Book Review: Blankets by Craig Thompson

Blankets

By Craig Thompson

(finished reading: 19/10/20)

5/5 stars

Poignant, comforting, melancholy.

“Sometimes, upon waking, the residual dream can be more appealing that reality, and one is reluctant to give it up. For a while, you feel like a ghost -- Not fully materialized, and unable to manipulate your surroundings. Or else, it is the dream that haunts you. You wait with the promise of the next dream.”

Blankets is an autobiographical graphic novel set against the snowy landscape of winter in Wisconsin. The story flicks between Craig’s childhood, adolescence and young adulthood and explores coming of age themes of identity, faith and love.

I absolutely loved this graphic novel. I devoured it in one sitting and found myself completely and utterly sucked into this world of black and white. It was warm and comforting but also cold and bleak at the same time. The threads of wisdom tying the pages together were subtle but really impactful. It beautifully captured this overwhelming sense of confusion of adolescence. For Craig, this largely centred around his faith and the religion he is brought up to believe. However, I think this feeling is one experienced by all relating to all kinds of influence that society has on us. For this reason, I think the story is incredibly relatable to anyone who has suffered the tragedy of growing up.

The illustrations were truly stunning, I adored the contrast between the use of dark shades for Craig’s childhood compared to the use of white outside of this. I thought the use of patchwork to represent the blanket was a really beautiful way of representing this tale of Craig’s first love. He perfectly captured the sweetness of falling in love as a teenager as well as the sharpness of everything surrounding that moment. I found myself amazed by how emotive and powerful these illustrations were to the story—they were not just additions— they were the heart of the story. I think this is what makes a graphic novel so breath-taking.

As I was reading, I could vividly imagine this story adapted into a coming of age movie with a sparkling piano/strings soundtrack and a cool-toned colour palette. I would really love to see this come to life one day as I truly think it has potential to become something Oscar-worthy. Every element just worked so well as a whole. Although relatively simple, it has been crafted to perfection. Therefore, in the hands of the right director, this could become magical on the screen.

I can absolutely see myself coming back to read Blankets curled up with a hot drink whenever it is especially cold outside. I think it is one of those stories that I’m sure to pick up on something different on each reread, whether it’s the words of wisdom or the detail in every illustration. Blankets has also made me especially keen to get my hands on more graphic novels as soon as possible because I am craving more!! But all in all, Blankets is a stunning piece of work that deserves all the praise it receives.