Invisible Wounds: Interviews with American Vets

by Jess Ruliffson

Cartoonist Jess Ruliffson spent five years traveling across the country interviewing veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, from kitchen tables in Georgia and libraries in New York City to dive bars in Mississippi and back porches in Vermont. What she finds is that the real experience of soldiers at war is a far cry from depictions in popular media like Zero Dark Thirty or American Sniper. In these illustrated interviews, Ruliffson shares the stories of men, women, and non-binary ex-soldiers who struggle to reconcile their wartime experiences with their postwar lives. Identity lies at the heart of these stories, as they grapple with their gender, their race, and the brutality they’ve witnessed and caused. In this compassionate, probing book, Ruliffson reveals how America’s endless entanglement in wars have affected the psyches of the people who wage them.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Nonfiction, War, Comics, Memoir, History, Biography

178 pages, Hardcover

Published November 1, 2022

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jess Ruliffson illustrates oral histories she conducted with twelve diverse veterans of the United States armed forces who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, revisiting their years of service and return to civilian life. The stories touch on heavy topics like suicide, hazing, homophobia, transphobia, and PTSD, offering a good introduction to the many issues facing veterans of our past two decades of war. The graphic novel format gives immediacy to the stories and moves the narratives along briskly.

The veterans:

• Nathan Galster - Amtracker / US Marine Reserves, 2003-2009

• Josiah White - Rifleman / US Marine Corps, 2005-2008

• Carleigh McCrory - Combat Lifesaver / Army National Guard, 1999-2006

• Drew Pham - Cavalry Platoon Leader / US Army, 2010-2013

• Jordan Blisk - Senior Airman, Aviation Mechanic / US Air Force Reserves, 2011-2015

• Paul David Mansfield - Infantry Sergeant / US Army, 1997-2001; Virginia National Guard, 2005-2010

• Maurice Decaul - Artillery Section Chief and Infantry Squad Leader / US Marine Corps, 1998-2005

• Nichole Marinaccio - Clerk / Army National Guard, 1999-2005

• Christie Turner - Lieutenant Colonel / US Army National Guard Reserves, 1984-2015

• Brandon Willitts - Intel Analyst / US Navy, 2001-2006

• Matthew Klein - Squad Marskman, Infantryman / US Army, 2002-2006

• Phil Klay - Captain, Public Affairs Officer / US Marine Corps, 2005-2009

An early, one-page version of Josiah White's story is available at The Boston Globe:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/201...

An early version of Drew Pham's story is available at The Nib:
https://thenib.com/i-trained-to-fight...

An early version of Jordan Blisk's story is available on Buzzfeed:
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/...

An early version of Paul David Mansfield's story can be previewed at Radiator Comics:
https://www.radiatorcomics.com/shop/u...

The story of Phil Klay (author of Redeployment) is available at Virginia Quarterly Review:
https://www.vqronline.org/interviews-...

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars--We don't often think about the people fighting America's modern wars and the toll the experience has taken on them. Because there's not the immediacy of a draft and the fact that the fighting has dragged on for a generation, it's easy for those not directly affected by military life to put it completely out of our minds. This book reminds us of the physical and emotional costs of endless war.

WOUNDS is a deeply thought-provoking and powerful book that is another example of a graphic format book to recommend to people who think that they don't like comics.

[Keen Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The hardest part about coming home is that there is no right or wrong answer. You have to learn to embrace ambiguity. The military is all about clarity. When I came home from Afghanistan, the navy said, “You’re going to Iraq.”.”

This takes a fairly original approach in that we get to hear from a genuinely broad range of American veteran voices of the Afghan war and the US illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. We hear from trans, female as well as male combatants and service people and the overriding shared commonality seems to be trauma, guilt, addiction and suicide ideation.

The drawing is strong and really effective with some nice colouring which works well too and the layout adds some clarity and crispness to the presentation. So this was a really interesting and probing book, which threw up many more questions than answers and clearly doesn't reflect well on American foreign policy or its treatment of its own veterans.

A nice counterpoint to this can be found in the excellent documentary series, “Once Upon A Time In Iraq” which gives a voice to the people who were impacted by the actions and decisions of the people in this book.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent collection of oral narratives from U.S. soldiers who served in the Iraqi and Afghanistan Wars in comic format. I loved it, and would love to read more like it. It's a nuanced glimpse into war and military life.

[Tamara Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Invisible wounds” is an oral history presented in a graphic novel format consisting of twelve stories of military veterans and focuses on the hardships they experience while in the military as well as transitioning from military life to civilian life.

Each veteran’s story begins with the veteran’s name, their military experience including rank, years of service, deployment location and dates, as well as their hometown.

While some of the stories presented have exciting moments, more often than not, the stories provide the reader with the harsh realities military veterans face when returning home from war including making sense of actions they did during their time at war as well as how to interact with friends and loved ones who don’t fully understand the impact of being a solider.

I will admit that prior to reading this book, although I was aware of the transition soldiers have to make in moving to civilian life, I wasn’t fully aware of the different ways one’s life is affected including getting an education, housing, or finding someone to talk to about military life who truly understands.

Despite their different genders, races, and sexual orientation, all the veterans are the same in their need to reconcile their wartime experience with their lives postwar. Some statements that stuck with me after finishing the book was “be in the present even when the present moments hits you like a ton of bricks,” and “putting a veteran on a pedestal actually puts them in a box.”

The graphic novel ends with an afterword from the author which provides her personal connection to veterans as well as an author’s note and a brief biography about the author.

[Michael Lund · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Darkness Visible”
Older generations do not really control the media that dominate the attention of younger generations. While platforms (Facebook, Twitter, TikTok) change—and change frequently—in the end subscriber numbers determine content. As a result, those coming of age today understand military experience primarily through superhero movies, video shooter games, and comic books. Anyone who wants to change this perspective must find a venue to reach those who will determine the world’s future, those who might initiate or become engaged in deadly conflict.
Jess Ruliffson with her fine work of graphic journalism, Invisible Wounds (Fantagraphics Books, 2022), may have accomplished this goal. In the tradition of Art Spiegleman’s Maus (1980-1991) and Alissa Torres’ American Widow (2008), Ruliffson uses the tools of comics to present realistic portraits of men and women at war and after war. Hers is a sobering vision that undermines the bloodless depiction of warfare offered by others.
From her childhood in a military family Ruliffson went on to study art. However, in 2008 the struggling economy didn’t offer her a career, so she began interviewing men and women she’d known in the primary and secondary schools she’d attended. Reconnecting though social media and then traveling to talk with them over five years, she constructed graphic representations of twelve of their stories.
Some like Phil Klay, whose Redeployment won the 2014 National Book Award for Fiction, became famous and are well known; but most pursued what we might term “ordinary life”—a firefighter for the National Park Service, a police detective for the NYPD, a home remodeler—and remained out of the general public’s view until now. However, just as Ruliffson uses conventional comic book techniques—outline drawings of people, color and shading, a variety of panel shapes and sizes, different types of dialogue bubbles, the occasional representation of sounds in letters broken free of bubbles—every page offers glimpses of the reality she uncovered in her research. A clue might be the book’s dominant color, orange, generally considered in Western art an energetic but not (pun intended) inflammatory color like red. Beneath or within familiar frameworks, then, experiences in the military, both inspiring and injurious, emerge to readers.
These veterans’ tools of survival, for instance, take the shape of clichés: “You have to capitalize on the good times.” “I brought my guys home. That’s the best thing I could do.” “Body image problems . . . lack of self-confidence . . . are things I have to work through like everyone else.” ”It’s . . . more about not throwing away what I have.” Of course, we all rely on the same platitudes.
The experiences these subjects have had, however, are unfamiliar to most in this age of the volunteer military. Says one vet: “the Marine Corps forces you to get off the boat and jump in. If you fail. You die.” “I saw a burned little boy,“ says another. “His dad was there with him. He was just a normal guy, you know?” A third tells how one enlisted soldier was treated by a superior, shaking “his weapon . . . describing how he killed Iraqis: shooting them in the chest three times and then once more in the head to be sure they were dead.” Says another: “The hardest part about coming home is there is no right or wrong answer. You have to learn to embrace ambiguity The military is all about clarity.” And another admits, “They never show that in the movies: how young soldiers are.” It seems, concludes one, “Americans are very interested in war, it’s just that they like to be told particular things about it.”
Near the end of the book a vet explains that the civilian public’s “disengagement [from our latest wars] makes the homecoming experience, which is always going to be strained, have a different tenor. Our discussion seems entirely symbolic.” Most Americans are protected from the literal just as modern medicine can often hide a body’s injury and its healing. Invisible Wounds makes the scars and what caused them painfully appear. This is not John Milton’s “darkness visible” that reveals to Satan in Hell “sights of woe, / Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where . . . hope never comes . . . “ (Paradise Lost, Book 1), because hope can come to our veterans through the support of those they serve. Thanks to Jess Ruliffson for drawing back the shade for us to see that need.
--Michael Lund, author of Eating With Veterans (BeachHouse Books, 2015)

[John Blacksad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Olacakmış da olmamış gibi.

Modern zamanlarda savaşın temsilcisi Amerikalılarla da empati kuracak halimiz yok? Vietnam’da Muhammed Ali Clay’in durduğu yerdeyiz elbette.

Fakat kör bir pasifizm değil bahsettiğim. Maalesef insan ve toplumların tabiatları, gerçekleri var. Bu çağda da öncesinde de yaşananlar var. İş böyle olunca kitap ilgimi çekiyor. Zaten isminden de anlaşılacağı üzere yaralara odaklanıyor. Savaş herkesi yaralar. Güçlü tararı da, galip tarafı da, mağlubu da. Ama hastalıklar, okul, mevsimler gibi hayatın da bir gerçeği.

Kitap yakın tarihte görev almış Amerikan askerlerinin mülakatlarından oluşuyor. Kuru bir tek taraflı anlatım yok. Yara dedik ya, çokça anlayamama, (belki) pişmanlık, şaşkınlık var. Orduya “bir şekilde” yazılmak. “Bir şekilde” savaşın içine düşmek. Ve “normal hayata” döndüğünde balığa dönüşmek… Bu bana terör olaylarının her gün can aldığı günlerde yaşadıklarımı hatırlatıyor. Mesleki olarak güvenlik güçleriyle yakın çalışıyoruz. İçlerinde pek çok farklı kökenlerden, eğitimlerden gelenler var. Fakat işte orada beraberiz. Bana şöyle derlerdi “Blacksad hocam, şimdi böyle bizlesin, ilgilisin ama yarın sende buralardan gidince unutursun!”

“Unutmam!” diyordum, unutmadım da, ama onları anlıyordum. İzne gidip geldiklerinde veya bazen bir telefon açtıklarında bile ülkenin başka yerlerinde onların yaşadıkları hiç yokmuşçasına hızlıca akan ve kendi evreninde seyreden akış onları çıldırtıyordu.

“Gizli Yaralar”da da böyle hayal kırıklıkları var, sorgulamalar var, güvensizlik var, cinnet hali var. Fakat hikaye ve anlatımlarda aradığım çarpıcılık yok. Kısacık bölümler bile kendi içerisinde dağınık. Beklentiyi asla yüksek tutmamak lazım. Zihinde kalıcı pek bir şey de bırakmıyor. Benim arşivimde kalır sanıyorum ama önerilir klasmanına net sokmuyorum.

Son not, kitaptaki çizgiler, siyahlar, gölgeler, titreşimler @nehircanozdemir i çağrıştırdı.

[Jim Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jess Ruliffson’s new book, “Invisible Wounds: Graphic Journalism,” presents twelve gripping personal accounts of recently returned veterans, all but one having served in Iraq or Afghanistan. Their openness and brutal honesty were captured in interviews that Ruliffson conducted and then distilled down to their essence. The subtle color palette and stark contrast of her drawings perfectly complement and build on the drama of each story. This is an important book that reminds readers of the struggles and challenges that veterans experience upon leaving the armed forces. It is also an excellent example of how graphic novel techniques can be applied in journalism.

Full disclosure: Jess is one of several instructors in a graphic novel intensive class that I am currently enrolled in through the Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW). In addition to being a talented author and illustrator, Jess is an insightful and nurturing teacher who is helping aspiring artists to move their book projects forward.

[Rocco Versaci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful oral testimonies delivered by a variety of veterans and presented by journalist/cartoonist Jess Ruliffson. Add this to works like David Finkel’s “Thank You for Your Service” as an eye-opening account of soldiers’ sobering experiences returning home.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

For what this is, it's masterful. It's a series of short pieces about the veteran experience in the words of the veterans themselves, illustrated in graphic novel style. Ruliffson did interviews with these vets and used their own words in the panels. I think the book can be forgiven for what it's not - the stories are intimate, but not in-depth; we don't get as much info or spend as much time with some of these folks as perhaps we would like, and sometimes I found myself wanting more detail from their stories. There were one or two in which I had trouble tracking some of the details of what was being relayed - they either moved too quickly, or Ruliffson was doing her best to provide the play-by-play second-hand when the original story was already difficult to track. I work with veterans, and as non-veteran myself I'll say that it's easy to get tripped up or not understand some of the details, or in some cases the human resources logistics, of what they tell me. It's sort of like if I were to tell you about a dispute I was having with my insurance company--it's bureaucratic and absurd to begin with, so yeah, hard to communicate. I think Ruliffson did a great job in finding these voices - they are diverse for a small collection. I appreciated reading from vets who have the viewpoint that no one can understand who hasn't been to war juxtaposed with one vet who notes that people tend to look for only their particular interest or focus when listening about war. I'll also say that this never felt exploitative or gratuitous.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those of us who aim to stay far from the field of battle and seek to disassociate to whatever extent possible from wars waged by nation states that supposedly represent us, a book giving voice to military veterans may be cause for certain apprehension. As an aficionado of graphic journalism on any subject, I was curious to see what these pages would offer. Through them, I gained apprehension of the other sense, as in comprehension or recognition of the complicated but ultimately relatable human struggles that go on within the juggernaut that is armed conflict. I still can't fully understand why people enlist willingly, but I sympathize with those who do much more than before, having journeyed through the stories herein. Comics have a way of distilling beauty and hope in the darkest places and Ruliffson's artistry has brought me closer to the veteran experience than any other media project I've encountered as a civilian noncombatant.

[Skye Kilaen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything I want to say about this graphic novel chronicling the words of veterans sounds like a cliche: thought-provoking, poignant, important. But basically I think if I'm going to pay taxes and some of those dollars fund wars, I have an obligation to keep my ears and heart open to learn about the human cost of those wars, both here and abroad. I appreciated how Ruliffson was able to include so many perspectives here and remind us there is no one story about being a veteran.

I might have wished for a couple of the stories to be more narratively clear in the way they were presented. For me, the value of hearing the interview subjects' voices outweighed that.

[Andréa]

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Invisible Wounds: Graphic Journalism, cartoonist Jess Ruliffson transcribes/illustrates the real-life stories of 12 US military veterans and their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, their time in the military, the effect on their lives, for better or worse (mostly the latter), and the transition from military to civilian life.

The stories are generally engaging and informative in a brutally honest way but I also found them to be a little pat in how neatly wrapped up they each are, and truncated in a style that you only get a brief glimpse into these people’s lives so that they’re not very impactful on the reader.

As the title suggests, much of the vets’ stories revolve around psychological problems after their experiences, with several soldiers experiencing depression, suicide attempts, and substance abuse/addiction. One soldier’s mental trauma is so bad that, in civilian life, he loses hours in a trance, simply frozen in place, and then wanders about in a fugue state!

There is some balance to the stories though so they’re not overwhelmingly negative. Some soldiers transition well into civilian life (one even transitions to another gender!) and find fulfilling careers as writers, poets, and detectives that they wouldn’t have found if they hadn’t enlisted. But even then those stories aren’t without an element of regret and pain and more than a few are as worse off, if not more so, than they were before they joined.

The book is almost entirely an oral history so Ruliffson is either quoting the vets directly from audio or email. I think this is why some stories are clearer than others as everyone has a different way of speaking and some are better storytellers than others. One soldier’s story of being threatened by another leading to a twisty tale of closed ranks at a senior level was so convoluted I wasn’t sure what to make of it.

Some of the points being made aren’t surprising or revelatory: how Hollywood dishonestly glorifies the military in movies like American Sniper and Zero Dark Thirty; how US citizens are bizarrely allowed to serve in the military years before being allowed to drink; and generally questioning the entire point of the US being in the Middle East to begin with.

Ruliffson’s art is pretty decent. It’s nothing that’ll make you sit up but it’s serviceable for the book. At times it’s a little too scratchy/thumbnail-y, but these are few and far between. The character design of one of the vets was really murky to me. I thought it was about an older man and learned at the end that it was actually an older woman instead!

Some of the stories here were fascinating regardless, some less so, but I think the book is important in showing the various perspectives of the military experience and presenting a more rounded take on its realities. I imagine it would be valuable to people thinking of joining up to get a better idea of what they’re getting themselves into, or to people with vets in their families or friend circles to help them understand them more. Though uneven, I found Invisible Wounds to be a sometimes compelling and thoughtful read.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely engaging graphic journalism based on oral history interviews the author/artist did with vets from the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars and--perhaps because she is a woman--she works hard on representation, including gbltq vets. 12 stories from a woman cartoonist who was born on an Air Force base herself, covered in about 170 pages and what's the central takeaway? That war trauma is generally permanent, you suffer the rest of your life from it in certain ways. Invisible wounds, as the title says, though some of the wounds are also visible.

Some vets here are much more functional than others, but the US Military does not do nearly enough to address the needs of its vets. High suicide rates, and everything else you may be aware of from the news. The effect is to care very much for what these folks have gone through while we have mostly lived our lives without acknowledging the wars just went on and on.

The book concludes with an interview with Phil Klay, the author of a collection of Iraqi war short stories, Redeployment, but she also talks to a person who became an artist for the military. This is an anguishing collection, but we need to make war trauma--and mass murder--personal to help us non-soldiers fully understand what is being asked of our young people on our behalf.

[James Tehero · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a powerful story telling masterwork because the author took such pains to honor the honesty and raw emotion each Veteran shared. The accounts are unforgettable and myriad when you consider how many more stories are out there that just didn’t have a platform. The sharing and telling of these stories is just the beginning of the impact that is possible: we can help those who share their pain; we can learn from their experience and hopefully live life in a manner that somehow prevents such trauma from happening to others. That’s a gargantuan task, but no greater than the courage it took for these folks to serve and then share their stories. There’s a lot to unpack. That’s what makes it a masterwork. But in no way is the author/artist trying to draw attention away from the people and their stories. Artistic truth is the aim here; all she’s done is pull the curtain away so that all can see what before was hidden, untold or assumed to be unimportant. That honor is a fitting memorial to them. But it is even greater to serve those that served in the way they now need, now that we know something of their stories. You may never meet these ‘characters,’ but you have them in your families and communities and meet/greet them everyday. No better place to start than where you are.

[Michael Kerr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a series of graphically depicted interviews--non-fiction short stories--focused on the survivors of the American forever wars, and the prices they pay as they try to return to civilian life. Alcoholism, mental illness, broken relationships, longing, regret, anger--it's all here, even as the protagonists do their best to present themselves as undamaged, or maybe more correctly, as striving for their lost selves.

This is a very smart book. The illustrations bring to mind the comics that usually propagandize the American military machine, but here are used to subvert that naïveté. The stories also all have an unfinished quality, unresolved. The medium is the message here; the reader is left wondering how these soldiers will continue to find ways to cope and thrive--that very feeling being the theme of the collective experiences related.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was so perfect, so many little details. Surprising stories. The signed bookplate was the perfect personal touch. I am so thankful for the afterword and epilogue too. I cried for her thanking her dad and thought it so special she acknowledged the important work of her therapist. The coloring helped me experience the moods so well. It was helpful for me to see how long ago she started and how the stories came out over years and the huge list of people who supported her. I was prepared for lots of gruesome images, but the ones sticking with me most are of the couple high fiving on bicycles and the one ones of the kid watching tv with his dad. Welcome Home, among the great graphic novelists, Jess!

[Vinayak Hegde · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Invisible Wounds" by Jeff Ruliffson delves into the psychological and emotional scars left by war, not only on the oppressed but also on the victors. The graphic novel explores the mental "exit wounds" that soldiers carry long after the battles end—haunted by the experience of killing, the abuse of power, and the struggle to adjust to civilian life. It also addresses the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ individuals in the military, highlighting their isolation and the difficulty of navigating identity in a hyper-masculine environment. Ruliffson doesn't shy away from criticizing the U.S. military and its seemingly endless involvement in conflicts, presenting a stark and unflinching portrayal of the human cost of war.

[Nazım · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kitap bitti ve üzerinden bir kaç gün geçti, benim kitaba olan negatifliğim soğudu ve bişeyler yazmanın zamanı geldi.

Kitabın ismi, çizgi karakteri ve bir şekilde dezavantajlı askerlerin hikayesini anlatması hasebiyle güzel bir hikaye olacağını düşünüyorsunuz. Fabien Thoulme’nin Unutulmazlar serisinin az gelişmiş versiyonu gibi. Hikayeler var, dramlar var ama şahsen o dramların ve acının hiçbiri ile bir bağ kurabildiğimi söyleyemiyorum. Bunun temelinde anti amerikancı bi yapıda olmamın etkisi elbette var. Okurken çoğu yerde karakterler “ülkem için mücadele ediyorum.” dediği yerde galiz küfürler etmişliği var. Irak’ta, Afganistan’da “ülkesi” için savaşmış mağdur amerikan askeri tipolojisi bana fazlasıyla çiğ geliyor.

Bunun yanında kitabın askerlik ve öldürmenin asker açısından görüşünü anlatma açısından gayet başarılı olduğunu söylemeliyim.

Çeviri konusunda ise yine bir Karakarga klasiği. İlk hikayede berbat bir çeviri, tutuk bir anlatı. Uyumsuz çekimler vs varken kitabın devamında bu sorun çözülüyor. Fakat “sonu olmayan dünya” kitabının temel problemi burada da var. Nasıl ki fizik konusunda bir kitap çevirirken o işin ehli birinden danışmanlık almak gerekiyorsa, savaş ve savaş psikolojisi söz konusu olunca da aynı şey gerekiyor. Yoksa kavramların, rütbelerin, görev sonrası durumların çevirmenin “anladığı kadarıyla” çevirdiği bir örneğini okumuş oluyorsunuz.

Arşivlik ve koleksiyonluk bir iş asla değil. Nazarımda “böyle olmamalı” örneği olarak eşe dosta gösterilecek bir kitap ve anlatı.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important book for Americans to understand the wounds our soldiers carry long after the conflict. Spanning gender, race, ethnicity, the effects of combat are long lasting and life altering. Written as direct quotes from the men and women interviewed, it can feel hard to follow at times. There were times when some military jargon was used that I didn't necessarily understand. But I do think it was important to use the interviewees' direct words. It makes it more powerful. Overall an insightful book.

[Tracie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collects vivid profiles of 12 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who share their stories--about "don't ask don't tell," assault, accessing services after transitioning genders, cultural identity, mental health, and more--through moving narrative and expressive panel-style illustrations.

I felt that some of the stories flowed a little better than others, but all were thought-provoking and eye-opening. I especially enjoyed the diverse representation. This is a quick but memorable read.

[Mmiller400m · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a dozen or so short chapters on a broadly diverse group in recent US military conflicts and how they are managing to go through it in different ways. Having not been in the military myself, this makes me appreciate our soldiers' sacrifices that much more. The art was just so-so and only a couple of the stories really stood out to me.

[Sarah Pascarella · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The hardest part about coming home is that there is no right or wrong answer. You have to learn to embrace ambiguity." - Brandon Willitts, Intel Analyst, US Navy, 2001-2006.
With Invisible Wounds, artist/journalist Jess Ruliffson spotlights those ambiguities with her artwork alongside veterans' own words and experiences. This is a thought-provoking and often deeply moving anthology.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Go check if your library has this book! I read it on Libby and it's so good. There's a diversity of voices that served in Iraq and Afghanistan, it's in their own words, told well, and skillfully illustrated.

I feel for these vets even though I have 0 experience with loved ones in the military. It is wild what war does to the ones who survive. 🙏

[Isabella Gallardo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked learning about veterans lives and experiences in the graphic novel format but I wish the interviews about each person were more in-depth. It felt a little all of the place with each persons story and I would have liked to read a lot more about a few people rather than very little about a lot of people.

[William Hume · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes the title says it all. When people think of war stories, they often think of the horror of the battlefield, but often overlooked are the non-battlefield difficulties faced by the soldiers during and after their involvement in the conflict. The collection of stories featured here expose these hardships, paired with stark, realistic artwork. Highly recommended.

[Reading · Rating 3 out of 5]

Powerful collection of US soldiers sharing recollections and repercussions of experiences their time in military operations and their lives beyond. Segments were a bit burger than I prefer but the art and content is still very powerful and worth a read.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an engaging graphic novel that incorporated mini bios of several veterans of the War on Terror. I was left wanting more details, but it's an interesting collective biography. Probably more interesting to adults than teens, although the content is fine for high school.

[Johanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, Their collective experience is engrossing. This book brings attention to the inequities faced by our Soldiers during and after military service.