The Property

This story does a wonderful job of illustrating the pain our own cultural and familial barriers cause us. The way a person's personal shame and secrets can be passed through the generations is a theme that is timeless. How we navigate these things is like sculpting. It in part shapes us to who we are and in part reveals who we are deep down. Fantastic story.

This was such a beautiful, understated book, and I thoroughly enjoyed every page.

Modan's artwork is clean and beautiful, and kind of reminded me of a cross between Tintin and infographics. It truly shines when depicting wide views of scenery or commotion like large public spaces, plane cabins or mountain views.

The story unfolds at a steady pace, weaving together personal relationships and history, and though the twists are not sudden or very surprising per se, they were earned and interesting. You don't end up feeling like you know the characters any more than at the beginning of the book, but more like you've just been dropped into their lives to observe a small window of their lives and then pop out again, which is a style of narrative that I really enjoy. Modan also is quite inventive in the way she communicates story elements, like the flashbacks and the speech bubbles full of scribbles when the pov character doesn't understand the language being spoken.

It's hard to describe the way that the book delivers its emotional punches. The same subject matter in another medium or a different author might have had my eyes watering and my chin quivering, but Modan handles things with restraint in a very understated, pragmatic way. While it may not have elicited as many outward reactions from me, it was no less affecting or satisfying as a more tear-jerking avenue might have. I was absorbed into the story and characters from beginning to end, and my reaction built up little by little, until it had me hugging the book tightly when I finished it.

If I had to muster up some criticisms, there were two characters in particular that felt a little tonally off from the rest of them, but they served a purpose, and weren't too distracting, and one or two of the subplot resolutions were a little pat, but while they could have been fleshed out more, they didn't feel like cheap wrap-ups.

I borrowed this from the library but I will definitely be buying a copy of my own to keep.