure about this book when I picked it up. It seemed like it was just going to be about a love story and I wasn’t too excited about it. But I quickly learned it was much more than that. It’s about a boy growing up and falling in love, but also fighting with his religion. It’s more about a boy becoming a man and trying to find himself.

            He struggles between loving Raina and with following God. When he is with her he loves her but if they do anything he feels as if he betrayed God. He eventually leaves her and finds out that God wants him to be happy and that he doesn’t have to feel guilty.

            My favorite parts of this novel were the flashbacks with him and his brother sharing the bed. They would pretend to be shipwrecked and were very much still children. Until the night the peed on each other and mom came in. They were having fun at first then it got out of hand like everything does as a child so mom came in a forced them to shower. This was their first shower. Up until this point there were still very much children, but the shower seemed to make them more grown up, not yet adults but not quite children anymore either. Then they got their own rooms. Change was happening and it was inevitable, they were growing up whether they liked it or not. They hated being away from each other so they would still sleep in the same bed even though they each had a bed and a room. They relied on each other and felt safe and didn’t want that to go away. I grew up with an older sister so I never developed this, but I have friends who grew up in similar situations. They would do anything for their brother because they feel safe with them after spending so much time together.

            I really enjoyed the style of illustration. I’m a big fan of comics that are real life, not including any superheroes or the such because then I feel like I can relate to them and the story tends to be more well written because the world doesn’t have to be saved by the end of the day. The way the bodies were drawn were very beautiful to me as well as the hatch lines in every panel. It was very pleasing and was a good balance of realism with some cartoon characters to make it real and almost personal.