Powerful story about our roots and how deep they really can get. I love the concept of mother/daughter relationship. This was powerful and poignant. The illustrations were beautiful.

‘Liberty’ by Eric Warnauts with art by Raives, is a graphic novel spanning 40 years in the life of a mother and daughter.

The story begins with a young woman named Tshilanda in 1974 Kinshasa who finds herself pregnant. She escapes to the United States, where she raises her daughter Liberty. The story shifts to Libert’s life as a young Black woman in America and the ongoing struggle for racial equality. Through Liberty's experiences, readers see the evolution of social and political movements, from the Black Panthers to the election of Barack Obama.

The themes of social change and motherhood are strong in this story. The art is good too.

"Liberty" was a very powerfull story about our roots and what we choose to do with our future, despite everything and everyone telling us that it is already defined at birth. The art is beautiful. The narritive it's empowering.

Thank you Netgalley and Europe Comics for an eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book as much as I’d hoped. While this is presented as a story about the relationship between a mother and daughter, it feels more like their relationship takes a backseat. Instead we see how they interact with other people, most notably the men in their lives. After reading this I really did not know anything about them that wasn’t told through the context of these men. I also found that the art heavily sexualized both women, and that did a disservice to their characters and the plot. It also seemed unclear who was narrating at several times and the time jumps were sporadic, which made it difficult to follow the timeline and understand what was happening.

CW: Sexual assault, drug addiction

From what I was able to view, it was an enjoyable read. The pictures were absolutely beautiful and i enjoyed what I was able to read. there was an error that kept me from completing the book, and It doesn't seem to show up anywhere to actually purchase an English edition it so I can finish it.

Overall, a good story. It goes around some generations and countries.
But to be honest, I feel that the author tried to talk about various topics without going too deep, and that made the story in many ways feel very rushed and lacking in depth, to the point that Warnauts does not take the time to give a full closure to certain issues.
The illustration is beautiful, Raives is a great illustrator, the color palette is amazing and the bonus at the end of this graphic novel is the best thing.

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La historia en general es buena, abarca varias generaciones y paises.
Pero para ser sincera, siento que el autor intento hablar de varios temas sin ahondar mucho, y eso hizo que la historia en muchos aspectos se sintiera muy veloz y con falta de profundidad, al punto de que Warnauts no se toma el tiempo para dar un buen cierre a ciertos asuntos.
La ilustracion es bellisima, Raives es un gran ilustrador, la paleta de colores es hermosa y el bonus al final de esta novela grafica es lo mejor de todo.

A big thank-you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for giving me a copy of this book for an unbiased review.

3/5 - Liked it.

Before I go into my review, I have to mention that a technical error with NetGalley prevented me from finishing the book when I had completed 84.5% of it. I received an "unexpected LCP error" message which prevented me from viewing the book further; as such I will not be posting my review to Goodreads or Storygraph, as I only post reviews of books I've completed on these platforms. If I can finish this book, I will post a review, although I may adjust it depending on how the ending impacts my perception of the story. However, at 84.5% I still think I can give a fair impression.

The best aspect of this book are the illustrations. They are vibrant, atmospheric, and immersive. They had a certain heat to them, which conveyed the heat of Kinshasa, the heat of a sultry jazz piece, the heat of desire. The relationships depicted in the book were varied and realistic, and it was fascinating to see the saga of a family come together from two distinct and rich backgrounds. I especially loved the story of Liberty's mother and how her African background made her an outsider both in white and black America.

The story for me was somewhat weaker than the illustrations. The decisions made by the characters often seemed confusing and the story jumped between its narrative points. I would have liked a book that was more focused - maybe only on Tshilanda's story, or only on Liberty's - but more deep. Or perhaps a longer book, because the length of the book for the depth of the story was not sufficient to really explain the story of two generations. Perhaps missing the ending of the story is the issue for me here; I can imagine that if the story had an opportunity to come together for me, perhaps my rating would be higher.

In any case, this is a book worth reading if only for the beautiful illustrations and for a unique story of a family caught between generations and cultures.

This is going to be quite a personal review.

I loved the book and it is a solid 3.75 stars for me.

I have to say that I enjoyed the story a lot and I loved reading about both Tsihilanda and Liberty but I wish it had gone deeper into both of their histories. I like the fact that the book goes into the black experience both in Kinshasa as an upper class person and in New York as a black person. I miss a lot about that experience because it is as far from mine as can be.

i loved this short but sweet graphic novel! i was obsessed with the illustrations, i thought they were gorgeous and the details and the colors made them stand out so much compared to other graphic novels i have read. i also loved the story, i thought it flowed very well and was easy to understand and follow, which i also tend to struggle with when reading graphic novels. i was entertained and hooked immediately and ended up finishing the book in one sitting! i would definitely recommend to anyone who loves graphic novels and/or history, and honestly to anyone because of the books readability! 5 stars from me!

Liberty is an interesting graphic novel that explores family, history, and culture. The art has a good style, however the story could have done with taking a bit longer, since it spans so many decades. It showcases snapshots of generations so it becomes a little bit tell instead of show when it skips years between chapters, then has to quickly catch the reader up with big blocks of text for what has been missed.

Liberty by Warnauts & Raives has a wonderful storyline with great illustrations and spectacular colors.

I received a review copy of this book from the author/publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Liberty had beautiful artwork and a great story to go along with it that spanned several decades. I appreciated the representation of cultures in the graphic novel as well as how we saw the decisions and actions of others having an impact on the generations that follow. It was a really engaging read and I would look forward to reading something similar in the future again. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read.

n.p.

sinceramente no me he enterado mucho de la historia. mucha historia de Estados Unidos que no llego a comprender, porque al fin y al cabo es otra cultura. eso sí, he disfrutado mucho del estilo de dibujo y el color. la composición también ha sido muy interesante!

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to be honest I did the understand much of the story. there's a lot of US history that I can't comprehend, because it's another culture after all. I must say, I enjoyed a lot the art style and colour. the composition was very interesting as well!

This graphic novel has wonderful illustrations and colors. I loved the timeline evolution. Unfortunately, I feel like the story hasn't been explored enough, making reading too fast.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Liked it, fun while I was reading it

Set in both Kinshasa and New York City, this graphic novel tells the story of a mother, Tshilanda, her daughter, Liberty, and the men in their lives.

The artwork was the standout here. The line work is beautiful and the color vibrant. It is what kept me reading even when confronted with some confusing interpersonal relationships and dialog that wasn't always clear who was speaking.

While I liked the overall themes, when it was over, I was left with a feeling of underdevelopment and missed opportunities. There just wasn't enough there for me to connect with.

Thank you to Europe Comics, NetGalley, and authors Éric Warnauts & Raives, for providing me with a digital ARC copy of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review. Liberty is out March 29, 2023.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for an ARC of this graphic novel.

Liberty was a deep recount of she was born and going through her mother's history from the beginning. I loved the colours and illustrations, what left me a bit on the trench with this were the holes in the plot that left you wondering about a lot of things. Overall though it's a good read and would pick up again.

I enjoyed this graphic novel. I liked how we got to see the characters develop and grow up. It was beautifully illustrated too!

Thank you to Europe Comics for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. I thoroughly enjoyed this graphic novel. I would love to read more by them.

I braced myself a little before reading this, it seems to be getting mixed reviews and I generally read YA/middle-grade books, but had been tempted by the beautiful cover art and subject matter.

I wasn't disappointed! The story does jump a little, but it's reasonably easy to make the assumption about what's gone on between the jumps, the between-chapter pages give further hints also.

The artwork is lovely, delicate and expressive. The story is both heart-wrenching and immersive. It's not an easy-to-read story in places, but then life stories rarely are.

I received an advance copy for free from NetGalley, on the expectation that I would provide an honest review.

Thank you to Warnauts & Raives, Europe Comics, and Netgalley for this free advanced reader copy of "Liberty" for an honest review.

While I truly love the artist's watercolor choices, and I am usually a shoo-in for the navigation of a narrative arc taking place over several decades and different intergenerational family members and the domino and differences between the two, this one fell a little flat to me.

I love the mother-daughter dynamics and how we got to see black women's roles vs white men and even navigating the problems of girlhood in their own community; I just couldn't find my footing for long. I felt like portions were too rushed, which made the narrative pace all jumbled. I found too many places where I was confused about what happened or how they connected back-or-forward.