What do you think?
Rate this book
Follow Me In
Kat had no responsibilities and nothing to tie her down. But she had graduated university with no plans. She was an artist who hadn't drawn in five years. She was lost. What's more, she'd been avoiding admitting to herself something that all of those around her knew; that her boyfriend, Richard, had some serious problems with alcohol. Looking for a fresh start, the two of them quit their jobs and embarked on a journey to Mexico for what what they expected to be an adventure of a lifetime. It led to experiences that changed both of their lives and to Kat rediscovering a love of art, a lifelong attachment to Mexico and the strength to move on.
The debut graphic novel from Katriona Chapman is a beautifully illustrated recounting of a trip she made around Mexico back in 2003, interspersed with pages of her sketchbook from that time, as well as explorations of the cultural and bio-diversity of Mexico and its fascinating history. Follow Me In is part memoir, part coming of age story, part love letter to Mexico, and is undoubtedly a major work from one of the best illustrators and comics makers in the UK.
The debut graphic novel from Katriona Chapman is a beautifully illustrated recounting of a trip she made around Mexico back in 2003, interspersed with pages of her sketchbook from that time, as well as explorations of the cultural and bio-diversity of Mexico and its fascinating history. Follow Me In is part memoir, part coming of age story, part love letter to Mexico, and is undoubtedly a major work from one of the best illustrators and comics makers in the UK.
248 pages, Hardcover
First published September 22, 2018
2 people are currently reading
221 people want to read
About the author
Katriona Chapman
13 books16 followersI'm Kat... an illustrator and comic artist/writer living in London. Most of my work is based around graphite - usually pencil with digital elements. I started out working as a children's book illustrator and have worked with publishers all over the world. I publish small-press books and zines under the name of Tomatito Press and in 2013 I co-created the graphite anthology Tiny Pencil alongside artist/writer Amber Hsu. My latest project is a collection of comics, illustration & writing called Katzine. It comes out twice a year. I am most inspired by travel, day to day life and the natural world.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
December 18, 2021
A beautiful long form memoir by Katriona Chapman about a trip she took with her then-boyfriend, who struggled with alcohol. We know they are no longer a couple from the opening frame and again coming back to this near the conclusion. Chapman is emotionally fragile, unable to do her art, hoping the trip will be good for her personally and artistically. She and he are in their twenties, and fly to take a long trip through Mexico. They are tourists who don't speak much Spanish, so they are cut off from mostly everyone as most tourists are who don't speak the language well. They end up talking to other tourists and expats. And most of the talk is not all that profound. They mainly avoid their problems.
And isolated as they are allows Chapman the opportunity to reflect, but she mainly reflects about her boyfriend's alcohol abuse. And they travel, and so there are two page spreads about different places/areas they encounter there, but she doesn't speak all that meaningfully about Mexico, really. That part of it seems a bit peripheral to her emotional struggles, which we also don't know all that much about, frankly. What do we learn about Mexico that we wouldn't learn in a guidebook?
The art is terrific, I think, especially the color, reflecting Mexico very well, in my memory of it. And from time to time we see black and white drawings Chapman actually managed to draw when she was there, which I liked seeing. She based the book in large part on a journal she had kept from the time, which was something like a decade earlier, a time in her twenties. I'll look for more of her work. She's a good artist.
And isolated as they are allows Chapman the opportunity to reflect, but she mainly reflects about her boyfriend's alcohol abuse. And they travel, and so there are two page spreads about different places/areas they encounter there, but she doesn't speak all that meaningfully about Mexico, really. That part of it seems a bit peripheral to her emotional struggles, which we also don't know all that much about, frankly. What do we learn about Mexico that we wouldn't learn in a guidebook?
The art is terrific, I think, especially the color, reflecting Mexico very well, in my memory of it. And from time to time we see black and white drawings Chapman actually managed to draw when she was there, which I liked seeing. She based the book in large part on a journal she had kept from the time, which was something like a decade earlier, a time in her twenties. I'll look for more of her work. She's a good artist.
November 20, 2018
Follow Me In is Katriona Chapman’s debut graphic novel, but she is hardly new to comics, having contributed to various anthologies and self-published eight issues of her comic / zine Katzine in recent years. I am fairly new to Katriona’s work, having only bought the first two issues of Katzine a few months ago, but I enjoyed those two issues so much that she quickly became one of my favourite current comic artists and I pre-ordered Follow Me In as soon as I heard about it.
Katriona is an incredibly talented artist, whose beautiful, deceptively-simple pencil drawings – particularly the characters she draws – have a heart-breaking air of sadness about them, which I think is what drew me to her work in the first place, while her tales of everyday life made me a fan.
While the stories in Katzine mainly focus on Katriona’s day-to-day life with her current boyfriend, Sergio, she also talks about her love of travel, and Follow Me In fully embraces that love of travel, telling the story of her travels around Mexico with a former boyfriend, Richard, who was an alcoholic.
I am a fairly boring man, and also a genuine agoraphobic – nowhere near as bad as I used to be but still not particularly outgoing – so travel has never been big on my agenda and Follow Me In may not seem like an obvious purchase for me. However, the thing that puts me off of travel is the actual travelling – I would like to see the world, I just don’t want to hang around at airports, take any long plane / bus journeys, and spend the whole holiday worrying about the journey home – and as a huge Love and Rockets fan, Mexico is somewhere that actually appeals quite a bit.
While the interior art in Katzine is black and white, Follow Me In combines Katriona’s pencil art with vibrant colour throughout and the results are, unsurprisingly, stunning, and really bring her travels around Mexico to life. The story is broken up by numerous pages – often double-page spreads – that provide some background on the history of Mexico, Mexican traditions, Mexican foods, and even travel tips, while the story conveys the vastness of the country and, to my mind, the tedium of travel quite effectively. If anything, reading about all those long bus journeys has made me want to travel even less than I did before!
From a graphic medicine point of view, Katriona successfully shows what it must be like to live with an alcoholic, even when they aren’t actually drinking. Only a few of Richard’s drunken binges are depicted, but worse incidents before the journey are referred to – hospitalisation, jobs lost, fist fights, etc. – and the possibility that Richard might get drunk hangs over Kat (as she calls herself here) throughout.
Although Kat and Richard share a memorable, life-changing journey together, Richard’s drinking – and the threat of it – gradually pushes them apart. Meanwhile, Kat reconnects with drawing – something she apparently hadn’t done for five years before their journey – and actual drawings she did while in Mexico are scattered throughout the book.
My only criticism of Follow Me In is that I thought all the double-page spreads / guides to Mexico broke up the story, somewhat. In fact, although they were all interesting, I found myself reading them quite impatiently so I could get back to Kat and Richard. However, I don’t think putting these sections at the back of the book would have worked as well and my feeling that they interrupted the story didn’t seem to be as much of an issue on a repeat reading, once I knew the journey’s outcome.
Overall, Follow Me In is a great debut graphic novel and an absolutely stunning guide to Mexico, which has saved me from ever having to travel there. Now I just need Katriona to document a few more journeys to places I’d like to see – New York, Italy, etc. – so that I really don’t have to travel anywhere.
(Review originally written for Graphicmedicine.org)
Katriona is an incredibly talented artist, whose beautiful, deceptively-simple pencil drawings – particularly the characters she draws – have a heart-breaking air of sadness about them, which I think is what drew me to her work in the first place, while her tales of everyday life made me a fan.
While the stories in Katzine mainly focus on Katriona’s day-to-day life with her current boyfriend, Sergio, she also talks about her love of travel, and Follow Me In fully embraces that love of travel, telling the story of her travels around Mexico with a former boyfriend, Richard, who was an alcoholic.
I am a fairly boring man, and also a genuine agoraphobic – nowhere near as bad as I used to be but still not particularly outgoing – so travel has never been big on my agenda and Follow Me In may not seem like an obvious purchase for me. However, the thing that puts me off of travel is the actual travelling – I would like to see the world, I just don’t want to hang around at airports, take any long plane / bus journeys, and spend the whole holiday worrying about the journey home – and as a huge Love and Rockets fan, Mexico is somewhere that actually appeals quite a bit.
While the interior art in Katzine is black and white, Follow Me In combines Katriona’s pencil art with vibrant colour throughout and the results are, unsurprisingly, stunning, and really bring her travels around Mexico to life. The story is broken up by numerous pages – often double-page spreads – that provide some background on the history of Mexico, Mexican traditions, Mexican foods, and even travel tips, while the story conveys the vastness of the country and, to my mind, the tedium of travel quite effectively. If anything, reading about all those long bus journeys has made me want to travel even less than I did before!
From a graphic medicine point of view, Katriona successfully shows what it must be like to live with an alcoholic, even when they aren’t actually drinking. Only a few of Richard’s drunken binges are depicted, but worse incidents before the journey are referred to – hospitalisation, jobs lost, fist fights, etc. – and the possibility that Richard might get drunk hangs over Kat (as she calls herself here) throughout.
Although Kat and Richard share a memorable, life-changing journey together, Richard’s drinking – and the threat of it – gradually pushes them apart. Meanwhile, Kat reconnects with drawing – something she apparently hadn’t done for five years before their journey – and actual drawings she did while in Mexico are scattered throughout the book.
My only criticism of Follow Me In is that I thought all the double-page spreads / guides to Mexico broke up the story, somewhat. In fact, although they were all interesting, I found myself reading them quite impatiently so I could get back to Kat and Richard. However, I don’t think putting these sections at the back of the book would have worked as well and my feeling that they interrupted the story didn’t seem to be as much of an issue on a repeat reading, once I knew the journey’s outcome.
Overall, Follow Me In is a great debut graphic novel and an absolutely stunning guide to Mexico, which has saved me from ever having to travel there. Now I just need Katriona to document a few more journeys to places I’d like to see – New York, Italy, etc. – so that I really don’t have to travel anywhere.
(Review originally written for Graphicmedicine.org)
February 2, 2019
Mopey Europeans mope around Mexico in this pointless travelogue.
Chapman seems to purposely walk a fine line where she doesn't reveal much about herself or Mexico. Basically, she's unhappy because it is hard to motivate herself to draw and her boyfriend may be an alcoholic. And while she criticizes all the tourists who are trampling over the locals, that's all she really does. She interacts more with the ruins and plants of Mexico than any of the people. The longest conversations she has in Mexico are with her boyfriend, ex-pats, and other tourists.
To provide context for their meandering, she interrupts the narrative sporadically to drop in two-page spreads of quick history dumps similar to what one might find in a nonfiction book for children. At least the art is nice in a fuzzy, unfocused sort of way, especially the color.
My takeaway: Thanks for letting your country and culture be the backdrop against which I realize I need to break up with my boyfriend. Ta!
Chapman seems to purposely walk a fine line where she doesn't reveal much about herself or Mexico. Basically, she's unhappy because it is hard to motivate herself to draw and her boyfriend may be an alcoholic. And while she criticizes all the tourists who are trampling over the locals, that's all she really does. She interacts more with the ruins and plants of Mexico than any of the people. The longest conversations she has in Mexico are with her boyfriend, ex-pats, and other tourists.
To provide context for their meandering, she interrupts the narrative sporadically to drop in two-page spreads of quick history dumps similar to what one might find in a nonfiction book for children. At least the art is nice in a fuzzy, unfocused sort of way, especially the color.
My takeaway: Thanks for letting your country and culture be the backdrop against which I realize I need to break up with my boyfriend. Ta!
November 27, 2018
Long form suits Katriona Chapman, allowing the images to her journeys through Mexico to accrue emotional weight through repetition, through the subtle shifts in body language and colour palette, and in the way these narrative images contrast with the lovingly detailed maps and sketches.
The difficulties of writing a book about a place you know only as a tourist are present, but are incorporated into the book as subtly as the more personal subject matter relating to her then-partner's alcohol issues. The country and its people are never reduced to mere backdrop - they are presented here as a series of focal points in their own right, and the focus of the story is on the places travelled to more often than it is on those doing the travelling.
The difficulties of writing a book about a place you know only as a tourist are present, but are incorporated into the book as subtly as the more personal subject matter relating to her then-partner's alcohol issues. The country and its people are never reduced to mere backdrop - they are presented here as a series of focal points in their own right, and the focus of the story is on the places travelled to more often than it is on those doing the travelling.
December 10, 2018
The artwork is beautiful, I learned a ton about Mexico, and did I mention the artwork?
This will also interest graphic medicine folks for its depictions of alcoholism and a brief experience with medicine as a traveler.
This will also interest graphic medicine folks for its depictions of alcoholism and a brief experience with medicine as a traveler.
June 8, 2022
Another graphic novel that I grabbed from the shelf at the library at first glance has joined my "read" list. I found the drawings/sketches stunning and I loved reading all about the travel of the author through Mexico. I found the style that she weaved the story and Mexican culture/history and the struggles with her boyfriend's alcoholism to be a bit displeasing, though. She didn't get deep enough into what was going on in any of the sections for it to feel truly passion-filled. I'm still glad I read it, if not to even just awaken my desire to travel to Mexico someday.
January 23, 2021
The debut graphic novel from Katriona Chapman is a travelogue of her extensive trip to Mexico, that she took in 2003. She was just finding herself in that time period and her travel mate was her alcoholic boyfriend, who could disappear on a bender, at any time. This beautifully illustrated memoir, is a coming of age story and a love letter to Mexico.
March 4, 2019
I liked this. It was a dense intermingling of autobio and cultural history that felt heavy and cathatic. Expressive art, deeply felt feelings.
August 26, 2025
Such a heartrending story about a young couple travelling through Mexico and grappling with the impact of alcoholism. I learned a lot more about Mexico, the historical facts and local culture included was a nice surprise.
August 6, 2022
Loved it. Brought back many memories.
December 28, 2018
This book has an interesting combination of travel journal (with literal LONG paragraphs about sites and sections of Mexico) that add up to a comprehensive and beautiful long trip AND personal relationship stories, bitter sweet memories from the author about fearing her then boyfriend's alcoholism as it popped up on their trip. The book has a funny pace, between quick conversations and negotiating where to stay the night various places and huge spreads highlighting historical sites in depth. I enjoyed watching the main character as she eased herself back into drawing over the course of the trip, that is a journey I could relate to.
November 15, 2022
3.5 I think this graphic novel had the potential to be really good. I liked the restrained and colorful style of the illustrations. The storyline had room for improvement though. The relationship with her boyfriend was the only thing that kept it from being a travelog but it needed more emotional depth. We only saw what was happening with them with very little insight into how they were feeling. Some swearing.
January 25, 2025
Katriona has written and drawn a beautiful, sad and informative travelog and graphic novel. I highly recommend this. I love how she has combined snippets of history and facts about Mexico and Mexican life with the personal journey that she did with her then boyfriend. I also like the sadness and the mood of the book. And the details about how she worked on her drawings while traveling.
August 22, 2022
Never wrote a review for this one originally, but I remember it being a sad and interesting account of time spent backpacking through Mexico. Fairly unique art-style which I felt really lent to the more emotional elements of the story, and lots of informative content about Mexican history, people, and society.
February 19, 2024
I really liked the way she put together the story with history and details about the culture. The way she showed how alcoholism can look was also interesting. I really liked the book - prob the only reason it’s not higher is bc I just finished a James Baldwin book which nothing can really compare to…
November 29, 2023
I read this first in 2018 and put it back on my shelves - so it had something that attracted me, but for the life of me I couldn't remember - besides the artwork. Neither could my wife who also read it at the time.
BUT on re-reading I found again I really enjoyed the book.
The style of art is simple yet has a knack of being complicated too. The short passages that give historical detail and travel maps are beautifully drawn and remind me of how flexible comics can be.
The narrative, following Kat and her boyfriend on their travels around Mexico draw the reader in especially as narrative tension is there - Richard has a drinking problem. They agree on how to spend their money; on where to go and what to see - but that tension rears it head. And here is my one criticism. We never seem to resolve the issue of Richard's drinking. Kat mentions how she hates it (and represents as a snake around her neck) but realises she is dependent on him to help her be brave and do this journey. The only clue I see is the start of the book where the two meet to talk and he has hardly changed at all. Perhaps that's the clue? The ending shows them both on another bus (bus journeys figure large and long in this book) re-entering the world they know and shows the traveller's dilemma of having to return to 'normal'. But Kat and Richard gave up their jobs for this trip. I would love to see how they coped with everyday life afterwards.
BUT on re-reading I found again I really enjoyed the book.
The style of art is simple yet has a knack of being complicated too. The short passages that give historical detail and travel maps are beautifully drawn and remind me of how flexible comics can be.
The narrative, following Kat and her boyfriend on their travels around Mexico draw the reader in especially as narrative tension is there - Richard has a drinking problem. They agree on how to spend their money; on where to go and what to see - but that tension rears it head. And here is my one criticism. We never seem to resolve the issue of Richard's drinking. Kat mentions how she hates it (and represents as a snake around her neck) but realises she is dependent on him to help her be brave and do this journey. The only clue I see is the start of the book where the two meet to talk and he has hardly changed at all. Perhaps that's the clue? The ending shows them both on another bus (bus journeys figure large and long in this book) re-entering the world they know and shows the traveller's dilemma of having to return to 'normal'. But Kat and Richard gave up their jobs for this trip. I would love to see how they coped with everyday life afterwards.
May 5, 2019
Follow Me In is the best kind of travelog, the kind that let's the reader experience old new places in lush color and beautiful renditions while the personal story takes shape. Before smart phones and social media, during the reign of the internet cafe, before the "war on drugs," the couple travel from Mexico City to Creel to Tulum with little trouble, even through the now-troubled Chiapas region. Mexico as their stunning backdrop, the two backpackers, Kat and Richard, travel to visit old ruins of cities and jungles and modern cities as they each battle their own inner conflicts. Told from the author's point of view, her emotional struggle is what the reader knows explicitly, but Richard is obviously battling his own demons, and from time to time, finding too many bottles of beer to drown his sorrows. Together, they make an interesting traveling couple, and their adventures are intensified with some tricky budgeting. Both are acutely aware of what it means to be a tourist and the part they play in the invasion of the every-day life of Mexicans in the places they visit.
Recommended for those who like travel, Mexico, ancient ruins, and history.
Recommended for those who like travel, Mexico, ancient ruins, and history.
August 4, 2019
I enjoyed the book - it took me a little bit to get invested, but the artist/author's art of Mexico alone was worth reading this book. I appreciated that she discussed her issue with being a tourist but wanting to avoid "touristy" parts (as, by being there, she makes it touristy.) There also was some discussion of indigenous peoples in modern day that I wish she would have delved more into, but the book's focus was on the archaeological sites of Mayan/Aztec/other civilizations ruins and less on the present day.
The very personal aspects (Kat dealing with her boyfriend's alcoholism) were, I felt, well woven-into the main storyline and did not detract from it at all.
(If I had one complaint, it'd be that I wish she would have translated the Spanish she used -maybe the purpose was to make the reader feel as unaware and unsettled as she was, not knowing what was going on, but I feel for the purposes of making a travelogue it made me want to break my reading flow and look up the words. However, if it's an artistic choice to do so, I can respect that!)
The very personal aspects (Kat dealing with her boyfriend's alcoholism) were, I felt, well woven-into the main storyline and did not detract from it at all.
(If I had one complaint, it'd be that I wish she would have translated the Spanish she used -maybe the purpose was to make the reader feel as unaware and unsettled as she was, not knowing what was going on, but I feel for the purposes of making a travelogue it made me want to break my reading flow and look up the words. However, if it's an artistic choice to do so, I can respect that!)
October 27, 2019
This is so gorgeous?! The rich colors and soft lines are calming to look at. The faces and body language are expressive and humanizing. I felt transported.
Chapman's book is a memoir and travelogue of a journey through Mexico in 2003/04. She traveled with her boyfriend, taking in archeological sites and doing a fair bit of hiking. During the trip she comes to terms with her boyfriend's drinking problem. They struggle with learning Spanish and don't master it; unfortunately this means they don't get to know many people. There is some Spanish in the book, but mostly elementary level, and you can read the book without knowing any Spanish. (I appreciated that they seemed like thoughtful people who wanted to engage in a respectful way during their travels, but I do wonder why they didn't do more language learning.) They are traveling on a budget and are careful with their spending. One day they walk 24 km (about 15 miles) because they can't afford a taxi!
The cover and title don't really give an accurate depiction of the book in my opinion.
Chapman's book is a memoir and travelogue of a journey through Mexico in 2003/04. She traveled with her boyfriend, taking in archeological sites and doing a fair bit of hiking. During the trip she comes to terms with her boyfriend's drinking problem. They struggle with learning Spanish and don't master it; unfortunately this means they don't get to know many people. There is some Spanish in the book, but mostly elementary level, and you can read the book without knowing any Spanish. (I appreciated that they seemed like thoughtful people who wanted to engage in a respectful way during their travels, but I do wonder why they didn't do more language learning.) They are traveling on a budget and are careful with their spending. One day they walk 24 km (about 15 miles) because they can't afford a taxi!
The cover and title don't really give an accurate depiction of the book in my opinion.
November 24, 2021
Read it in one sitting, though I was tempted to put it down for various reasons.
The art is beautiful, and it was the cover that spoke to me. Disappointing, though, that that sort of imagery wasn't present much throughout. I did enjoy the interspersed black and drawings from her sketchbook and even the informative pages of Mexico's history and culture. However, the latter felt removed from her own story and seemed to highlight the issue I had with it throughout: we never truly get in her head, and as a result, made for a disconnected reading.
Throughout, she and her boyfriend make it a point to be unlike the other tourists, but cannot help it due to lack of language or money. There were attempts to connect with Mexico the land and the country, but in this telling it came across as superficial with beautiful sights to see but no real conversation or interaction. Just more informative or removed. In a way, it reflected their relationship. And despite enjoying the story in the moment, I kept wondering, why this outsider perspective?
The art is beautiful, and it was the cover that spoke to me. Disappointing, though, that that sort of imagery wasn't present much throughout. I did enjoy the interspersed black and drawings from her sketchbook and even the informative pages of Mexico's history and culture. However, the latter felt removed from her own story and seemed to highlight the issue I had with it throughout: we never truly get in her head, and as a result, made for a disconnected reading.
Throughout, she and her boyfriend make it a point to be unlike the other tourists, but cannot help it due to lack of language or money. There were attempts to connect with Mexico the land and the country, but in this telling it came across as superficial with beautiful sights to see but no real conversation or interaction. Just more informative or removed. In a way, it reflected their relationship. And despite enjoying the story in the moment, I kept wondering, why this outsider perspective?
Read
February 11, 2021When I was browsing the Avery Hill catalogue this one caught my eye as I was really interested in the art style and the use of colour. While I did enjoy Follow Me In, the other reviews noticed something which made me question my overall enjoyment.
I did like the overall story and I thought the information about Mexico was useful as i really didn't know anything about the country until reading this book. The use of colour was also a real highlight as it change depended on the scene.
While I did like the story, other reviews have stated that it is a bit weird that she discovered so much about herself and the relationship with her boyfriend in a foreign country. While I did have a small problem with this, it is hard to criticise when this actually did happen to her and made a change to her life.
I also did like the art style and it did have a sense of whimsy and escapism that I wanted more of. Hopefully I will read some more of her books in the future!
I did like the overall story and I thought the information about Mexico was useful as i really didn't know anything about the country until reading this book. The use of colour was also a real highlight as it change depended on the scene.
While I did like the story, other reviews have stated that it is a bit weird that she discovered so much about herself and the relationship with her boyfriend in a foreign country. While I did have a small problem with this, it is hard to criticise when this actually did happen to her and made a change to her life.
I also did like the art style and it did have a sense of whimsy and escapism that I wanted more of. Hopefully I will read some more of her books in the future!
November 25, 2019
There's so much to really charm about this book. The artwork is so vibrant, elegant and rich. And I must confess travelogues as one of my favourite genres of graphic novel. It really immersed the reader in the history and people it chronicled. What held it back from being something truely great was the way it tried to balance personal memoir and inner struggle with its much more detached historical account. I think if the struggle at the centre had been given more focus it would have ultimately been more impactful overall. Ultimately it's not that much of a strong narrative, and if you're not interested at all in the travel aspect you would find this book potentially difficult to follow. I was pleased enough with the hints at personal struggle to allow that story to take passenger seat to the sights, sounds and stories the characters cross paths with.
August 14, 2019
I loved the drawings in this. Chapman packs so much emotion into each page. I think I love memoirs told in this format because the author is drawing themselves as they wish to be seen, and there is power in that. The colors were rich and the narrative easy to follow.
Some downsides are that this travel memoir feels disjointed at times as she switches back and forth from "scrapbook" mode to "narrative" mode. There was not enough content for each to be it's own book (and also guide book as graphic novel would be a strange idea). Perhaps the intent was to show how the travel interludes were as much a distraction for the author during her time there (but in that case a positive thing) as they are for this reader?
Some downsides are that this travel memoir feels disjointed at times as she switches back and forth from "scrapbook" mode to "narrative" mode. There was not enough content for each to be it's own book (and also guide book as graphic novel would be a strange idea). Perhaps the intent was to show how the travel interludes were as much a distraction for the author during her time there (but in that case a positive thing) as they are for this reader?
March 13, 2020
Katriona’s drawings and sketches are vibrant, warm, and comforting. Her Mexico illustrations in particular seemed tinted with sunshine through a rose-colored lens. I felt her nostalgia for Mexico and anxiety towards her relationship radiate through those drawings.
The dialogue and narration didn’t quite evoke the same response. Both fell a little flat and didn’t stand out to me as a value added. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed this visual feast!
The dialogue and narration didn’t quite evoke the same response. Both fell a little flat and didn’t stand out to me as a value added. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed this visual feast!
November 2, 2018
Found the travelogue aspect fascinating. May up my rating to a 4 later - it was good, just had a lot of ups and downs in terms of quality and there were some lettering errors (misspellings, lack of punctuation, proper nouns sometimes not capitalized, etc).
Plus, it was the perfect length for Cosy Reading Night! 😋
Plus, it was the perfect length for Cosy Reading Night! 😋
May 3, 2019
Picked this up on an impulse at the library and I am so glad I did! Not only is it gorgeously illustrated, it’s educational in a really fun way and makes you feel connected to the author as it follows a very personal journey of hers. This is the first graphic novel I’ve read as an adult and it has really intrigued me to want to read more of this genre.
October 20, 2019
I was attracted to the book by its subject matter. I loved the colorful drawings of the people and places of Mexico. I enjoyed following the journey of the author throughout both this spectacular country and through problems in her life. Part memoir, part travel book, part sketchbook, I am looking forward to more books by this talented artist and author.
November 20, 2020
This is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel about a couple traveling in Mexico. The artwork was so well done and the author/illustrator gives us a lot of information on Mexican history. The boyfriend clearly has an alcohol problem but it seemed like she only touched the surface with that. I just felt like I wanted more of the story to play out between the couple.
May 31, 2023
3.5 stars. The author’s account of her time backpacking through Mexico with her boyfriend who struggled with alcoholism. Great art, interesting info about Mexico (though possibly dated, this trip took place in the early 2000s). The parts about their relationship were disappointing; pretty repetitive and didn’t really get under the surface.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews