"Habibi"

Habibi (Craig Thompson)

This book really frustrated me. Thompson's art is gorgeous, and the story and setting contained within is absolutely top-notch, but the first half the book drove me bonkers with the way that Thompson kept cutting back between three different periods in the heroine's life from page to page. One page she's a teenager living in a boat in the desert, two pages after that she's a grown pregnant woman in a harem, and two pages after that she's a child at a slave market. Not only did this prevent the story from building any kind of momentum, but it also serves to drain any tension from the two chronologically earlier story segments. You'll have a visually exciting, kinetic chase scene with guards yelling "Kill her!", but you already know what's going to happen, because a page ago you were reading about her in ten years.
Luckily, this is only the first half, and once the book switches its focus to the titular Habibi, it also proceeds in chronological order, and - what a shock! - not knowing what's going to happen actually allows for some, you know, shocking and surprising moments. Overall, the story and art are good enough to make this easy to recommend; Just don't let the irritating first half's mish-mash put you off.

Grade: B+