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Apos
Apos is an illustrated graphic novel detailing the journey of young Mormon missionaries, offering vignettes into their struggles with companions, mental health and navigation of faith. The text of Apos is drawn from the author’s mission journals and discussions with others who served.
Culturally, Latter-day Saints (or “Mormons”) tend to speak of their missions in glowing terms. Miracles, blessings, and friendships that last a lifetime come from their experience. But too often pain and mental illness stay unacknowledged. This book is a space for those underrepresented stories, with the hope of fostering discussion, healing and understanding within the Latter-day Saint community and beyond.
Culturally, Latter-day Saints (or “Mormons”) tend to speak of their missions in glowing terms. Miracles, blessings, and friendships that last a lifetime come from their experience. But too often pain and mental illness stay unacknowledged. This book is a space for those underrepresented stories, with the hope of fostering discussion, healing and understanding within the Latter-day Saint community and beyond.
302 pages, Hardcover
Published May 1, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 23, 2026
I think this work is much needed and Wright did a fantastic job curating a diverse selection of stories and experiences to showcase the idea that missions are hard, people are imperfect, and the love that God has for his children despite their challenges, mistakes, and circumstances. A must read for anyone who’s served a mission or is thinking about serving one.
June 18, 2026
4.0/5
Apos is a very productive work in that it provides a range of underrepresented experiences, shows sequences of thought and emotion as people deal with the personal complexities of missionary service. It makes a good case for patience and understanding with everyone across spectra of Latter-Day Saint belief, affiliation, and orthodoxy.
It's a very interesting read; even if you're a Latter-Day Saint who has served as a missionary you'll definitely find that it has experiences that are just foreign to how your mission was. Apos showcases a very solid breadth of experience. The author does a really great job conveying from a number of valuably distinct viewpoints how race, gender, and sexual orientation alter missionary life; what I found to be the most surprising though was how much missionary life has changed over the years, given the relatively small time span (2010s-2020s), as well as just how differences in mission leadership/culture varied it across this sampling. Some stories felt so alien to my experience (by virtue of being run differently and being just a few years before or after me) despite being recognizable as very real missionary experiences, others felt exactly like my own.
It certainly hit close a lot of my personal experience as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, as someone who's mission had some more intense experiences than the average (to put it broadly), but is an active member and still happy with the choice to serve a mission. The readers I'd recommend this to the most, would probably have been:
1. myself 6 years ago, just coming off of my mission
2. any prospective mission president
3. some prospective missionaries (depending on the person)
It encourages patience with yourself, but it also really demonstrates the part you can play in making a period of missionary service an incredibly spiritually meaningful or painful experience for others.
Sometimes the format made it a tricky to follow what was a discrete episode or going larger, but overall I think the thematic/structural breakdown worked well. Graphic novels and adjacent formats aren't my usual, but it was quite well executed. It was certainly well, and thoughtfully designed for the physical hardcopy experience.
*I did support the book on Kickstarter so I may be biased
Apos is a very productive work in that it provides a range of underrepresented experiences, shows sequences of thought and emotion as people deal with the personal complexities of missionary service. It makes a good case for patience and understanding with everyone across spectra of Latter-Day Saint belief, affiliation, and orthodoxy.
It's a very interesting read; even if you're a Latter-Day Saint who has served as a missionary you'll definitely find that it has experiences that are just foreign to how your mission was. Apos showcases a very solid breadth of experience. The author does a really great job conveying from a number of valuably distinct viewpoints how race, gender, and sexual orientation alter missionary life; what I found to be the most surprising though was how much missionary life has changed over the years, given the relatively small time span (2010s-2020s), as well as just how differences in mission leadership/culture varied it across this sampling. Some stories felt so alien to my experience (by virtue of being run differently and being just a few years before or after me) despite being recognizable as very real missionary experiences, others felt exactly like my own.
It certainly hit close a lot of my personal experience as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, as someone who's mission had some more intense experiences than the average (to put it broadly), but is an active member and still happy with the choice to serve a mission. The readers I'd recommend this to the most, would probably have been:
1. myself 6 years ago, just coming off of my mission
2. any prospective mission president
3. some prospective missionaries (depending on the person)
It encourages patience with yourself, but it also really demonstrates the part you can play in making a period of missionary service an incredibly spiritually meaningful or painful experience for others.
Sometimes the format made it a tricky to follow what was a discrete episode or going larger, but overall I think the thematic/structural breakdown worked well. Graphic novels and adjacent formats aren't my usual, but it was quite well executed. It was certainly well, and thoughtfully designed for the physical hardcopy experience.
*I did support the book on Kickstarter so I may be biased
June 1, 2026
To start, I’ll acknowledge that I have some bias on account of knowing the author and having served as a missionary in the same area as her for some of the same time. I saw Anna’s capstone show that was a smaller version of what would end up becoming the full graphic novel. Suffice it to say that I’ve had a personal interest in seeing “Apos” come to pass and I’m so glad it finally has.
I’m also pleased that “Apos” is not only out now, but that it is phenomenal. I read it in a few short days and wished it was at least twice as long! It beautifully captures so many specific emotions that missionaries feel, the complex situations they find themselves in, and also the many light-hearted moments that can have. I was also pleased to see accounts of people who served during the COVID-19 pandemic, as that was an experience I didn’t have (but certainly didn’t envy).
The situations and emotions Anna deals with are personal, spiritual and powerful. Writing about religion or depicting actual religions events can be tricky, but she approaches it with nuance, tenderness, and obvious care. She never falls into the traps of apologetics or being overly critical, rather, she lets the stories be.
Having grown up in the church and served a mission, many of the hard thoughts the missionaries depicted in this novel have resonate deeply. Having also read many books from the spectrum of Mormon thought, I think this book is a must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in Mormonism or missionaries. “Apos” deserves to be regarded as a classic in Mormon literature, right up there with writers like Fawn Brodie and D. Michael Quinn.
I’m also pleased that “Apos” is not only out now, but that it is phenomenal. I read it in a few short days and wished it was at least twice as long! It beautifully captures so many specific emotions that missionaries feel, the complex situations they find themselves in, and also the many light-hearted moments that can have. I was also pleased to see accounts of people who served during the COVID-19 pandemic, as that was an experience I didn’t have (but certainly didn’t envy).
The situations and emotions Anna deals with are personal, spiritual and powerful. Writing about religion or depicting actual religions events can be tricky, but she approaches it with nuance, tenderness, and obvious care. She never falls into the traps of apologetics or being overly critical, rather, she lets the stories be.
Having grown up in the church and served a mission, many of the hard thoughts the missionaries depicted in this novel have resonate deeply. Having also read many books from the spectrum of Mormon thought, I think this book is a must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in Mormonism or missionaries. “Apos” deserves to be regarded as a classic in Mormon literature, right up there with writers like Fawn Brodie and D. Michael Quinn.
May 25, 2026
So beautifully illustrated and written. Anna did an amazing job creating this and making it accessible to people with all kinds of relationships with the church. This book is a wonderful contribution to the overarching nuanced mormon conversation, and is doing the essential work of increasing representation for people whose voices have historically been silenced. People will feel seen, heard, and less alone because of this book <3 Thank you Anna!!
June 2, 2026
These are the mission stories that need to be told! The stories in this book were handled with so much care to portray a realistic mission experience, with all the good and bad. I love that they’re all based on real stories and showcase a variety of paths post-mission, and respecting each one in the narrative.
June 2, 2026
As of now, I’m not sure how to attach this book to its correct author profile, so instead I’m leaving this (very biased 😉) review in the event that anyone has need of contacting me. I hope you all have a wonderful week 😊
(For inquiries: frizzbizillustration@gmail.com)
(For inquiries: frizzbizillustration@gmail.com)
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews