thistlechaser: (Book with cat: Scared)
[personal profile] thistlechaser
Thumbprint, by Joe Hill, Jason Ciaramella, and Vic Malhotra.
(Book received for free for review from Diamond Book Distributors/IDW Publishing.)

Thumbprint is told from the point of view of a female Army soldier who worked at Abu Ghraib prison. I liked the art style a lot (felt like it was straight out of an 80s comic book -- felt very familiar to me). The writing was good, the art really helped tell the story.

Unfortunately I had to stop reading less than a quarter into the book. Seeing the physical, emotional, and psychological torture that went on at Abu Ghraib was just not something I wanted. (I wish I had stopped reading sooner, but I pressed on because I really do want to try to finish books I'm being asked to review.) I learned nothing new about the torture, but I still did not want to read about it, let alone see it in black and white drawings.

Don't get me wrong, it was not graphic, but just the fact that it was real made it worse to me.

If you'd like to learn what American soldiers did to real people, then you should pick up this book. If seeing it doesn't bother you, then you might enjoy Thumbprint. It's on sale for only 99 cents at Amazon (link above -- as usual, I get nothing if you click the link).

Date: 2013-10-06 07:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] changeling72.livejournal.com
I doubt that any country is free of the shame of instigating torture. I don't like reading about it either - especially when characters derive pleasure from it.

Date: 2013-10-07 01:14 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thistle-chaser.livejournal.com
Luckily the main character wasn't, she felt guilty about it. But still, too much for me!

Date: 2013-10-06 11:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] spike7451.livejournal.com
Not sure I could cope with reading this.

Date: 2013-10-07 02:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thistle-chaser.livejournal.com
Yeah, was too much for me.

Date: 2013-10-07 02:56 am (UTC)
loup_noir: (Default)
From: [personal profile] loup_noir
I loved his first novel, Heart-Shaped Box. I'm a fan of horror, but I'm not sure I'm ready for a book like this.

Date: 2013-10-07 04:25 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] thistle-chaser.livejournal.com
If it hadn't been based on reality, I might have been more okay about it. Problem is, it wasn't just based on reality, they had art based one the photos that got out (prisoners naked and positioned in pyramids, prisoners in panties, etc). There were also shots of instruments of torture, and soldiers using the most violent, disgusting threats (rape, disfigurement, threatening of families, etc). ...yeah, okay, now that I've written that out, I'm certain I wouldn't have been okay with it even if it were fiction.

It just wasn't a book for me.

Profile

thistlechaser: (Default)
thistlechaser

September 2023

S M T W T F S
      12
34567 89
1011 12131415 16
17 181920212223
24252627282930

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 19th, 2025 08:22 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios