49 Days - Agnes Lee - ★★

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AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR: Agnes Lee
GENRE: Graphic Novel
PUBLICATION DATE: March 5, 2024
RATING: 2 stars.

A graphic novel taking an idea from Buddhist tradition of a soul (in this case, that of a young Korean American girl) travelling for 49 days after they die before fully crossing over. This explanation is provided only in the blurb and in a note at the END of the book, so if you don’t already know it, you simply won't understand what’s happening. I had to stop the book midway and read the blurb to make sense of the girl’s seemingly limbo state.

Somewhat minimalistic illustrations that work for the story. Good use of dual tone in the illustrations, blue-toned to show the soul’s progress and brown-toned to show the grief-stricken family left behind. Barely any text for the first half or so. Quite fast-paced as most of the pages contain only illustrations. 

A decent option for those who want to explore stories of grief and post-death beliefs in other cultures. But to me, it would have worked better with more explanation.

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