Gorgeous drawings that really bring you into the story. I really enjoyed reading this book.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

I was really interested in the beginning, but that interest tapers off. The art was gorgeous all the way through though which was unexpectedly nice.

'The Lions of Leningrad' by Jean-Claude Van Rijckeghem with art by Thomas Du Caju is a graphic novel about a group of young friends during the siege of Leningrad.

In a framing story that takes place in 1962, a concert hall is attacked by a gunman. It turns out the first chair violin has a history with the gunman and the flashbacks begin. The friends from her childhood come from different backgrounds and experiences, but they play together and even survive together.

This is a pretty good story of friendship and betrayal during war and communism. The characters stories take twists and turns as they try to survive. The art is solid and I enjoyed reading it.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Dead Reckoning and NetGalley. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Another excellent graphic novel from Dead Reckoning, an imprint from the US Naval Institute. This one focuses on a group of children during the siege of Leningrad during World War Two. Very well illustrated. I like this series because it usually focuses on less well known aspects and stories of war.

A story about the Eastern Front and the siege of Leningrad (not to mention Stalinist purges) is not going to be a light, uplifting narrative. In this short comic, the author creates engaging characters, gives them clear and interesting motivations, and places them in a horrific situation. It produced great drama and it made me really sit and consider what I would do to save my family or my life if placed in a similar situation. Could have been a bit longer, as the story beats felt a bit forced or obvious at times but still a great thoughtful read.

This was a really excellent story looking at the civilian lives behind the front lines of war. The first half shows the children in 1941 as the war is beginning, and it works as a children getting in over their head because of the war effort story. The second half then moves to a more dramatic story when the siege begins and the children must face the threat of conflict and starvation. The story jumps between the four children with the siege of Leningrad acting as a backdrop for the plot between the children as romance conflicts with their friendship. The children were not all fully developed because the story did not really have the space for that, but the art worked well to differentiate them. The art in this book was excellent, with some great full page images that show the scope of the devastation of war and the desolation of a Russian winter. I was initially confused by the use of the dual timeline because the book drops it in the first half, but it returns in the end to resolve the story well, even if it did feel a little rushed. Overall, this was a quick and entertaining read that showed a different perspective of a war story by examining the lives of civilians, and added its own complex interpersonal relationships on top of that. I would recommend the book to people who want something new from a war story or comic book.

This was such an intense and interesting story. The lives of these teens was rough in a way that is hard for many to understand but learning the history was interesting. Not only was the story good but the artwork was enjoyable as well. It was easy to read and follow as well.

A great graphic novel with excellent artwork and a well done story. I really enjoyed the story and this book is a quick read. Once you start, you will not want to put this one down!

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The art is stunning, dynamic, and lends itself to an intense war story - however, the pacing of this story was off, the characters fell flat, and details merged together. I could have used about 1-2 more pages of visual exposition at the beginning, and would have loved a bibliography/authors note at the end to find out more about the Soviet Union during WWII.

In January 1962, a concert in Leningrad is interrupted and reunites old friends. In Spring 1941, a group of teenagers are sent out of Leningrad at the beginning of the German invasion, but they did not get far. Four made it back to Leningrad - Maxim, Pyotr, Anka, and Grigory - where they endured the siege until one was sent to the gulag, one died and two escaped across the frozen lake to Moscow. In the end, deceptions are revealed in true Russian romance fashion. An interesting way of telling the story that works! Nice artwork provides the atmosphere for the interesting story.

Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to read this title.

*Thanks to the Naval Institute Press for providing me the ARC of this book in exchange of a honest review*

The lions of Leningrad is a graphic novel set in the soviet union about an ill looking man who is arrested after disturbing an orchestra concert. This man won't say his name but will tell the NKDV the story about four kids; Anka, Maxim, Pytor, and Grigory, everyone of a different background but friends despite all. How their lives are disrupted by the war and subsequent German attack of Leningrad.

I found this story average at best and soapy at worst. The three kids were infatuated with the only girl, Anka, they all felt one dimensional, and the progression of their experience at war was very rushed, and a tad unrealistic in my opinion. I just can't imagine healthy, 14-16 year old boys not being sent to the red army.

Usually, I'm very lenient with war comics because expecting a good, non-cliché script is asking too much. However, the art style of this one didn't even help with making this read more enjoyable. The backgrounds were great but the faces of the kids, specially Anka are between expressionless to funny looking. So ultimately it's simply an OK read

This book grew on me as I read more. The first thing I noticed was the artwork. I thought the drawings were exquisite and would give them 5 stars, but the dialog at the beginning was rather childish. I guess with the characters being teens and more immature. Then as the graphic book progressed, them getting older, the dialog didn’t bother me as much.

The story was interesting. More focused on the characters’ lives and interactions during the time period, as opposed to a more historical “nonfiction” novel. It mostly revolved around Anka and who she loved – because all of the boys loved her. One thing that bothered me is that it ended rather abruptly.

Thanks Dead Reckoning and Netgalley for giving the opportunity to access this ARC. I really enjoyed the book and although it probably wouldn’t be a super popular book in our library, I think many of the high school students would enjoy the story.

Slightly down-rated since I read the first half, when published separately by a different house – https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3166736014. That write-up said it was evoking wartime Leningrad well, but was soapy, and seemed an adaptation of something else unconfirmed. Well, all that was slightly questionable is only enhanced on re-reading the first book, and following it straight on with the second half. It certainly gets soapy, with the girl the object of affection for all three lads as in their own disparate ways they have to struggle to survive the Nazi siege. And that thing about it feeling like an adaptation? I guess that implies it's based on something else, and NOT on real life, for it does smack both of having to leave chunks out to fit the page count and of being somewhat lacking in the old realism stakes. Still, for a heightened bit of drama concerning teenagers in wartime Russia, this isn't a bad bit of entertainment. It's just I thought what was to come after part one was going to be a bit more sensible and a bit less melodramatic. Three and a bit stars.

Beautiful illustrations let down by a really pedestrian story. None of it felt real, not for a second, characters seemed to merge all too easily, and it's handling of the two narratives was choppy at best.

The reign of Joseph Stalin was a grueling time for citizens of the U.S.S.R., and in The Great Patriotic War (WWII) tensions were perhaps at their worst. After many of his supposed five-year plans for the development of the national economy flopped over and over again, he seemed to be on the defensive more so than even during the purges in the 1930s. Anything merely resembling a hint of resentment for how the overall war effort was going was met with banishment, imprisonment, or even death. Perhaps no enemy was greater to the Russian people than Stalin himself. That is the backdrop for The Lions of Leningrad by Jean-Claude van Rijckeghem; Art by Thomas Du Caju, a new comic coming soon from The U.S. Naval Institute Press and their comic imprint Dead Reckoning. Set during the early years of the disastrous Siege of Leningrad in 1941, this book tells of the story of a group of children that have childhood yanked from their hands and are forced into the bleak world of one of the worst wars of all time. They witness first hand that war brings out the worst in everyone, especially when starvation brings villains out of every nook and cranny to prey on the weak. The War also forces them to make some decisions they can never take back…

“On January 27, 1962, a concert at the Maly Theatre in Leningrad is interrupted by a gunshot and an ex-state prisoner is arrested. At the police station, the mysterious gunman recalls the early summer of 1941… When the German army begins its invasion of Soviet Russia, four children are evacuated to the countryside: Maxim, the son of a senior Communist Party official; Pyotr, the son of writers; Anka, the daughter of a concert violinist; and Grigory, the son of a pilot that was executed for insubordination. The farm where they are staying is attacked and the train that is supposed to take them to safety is blown to bits by German planes. The four children must fight through enemy lines to get back to their families in Leningrad. But all that awaits them is the beginning of one of the most prolonged and destructive sieges in history. Two and half desperate years that will push their friendship — and their lives—to the limit.  “

Perhaps one of the more depressing things in this largely tragic story was a depiction of Stalin’s policy on altering of history and news to basically hide any sort of issues The State might be having at any given time. At one point, the children dubbed “The Lions of Leningrad” nearly meet their fates in a German bombing of a train station. The station was mostly full of children at the time as there was a policy in place to re-locate to safer areas during enemy bombing campaigns. “The Lions” escape and are forced to walk home for days after narrowly missing certain murder by a German tank corps, only to find that their ordeal officially “never happened”. Wiped clean from the books as nothing more than chalk from a slate, the deaths of thousands of kids were now rendered secret, and anyone heard talking about it may end up in a Gulag.


Another absolutely shocking thing that this book taught me was that cannibalism was an issue during the siege, depicted here as groups of roving madmen appear to murder and consume anyone unlucky enough to walk down the wrong alley at night. Truthfully, it wasn’t that common in the war, but deemed enough of a problem that the authorities were forced to classify different types of crimes committed by way of the consumption of human flesh. I know most prolonged sieges usually result in desperate measures like that, but seeing it dramatized in such a way was crazy. According to Wikipedia, Children even used to have a nursery rhyme about it:

“A dystrophic walked along
With a dull look
In a basket he carried a corpse’s arse.
I’m having human flesh for lunch,
This piece will do!
Ugh, hungry sorrow!
And for supper, clearly
I’ll need a little baby.
I’ll take the neighbours’,
Steal him out of his cradle.”

While this book has many instances of tragedy from cover to cover, I was happy to see a somewhat bittersweet ending and apparent justice for some of the wrongs done throughout the story. While “The Lions of Leningrad” were never the same after the summer of 1941, a glimmer of their original happiness shines on in 1962. This was a gripping, action-filled story of innocence lost and bitter choices, and I was sad to see it end when it did. The artwork is top-notch and the script is very well done. I’m not sure I’ve read anything by either of the creators as of yet, but I will have to see if Amazon has anything else in English by the author (as I believe he is Belgian, and publishes in Dutch), as I enjoy historical comics such as this and am always looking for more creators to follow. Hopefully this one does well, and more are brought over! This book is a paperback edition of both issues of the original comic which previously were only available digitally via Europe Comics in English. If I am not mistaken, this was the same way another book by Dead Reckoning, The Jewish Brigade, was published.

Keep your eyes peeled for this exciting historical comic in early 2022, as with anything The USNI Press and Dead Reckoning produce it is top-notch quality and shines light on a segment of military and war history left untouched by many other historians.