Sabrina Kindle & comiXology

Sabrina was a great read. And by great read, I mean horribly depressing, but such is the nature of the setting and subject matter. This book makes no effort to obfuscate what it's about or what it's point of view is - real tragedies are directly referenced and only the thinnest allusion is made to malign actors like Alex Jones. It's earnest as can be. I don't think this book is saying anything new, per se, but I do think that it's getting the buzz it's gotten because it's such an absorbing and convincing synthesis of all these quirks and indignities, to put it mildly, that define the late 2010s.I wont dive into specific details of the plot, but I was impressed at how smoothly the narrative moved from layer to layer; I've seen some commentary about how cinematic the book is. I can take or leave that description, but if I were to use the film metaphor, this movie would have amazing editing.The art is almost jarringly "bad." The entire aesthetic is flat and drab, with only basic, solid colors and very few facial details; characters look like King of the Hill lumps with huge bodies and tiny heads. I think this supports the themes and setting of the story - namely, how boring and depressing modern life can be, especially in the lower/middle class midwestern setting. Not a lot of great opportunities, not much happening, very little social support or sympathy. The superficially dull art makes some of the subtler details of setting, framing and circumstance really stand out; the most affecting moment in my reading was basically a filler scene in which one character, while searching for the bathroom at a big box store, accidentally comes across an employee in a depressive slump, obstinately turning away from a co-worker trying to comfort him/her (very hard to tell with a lot of these character designs!). The way it is illustrated just floored me; it could have been stick figures and I wouldn't have felt differently. It's just one of those little moments you might witness in real life that gives you more insight into the fact that everyone in the world has their own troubles and most of us are barely keeping it together. Some people can't and don't keep it together, and some of them go on a shooting spree.I strongly recommend this book. If I have a critique, I wish it elaborated more on the stories of Sandra and Teddy (Sabrina's sister and boyfriend, respectively). They often seem kind of muted and secondary to Calvin, who is actually the furthest removed from the central crisis of the plot.

This is the first graphic novel I've ever purchased. I've read a few over the years, at the library, but I've never bought one. I bought Sabrina because I read that it was the first graphic novel ever to make the long list of the Man Booker Prize (the short list will be announced Sept. 20). Here's a good description (and part plug) of the book, stolen from themanbookerprize.com: Where is Sabrina? The answer is hidden on a videotape, a tape which is en route to several news outlets, and about to go viral. Sabrina is the story of what happens when an intimate, ‘everyday’ tragedy collides with the appetites of the 24-hour news cycle; when somebody’s lived trauma becomes another person’s gossip; when it becomes fodder for social media, fake news, conspiracy theorists, maniacs, the bored. What's brilliant about Sabrina and probably other graphic novels is that it does things that can't be done on film or in prose. (If you're watching a movie and it shows a lot of text on a computer screen, you're not going to have good things to say about that movie.) Speaking of the text on computer screens, the one false note in Sabrina is that the author has conspiracy buff nut jobs (a redundancy) writing perfect English in their posts, with proper capitalization and punctuation. Not that I look at that sort of thing much, but from what I've seen of such writing (Trump's tweets, e.g.) I can tell you this: they don't write that well. I guess the book is in high demand and that the publishers didn't anticipate that because it took weeks to get it delivered. It was expensive, too, and that's a qualm I had with it. I understand that printing an entire book in color cost more than just black text on paper, but Sabrina is not printed with rich inks on glossy paper, nor should it be—being slick in any way would detract from its message. Still, the $27 price point was high for a book that you're going to finish in under two hours. I can't recommend buying it at that price unless you're going to share it with others.

I read "Sabrina" for an upper level English course and was wary at first, as it was the only graphic novel on the list for the semester. My doubts were immediately cast aside when I opened the book and took first notice of the illustrations. Something captured me about Nick Drnaso's artwork. The characters have the same baseline face structure, but with different hair styles and colors. Although this makes it hard to tell who is who, this was exciting to me! I had never encountered a graphic novel with illustrations quite like these and it truly stuck out to me as something outstanding.The story, too, is quite exceptional in "Sabrina". Past graphic novels I've read have not grabbed my attention in the same way as Nick Drnaso did. A murder mystery is one thing told in novel format (I've gotten a little tired of these), but when written as a graphic novel, it can become something amazing. "Sabrina" was surprising, exciting, sad, depressing, and a bit anxiety provoking at times. I know there are people out there who think graphic novels cannot be as powerful as other forms of literature, but "Sabrina" would prove them wrong. Ultimately, I greatly enjoyed reading this book and consider it one of my favorite reads of 2019.

So what happened??? I got to the end and nothing was explained. Disappointing, Gonna have to see what other people thought happened!!!

no answers on how to prevent it but a cautionary tale of not being asleep at the wheel!

Desde que ouvi falar desta HQ - um legítimo romance gráfico -, namorei Sabrina. Queria entender o que tinha levado o júri do prestigiado prêmio britânico de literatura Man Booker a tornar a obra do americano Nick Drnaso o primeiro quadrinho a figurar entre os concorrentes (acabou ficando fora da lista de finalistas, mas ok).Aproveitei uma graninha que sobrou do 13. e fiz o investimento. Fui recompensado: com uma arte minimalista e apostando apenas em diálogos, emails, relatórios de avaliação psicológica e programas de rádio (não há um narrador), Drnaso incita o leitor a participar, a decifrar o sentimento dos personagens, a preencher os espaços vazios, a imaginar seus próximos passos. É desafiador e, por isso mesmo, estimulante.A trama, por sua vez, esconde sob sua aparente simplicidade a ambição dos grandes autores. A partir do desaparecimento de uma mulher - a Sabrina do título -, Drnaso discute o apetite da sociedade pela tragédia, pela fofoca, por teorias conspiratórias e por fake news. Um quadrinho para o nosso tempo.

Sabrina é um quadrinho especial. Foi o primeiro, e até aqui único, quadrinho da história a ser indicado ao The Man Booker Prize, o mais importante prêmio de literatura da língua inglesa. A obra de Nick Drnaso é considerada uma das mais importantes da década. Com estas credenciais, fui com bastante interesse pela leitura. Desde já destaco que não fui desapontado.Sabrina conta a história do desaparecimento de uma mulher e das consequências disso para a vida de três personagens. Há mais a ser dito, mas honestamente acho que quanto menos você souber, melhor neste caso.A graphic novel é extremamente contida, quase claustrofóbica. Drnaso não desenha emoções em seus personagens e transfere ao leitor o fardo de imprimi-las. O ritmo é parcimonioso e gradativamente mais perturbador. O texto do autor é excelente, com diálogos naturalistas e extensos guiando a história sem quaisquer recordatorio. Não há outra forma de descrever a leitura senão como incômoda. Sabrina é denso, profundo e... desolador.Em uma era onde mamadeiras de piroca e teorias da conspiração ganham eleições, onde mentiras fáceis são mais aceitas que duras e complexas verdades, Sabrina é uma obra absolutamente obrigatória.É um quadrinho difícil e incômodo como a vida real. Resta torcer que alguém traga esta maravilha em português para o Brasil

Es una obra que parte de una premisa interesante, sin embargo creo que al final se pierde un poco el autor.Cuenta con una narrativa diferente y el estilo artístico si bien es simple y no muy estético, le va a la obra y te maneja una sensación de incomodidad que se ajusta la trama.La edición es de tapa dura, cosida, con hojas de buen grosor.