Blankets by Craig Thompson
I know a lot of people enjoyed this graphic novel. According to goodreads, over 10,000 of you have given it 5/5 stars but I didn't see the greatness in it.
My biggest problem with it were with the characters. There wasn't one I could relate to. Characters did things that I could not imagine ever happening in my own life/family.
Let's start off with Craig and his younger brother, Phil. Their story, in my opinion, was the best part of Blankets (maybe because I could sort of relate to them) and I wish their relationship could have played a bigger part in the story. These two behaved how you would expect brothers to behave: fighting, arguing, yet somehow, still loving one another. (I also felt like the story missed out on an opportunity to really grab me when Craig Thompson failed to address The Thing [SPOILER: the sexual abuse experienced by both boys END OF SPOILER] directly. Maybe it was kind of vague because that's what artists do: they make you think, but I really longed for a sense of closure concerning The Thing. Maybe that's just life; you can't get an answer for every question you have. It is an autobiography after all.
Moving on to the other characters in the story, Raina and her family and also Craig's family. Both are Christian, and Raina's family is going through a divorce. See, my family isn't religious and we're all very happy so perhaps that played into why I failed to connect with these characters but I think there is more to it than that. The biggest hurdle I couldn't get over with was how easily Craig was able to convince his parents it was okay to visit Raina for two weeks, when both were seniors in high school. (Keep in mind one lives in Wisconsin and one in Michigan, not terribly far, but still). Your senior year is when you have to dig deep and really focus on school, especially in the U.S., with their SATs and whatnot. Looking back to my grade 12 year, if I had missed two weeks of school, I might as well have kissed my diploma goodbye. No way could I have survived math, physics and biology since those courses move at the speed of light. That is why I winced every time the topic of "skipping school" was brought up.
Also, Raina invited a boy to stay with her. I know, both families were Christian and I guess they just had that sense of trust but my parents would have watched him like hawks, regardless of his faith. So whenever Raina's mom comes home from work, she says her goodnights and retires to bed, when her teenage daughter is left alone with a boy from a neighbouring state. Granted, she was exhausted but my mom would have asked Craig to go to his guest room and then locked, bolted, and booby-trapped my room so he couldn't get in when the lights were off. Rain's mom wasn't the only one to get on my nerve. Raina's dad found them in bed together (just sleeping, nothing more) and he didn't do anything. You know what my dad would have done? He would have kicked him so hard he would fly into space and become the U.S.'s new satellite. And, here is the scariest part: I wouldn't be off the hook either; he would have also taken away my internet privileges!
So overall, the story was a great coming of age story but there were just too many things that was just not me. I can't possibly give this more than two stars.
