Blankets by Craig Thompson

Thompson writes his memoir of a pair of boys (himself and his younger brother)  raised in a fundamentalist household, and of his first love. It was interesting and the boys are very convincing. It's well-drawn and paced. It left me sad because ultimately it is a tale of lost faith. His spirit was stifled as a youth by a father who does not take seriously the command to fathers to "not exasperate your children." Rather, the father locked them in a scary cubby-hole when they misbehaved. Thompson sees mainly the negatives of "religion" as a result, and is lured away by more attractive prospects, especially in the form of a young girl he meets at camp.

I started Thompson's Habibi, which was recommended on Paste's list of the best graphic novels of 2011. Again it was well-drawn and engaging, but I got tired of the frank depictions of the harem, (which Thompson obviously relished,) and also found some of the character development so unbelievable as to be offputting. I finally gave up about 2/3 of the way through and moved on to more profitable reading.

Finished Blankets about 3/31/12. Gave up on Habibi about a week before that. Both library books. I was on a graphic novel tear for a while and moved on to regular novels and nonfiction for some balance.