Member Reviews
This book was amazing! It was so heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time, and I myself was very attached to the characters. Seeing how much love Clémence really had for Grandma was wonderful, and I found myself connecting to Clémence the most.
Before deciding to read Forget Me Not, I first read reviews and I saw mixed opinions about this book. But one thing they mostly have in common is that this would make you cry. I should've known I would not be exempt. I was shedding little tears after finishing this book. It's not the "break your heart and cry your eyeballs out" kind of hurt but it's the tiny stabs of pain that make your heart feel heavy kind. It's a given that this would make you emotional just from reading the description but I still didn't expect it to be like that. Great storytelling! It was smooth and the novel succeeded in making me feel what the characters were feeling.
tw: strangling
I liked everything aside from the part where the main character spaced out and came back to the present seeing her own hands strangling her grandma. Like... why??? I don't get why that part had to be included.
I unfortunately was unable to review this book, as it was archived quicker than I expected! I am, however, still very much interested in reading it one day in the future.
This was such a heavy, wonderful, real book. My Grandma had dementia and got to the point where she didn’t recognize us, never asked about my Grandpa, only mentioned her parents, and eventually had trouble forming sentences that we could understand. It was heartbreaking, just like this book. I was a little confused at the end, maybe as an American I missed a subtle detail, but I wasn’t exactly sure what the resolution was, but I do know I had big feelings reading this.
This was such a moving story. My grandmother had Alzheimer's and I could relate to the highs and lows Clémence experienced on this journey.
This had me crying at the end.
Forget Me Not, is a beautifully heartbreaking story about the connections we make with people and the importance of treating the elderly with humanity and compassion.
It is beautiful, and full of so much love.
This book follows Clemence as she elopes with her grandmother from the nursing home . Her grandmother suffers from alzeimers and yet she is such a wholesome person, she is full of energy and was definately my favourite charcter . Clemence struggles with her personal life ... a lot and she had always been dependent and close to her grandmother .
The illustrations were just stunning , the choice of colours , the style and how well the colours complemented each scene and helped build the ambience is to be noted and prasied .
The entire story was beautifully crafted and well written . There were so many funny incidents and every event or scene in the book was meaningfull and it added value to the book as a whole .
Although the ending of the book is sorrowfull it is still full of hope and joy and only bits of misery flutter by like glitter in the sky .
After reading this book , I spent a good hour recollecting and reliving the beautifull memories that I had made with my lovely grandparents. This book also made me realise that I am so lucky to have been able to meet all my grandparents and to live alongside them and this was something I had never cherised but this book made me call them up and thank them for all that thsy have ever done for me .
Thank you to Netgaley for providing me with an arc of this book .
This was a sweet graphic novel about Clémence and her grandmother, who has Alzheimers. She rescues her from the nursing home and takes her on a road trip to revisit her grandmother's childhood home. But along the way, there is a lot that goes wrong.
It's a very heart warming story that drives home the importance of relationships with family, as well as forgiveness.
The illustrations were very well done. It is, however, very European, so prudish Americans should beware - there is illustrations of nudity in the book.
Given the subject matter, this is a heavy topic about identity and how fragile lives are with or without them, especially when you're watching a person seemingly slipping away losing theirs.
Contains nudity, older teen warning.
I've never read a story quite like this. Everything is about memories, more so than you might think. A multilayer structure of memories, built on top of each other. Something I really enjoyed.
A retelling of the most recent events, kind of like a foundation for everything, where the main character and her grandmother are lost on their journey to her childhood home.
Lost both in the sense of physically unsure of their geographical location, as well as within their shared experiences. With glimpses of both shared memories and somewhere within that, their own individual memories.
Lost in these parts of themselves and how they apply to the present. How those events might affect who they are or who others know them as.
It addresses the hard truth that most people are fighting to hang on to an identity they've invested into.
This was an enjoyable read. Both serious one moment and light hearted the next.
Heart warming and incredibly emotional. The art style is perfectly whimsical for the journey, into the past.
I cried, because this story made me feel something very real within myself and the fears I have about my family and aging generations.
**Thank you to Europe Comics and Netgally for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.**
This graphic novel tells the beautiful story of Clemence, a young French woman who decides to kidnap her grandmother from her carehome she can't stand to be emprisoned in. Clemence wants to take her grammy back to the house she grew up in, by the sea, one last time before it's time to go...
They set off on a very emotional journey, sharing memories and adventures. They learn from each other, of love and acceptance and living.
I’ve recently lost an aunts to dementia and could relate to this lovely story.
Was so touching and just what I needed right now.
Recommend this book.
This graphic novel follows the main character as she goes on a trip with her grandmother, who has Alzheimer's. This was very touching, and definitely had some deep emotional moments that had me feeling a lot. I connected to parts of the story, and some of the parallels/flashbacks were very compelling. I absolutely loved the artwork, and found the style and the colors to work well with the story.
I did find that some parts of the story were a bit sudden/rushed, and found myself both surprised and confused at part of the ending as well as a few other smaller moments in the story. I think some things could have been a bit more clear and developed.
rating: 3./5
Ow my heart.
This was stunning, poignant and just great to look at. I read this at the best time I think, this story is exactly what I needed today.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All of the opinions are my own and this did not affect my review in any way.
I requested this book not knowing what the plot was about, only knowing that it was the story having to do with our grandparents and I was immediately sold. I was definitely not expecting to find one of my favorite graphic novels of all time and a graphic novel that actually managed to make me cry my eyes out.
In Forget me Not we follow Clémence, who decidesto break her out of her nursing home and take her on a road trip to the coast so she can see her childhood home one last time. But traveling with a senior with Alzheimer’s Disease comes with a fair amount of challenges, and the journey is fraught with highs, lows, and near misses.
Like I said, I absolutely adored this graphic novel, we follow the two women as they go on a thrilling and joyful adventure while dealing with a very hard disease such as Alzheimer’s and it was both heartbreaking and heartwarming to go alongside them. All this graphic novel made me feel was miss my grandmother and feel empathy towards those suffering from this condition and those who have to take care of them. I caught myself crying a couple of times while reading this.
The art style, storytelling and characters are outstanding and they set the bar very high for me for what I expect to see in graphic novels. The author did an amazing job portraying such raw emotions and it is impossible not to get emotionally attached to what the characters are going through.
Overall, this is definitely the best graphic novel that I have ever read. This graphic novel is impactful, emotional and heartfelt. I recommend everyone to give it a shot because I guarantee you will fall in love with Clémence and her grandmother.
Thanks so much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for allowing me read and review this book.
This graphic novel has a gorgeous art style, it's very soft and the pastel colour palette supports that. I loved that the art conplemented the story, for example mono colours for emptiness or grey elements for memories.
To be honest I can't say too much on this work, because it just hit me on a personal level. It's a story about loss, acceptance, regret and so much more. A shorter piece of art, that is worth picking up.
Esta novela gráfica me conmovió hasta el borde de las lágrimas. La estrecha relación entre una abuela con alzheimer y su nieta que va mucho más allá que los recuerdos de la infancia, ese sentido de humanidad, ese amor por tu ser querido con el fin de no dejarlo abandonado en sus últimos momentos de vida me llegó al corazón. La autora supo plasmar en dibujos y palabras ese dolor de perder en viva a un ser querido.
Simplemente, una novela gráfica hermosa.
This book is genuinely one of the best I've read in a long time. I could not recommend this enough. The art and the story were both so beautiful.
Clemence, a young actress, with a single workaholic mother, sees how unhappy her mentally deteriorating grandmother is in her nursing home. She kidnaps her and decides to take her back to her parent's home, which she hopes is the key to restoring her mental faculties. Along the way, they encounter many obstacles, and Clemence reminisces about her childhood and her close relationship with her grandparents.
This graphic novel is poignant and touches on many difficult topics, such as caring for the elderly, finding your purpose and identity in life, and the sacredness of family relationships.
Forget Me Not by Alix Garin
Script and Art by Alix Garin
Publication Date: March 24, 2021
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Description from NetGalley...
“When Clémence, a student and actress struggling with personal issues, sees how miserable her grandmother is in her nursing home, she decides to break her out and take her on a road trip to the coast so she can see her childhood home one last time.
But traveling with a senior with Alzheimer’s Disease comes with a fair amount of challenges, and the journey is fraught with highs, lows, and near misses. Still, it’s a chance for the two women to reconnect, with each other and with themselves, and it’s a chance for Clémence to give Grammy the gift of one last thrilling and joyful experience.”
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Thank you to @netgalley @europecomics for the digital ARC in return for my honest review.
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My thoughts...
Bittersweet. This comic/graphic novel was quite heavy in its themes of Alzheimer and empathy. Note, the illustrations have some adult contents, which I thought were on point to what the story is trying to portray. As the comic went, it wasn’t what I expected at all. The illustrations are free flowing and beautiful. The dialogues were short, concise and real. The illustrations were humbling and the illustrations without scripts spoke volume. It tugged the heartstrings.
Forget Me Not follows Clemence, a theater student who breaks her grandmother out of her nursing home to go on a road trip. However, her grandmother suffers from Alzheimer's, and this makes what should be a normal trip a journey with highs, lows, and near-misses.
This story was full of so many tender, emotional moments. I enjoyed the frame story of Clemence at the police station recalling what happened on the journey as well as the flashbacks to her childhood with her mother. The ending is hopeful, but there is one particularly harrowing part of this story that I don't think was touched on quite enough. It almost feels like it was glossed over, and in fact, a lot of this story is very, very dark and sad, and it would have been nice to see more highs to balance out those lows and near-misses. This was a very overwhelming, moving story, that I think will connect with others on a very deep level on their first read.