Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Nov 2020
328 pages
Genre: Graphic Novels
Publication Information
Three siblings search for their missing mother across a ruined America in this original graphic novel perfect for fans of Scott Westerfeld and Neal Shusterman.
Eight years ago an earthquake—the Big One—hit along the Cascadia fault line, toppling cities and changing landscapes all up and down the west coast of the United States. Life as we know it changed forever. But for Vietnamese-American Virginia Crane, life changed shortly after the earthquake, when her mother left and never came back.
Ginny has gotten used to a life without her mother, helping her father take care of her two younger brothers, Wes and Harry. But when a mysterious package arrives for her eighteenth birthday, her life is shaken up yet again. For the first time, Ginny wants something more than to survive. And it might be a selfish desire, but she's determined to find out what happened to her mother—even if it means leaving her family behind.
"Rendered in a deceptively innocent combination of black and bubble-gum pink, panels are expertly placed to use linework and sequencing to strengthen the emotion and humor of the story. Subtle and exaggerated facial expressions add nuance to the intricate plot that unwinds with each new, surprising piece of the puzzle...A gritty, raw page-turner." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Making his #OwnVoices debut, cartoonist Hill fully realizes the destroyed world in two-toned art, and packed layouts deliver consistently strong, emotive reactions from the cast. Ginny's skillfully laid transformation as she bonds with her brothers is an impactful contrast to the harsh, sometimes unforgiving world in this powerful graphic novel." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Jonathan Hill's trichromatic illustrations and story, set in the rich, forested Western landscape, is as compelling as it is beautiful." - Powell's Books
This information about Odessa was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jonathan Hill is an award-winning cartoonist who lives in Portland, OR. His comics and illustrations have been featured in publications by Fantagraphics, Lion Forge, tor.com, Powell's City of Books, the Believer Magazine, and the Society of Illustrators. His first two books, Americus and Wild Weather, were created with writer MK Reed and published by First Second Books. Jonathan also teaches comics at the Pacific Northwest College of Art and serves on the board of directors at Literary Arts. Odessa is the first book he has written and drawn himself.
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