The Book of Genocides

by Dana Mashoian Walrath

In this haunting graphic narrative, an award-winning writer, artist, and descendant of genocide survivors brings history’s darkest horrors to life, calling on us to remember, repair, and resist.

The Book of Genocides is a haunting graphic narrative that compels readers to confront the most harrowing chapters of human history not as distant events but as visceral experiences. Dana Mashoian Walrath covers ten major atrocities across five centuries: the mass slaughter of the First Peoples of the Americas, the brutalization of Black Americans, the devastation of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, the Cambodian killing fields, the Rwandan genocide, the Bosnian genocide, the deadly persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar, and the genocide in Gaza.

Walrath makes plain that the purpose of genocide is always a land grab, and its central apparatus is dehumanization: each chapter delves into how dehumanization operates, not just through violence but through the political and intellectual systems that enable it. The book’s unique interactive design allows readers to reshape images of victims into grotesque forms mirroring the mental mechanisms of dehumanization. With each page turn, the victims’ humanity is restored, making their suffering undeniable.

The Book of Genocides is an unsettling experience, shot through with the emotional gravity of horrific events―not just historical memories but ongoing realities, painful truths that shape our world and demand our action.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Graphic Novels, Comics, Art, Graphic Novels Comics

424 pages, Paperback

First published September 8, 2026

About the author

Dana Mashoian Walrath is an award-winning cartoonist, writer, and anthropologist. An Armenian American, she weaves together her family’s history of survival, her training in anthropology, and a deep commitment to visual storytelling in The Book of Genocides, an immersive graphic history that traces ten genocides over five centuries and reveals the recurring patterns of dehumanization and land theft at their core.

She is also the author of Aliceheimer’s, an award winning graphic memoir on dementia, and Like Water on Stone, a verse novel about the Armenian Genocide. A MacDowell Fellow, Fulbright Scholar, and Atlantic Fellow, Walrath has published work in The Nation, The Lancet, Slate, on public radio, and in numerous anthologies, including Menopause: A Comic Treatment—an Eisner Award–winning collection named one of The New York Times Best Graphic Novels of 2020.

Reviews

[layan (semi-hiatus?)]

hopefully I’ll get the arc. The book is very diverse in what it’ll discuss as it seems from the synopsis. Gaza, Bosnia, Armenia, the black people, the indigenous people, Myanmar, the holocaust, etc.

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolute powerhouse of a book. Dana Mashoian Walrath combines stunning, haunting art with deeply personal memoir and history to map out centuries of unimaginable cruelty without ever losing sight of the human beings at the center of it.
It’s heavy, devastating, and heartbreaking, but it's also profoundly important. An unforgettable, brilliant achievement. Everyone needs to read this.

[Samantha Townsend · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cried my heart out, but I needed to know this history.

[Micah Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haunting. A must read.

[Robert]

Had the privilege of interviewing the author of this devastating graphic history this spring for Publisher's Weekly. It's just a brief Q&A but hopefully readers will find it enlightening. Link below. Highly recommend this book, with the obvious caveat that its subject matter is brutal and heartbreaking.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect introductions to some of the worst crimes in history. Great for high school aged readers and adults who will benefit from the incredible graphics that match the content. It not only educates, but it also helps people far displaced from these events to get a taste of what it was actually like to experience life during these time periods in that area with help from the artwork.

The artwork is masterful at helping tell these important stories and fueling a fire for the reader to engage in advocacy (especially since there are some genocides here that continue today).

It's definitely different from any graphic nonfiction title I've ever read but it's one of the best. Cannot recommend it enough.

[Stephanie Kloss · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and powerful account of ten genocides. As violence and conflict intensify around the world, this book helps us recognize the patterns—especially dehumanization and the abuse of power—that make mass violence possible. I worked on Persepolis and Art Spiegelman’s books in my Pantheon/Knopf days and this book helps us understand the world in the same simple but profound way.

[McKenna Deem · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

An excellent graphic novel with haunting illustrations. Walrath is a gifted storyteller who weaves together the stories of genocide with the stains of academia to create an informative collage.

I wish there were a few (5-10) more pages per section to give more background info, but I would overall recommend this graphic novel to anyone.

[Rel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is very good. I learned a considerable amount and it is useful to have all this mostly-right-to-the-point information is one place, and easily accessible. There's a lot I could say, but all of my comments feel shallow compared to gravity of the topic.

Should you read it? Yes. But, all my close friends are so glad I am done reading this book.

It caused me to think (and I think it is clear that the author thought) about the various things that made each situation different and unique. I won't share those kinds of things here -- too vile, feels prurient here.

One thing I will say is, it made me think about how, in college, I was very upset about the genocide in Sudan (not mentioned in this book, incidentally) and involved in awareness campaigns about it. But what did I even know, really, about why it was happening, and what was going on. Even in college I didn't know that what was happening in Palestine was a genocide, which of course it was, even then.

I knew about Rwanda in high school (I remember when Hotel Rwanda came out; I was like, I am DEFINITELY NOT seeing that), but I don't think I understand much about it, other than that, like all 'wars', it was about money, and rich people convincing poor people to kill each other on their behalf. I had, I think, heard of the Bosnian genocide as well, but I don't think I knew much about it, either.

I guess my point is, both of those had taken place in my lifetime, and I don't think I really understood even that. What that meant. Good thing I never saw the movie, har har.

And, there is, of course, the ongoing genocide of the Rohingya, which the book made me realize I don't think of very often. I certainly didn't have any real understanding of it before I read this book. Also, the way the Armenian genocide is actually still going on right now in (specifically) Azerbaijan.

The illustrations are very good, and affecting. It's nice the different styles and techniques the author uses. You can tell the author was digesting these events in their cultural context, and they help you digest too -- they space out and organize the information well, making it easier to take in and process, giving the reader time (mental space) to think about and process the words they have read, and/or to contextualize the words you are about to read.

I like the call to action (spoiler, I suppose, in a way), to cut the pages along the dotted lines of each 'individual', in between each genocide, and the way this affected the user-experience of the book - an effective mechanism.

Oh, also I liked learning about Lemkin and the history of the word genocide and the term ethnic cleansing.

I'm going to give this 5 stars, even though I found parts of it slightly more confusing than they needed to be.

Should you read this book? Yes, you probably should.

[Zachary · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

”Genocide, the systematic elimination of a people, extends far beyond the massacre. It is encoded in the bodies of those who survived. It is baked into the global systems that value some lives more than others. Every time we connect our own pain to the suffering of others, we take one step towards ending, preventing, and healing from genocide.”

Bravo to Dana Mashoian Walrath for doing the research here and creating a real monumental book outlining ten genocides throughout history. There is a lovely section at the end where she hand draws a bookshelf worth of genocide related books which is her way of saying that the reading and learning and questioning does end here.

She covers the topic at hand with the weight that it deserves, though I felt that sometimes the art was not the best way to convey this information. There are also sections with black out poetry and mix and match drawings that didn’t do a whole lot for me emotionally. I wish this book had a little bit more clarity (for example, I had to do a some outside research to actually understand the chapters on the Rwandan and Bosnian genocide) but overall this a great look into many of our darkest moments as a species.

[Kaycee McKee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very thoughtfully designed book. It covers ten different genocides, making the book serve as both an introduction to these histories and a reminder of why they must continue to be remembered.

One of the things that stood out to me was the artwork, which combines collage, paintings, and pencil drawings to create a wide variety of visual styles. I also thought the 'turn-a-flap' elements were a creative idea I haven't seen often. Unfortunately, since I read a digital review copy, I wasn't able to experience those interactive elements as they were intended.

My two favorite parts of the book were the blackout poetry that accompanied the 'turn-a-flap' sections, which added an extra emotional layer to the historical information, and the 'Keep Reading' shelf at the end. Seeing recommendations like Maus, Caste, and On Tyranny on that shelf was a thoughtful touch and a great opportunity for deeper exploration on this subject topic.

[Mamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the opportunity to learn about The Book of Genocides, and it immediately stood out as an ambitious and visually distinctive graphic nonfiction work that approaches difficult historical subjects through both narrative and interactive art. The book examines ten major atrocities across different periods and regions, while its design uses visual transformation to explore dehumanization and the restoration of victims’ humanity. With 4.78 stars from 18 ratings and 7 reviews on Goodreads following its September 7, 2026 publication, the book already has a strong early reader response. That creates an opportunity to develop its Goodreads visibility among readers of history, graphic nonfiction, human-rights literature, educators, librarians, and audiences interested in serious works that connect historical memory with contemporary discussion.

[ClaytonC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some books are hard to recommend because they're so upsetting, but this one really deserves attention. Dana Mashoian Walrath takes some of history's worst atrocities and makes them feel painfully human. The mix of sketches, collage, and interactive illustrations is incredibly clever, especially the way it exposes how people are dehumanized. 🕯️ What got to me most was how familiar the patterns felt, even across different centuries. My one frustration? Ten genocides is a lot to cover, and some chapters deserved more breathing room. I sometimes wanted more history before moving on to the next tragedy. Still, there's something powerful about the way this book connects the past with what's happening today. It's disturbing, thought-provoking, and definitely not something to rush through. A difficult but important read.

[Sharon Moores · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gutting read, but it's abl timely and necessary one, and beautifully done. Walrath presents a history in each case of genocide, and then follows each one with textbook blackout poetry alongside interactive flip books: The reader is invited to cut pages so the initial illustration of a victim of genocide is then mixed with segments of illustrations of bugs, vermin, and other creatures the victims of genocide are often compared to, to illustrate how easy it is for a person to become dehumanized.

Only complaint: The book is printed on heavy quality paper with a tight binding, and it's 400 or so pages. So it's a hefty book and occasionally hard to wrangle -- it's not portable.

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful and brutal book that teaches while also expressing the horrors of genocides in a really creative, phenomenal way. Best read in small doses.

[Jerry Summers · Rating 5 out of 5]

After visiting the Genocide Memorial in Kigali Rwanda this book continues the learning of the inhumanity of people. Difference is good. Please let us not keep repeating the killing.

[Solace Coupethwaite · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful art collages, very informative. But not a dyslexic friendly font.

[Kara Gemian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Devastating and hard to read, but necessary and timely. The art didn't always work for me here in this format. I read that this was an installation first and I think that medium would have packed a bigger punch.