In his Eisner-Award-winning breakthrough, Nate Powell quietly explores the dark corners of adolescence — the countless tiny moments of madness, the vague relief of medication, and mixed blessing of family ties.
Swallow Me Whole is a love story carried by rolling fog, terminal illness, hallucination, apophenia, insect armies, secrets held, unshakeable faith, and the search for a master pattern to make sense of one’s unraveling.
In his most ambitious book to date, Nate Powell quietly explores the dark corners of adolescence — not the clichéd melodramatic outbursts of rebellion, but the countless tiny moments of madness, the vague relief of medication, and mixed blessing of family ties. As the story unfolds, two stepsiblings hold together amidst schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, family breakdown, animal telepathy, misguided love, and the tiniest hope that everything will someday make sense.
Deliberately paced, delicately drawn, and drenched in shadows, Swallow Me Whole is a landmark achievement for Nate Powell and a suburban ghost story that will haunt readers long after its final pages.
Initial thoughts:Swallow Me Whole left we feeling hollow for quite some time before I could collect my thoughts. Mental illness always is a difficult topic to grapple with. Diagnosing it isn't any easier because everyone who suffers experiences it differently. Nate Powell did an amazing job of showing that through Ruth and Perry. Both siblings grapple with their own demons as Swallow Me Whole chronicles their descent into madness. I loved the strength of their relationship as they trusted and supported each other. Set against the backdrop of their family dealing with their own problems, this graphic novel paints the bleakness of life while throwing in glimpses of hope. The ending left me a little confused, since it was open to interpretation, leading me to a fairly bleak conclusion.
