This is an interesting story of a girl who visits her father every year in Egypt and the gulf. It follows her as she grows up and goes back to visit her father in the summer. We see her grow up and her life change as her family changes. It delves into the topics of family, distance, religion, and growing up in two cultures. I liked this book and think it would give a window to kids who might not know about Egyptian or Islamic culture.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

This graphic novel is a beautiful, visual memoir that follows the young life and reflections of the author, Malaka Gharib. Sharing such a personal story through the graphic medium really helps the reader visualize places and people that they may have never seen before. The memoir recounts Malaka's visits to Egypt to see her father and his new wife. It is a really well-told story of growing up and not really knowing where one fits into the world.

Highly recommend this and quite possibly may add it to my syllabus.

I really loved this visual memoir! Told through stories from the author's summers in Egypt with her father, step-mother, and their family, it lovingly chronicles the author's process of growing up, developing her identity as a multiracial, multicultural woman, and struggling to find our where she fits in one aspect of her family and culture. It also touched on the issues of feminism and the struggles that women face in various cultures. Honest, funny, and empowering, I really enjoyed this graphic novel!

A great story about immigration, the power of family and discovering who you really are. A wonderful addition to any children’s library.

being a child of immigrants from two totally different cultures and traditions leading you to feel like you don’t fit anywhere, that seems like something pretty familiar to me 🤡

i really enjoyed the representation of an experience i’m all too familiar with but i had a bit of an issue with how the sexual assault part was dealt with. It seemed a little too rushed and it could have been handled better and be more explicit ( = making sure that the readers, especially if they’re young, understand that the way she was dressed had absolutely NOTHING to do with how she was treated and that her abusers were the ones in the wrong. )

i also struggled with the art style, i just think it’s not much to my taste unfortunately.

however the length was perfect, not too long nor too short (which tends to be the flaw of many graphic novels) and it was very engaging from start to end !

would totally recommend it for people who liked Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi !!

Thank you to NetGalley & Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press for this ARC !

This was honestly hard to get into mainly because of the art style. It just wasn’t for me which unfortunately took away from my reading experience.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an early copy in exchange for an honest review!

I love graphic memoirs. I have no idea why it is a thing, but I know it talks to me much more than any autobiographical novel. I usually don't have the patience for those, and I find something much more intimate in the illustrated world of graphic authors. It's as if we were given not only the thoughts and memories but an actual picture of someone's mind. And this one is all the best the genre has to offer.
I loved the insight into Gharib's world - growing up between cultures, how relationships change when you go from childhood to adulthood, the shift in your assessment of your parents, the different understanding of the events that populated your life, and the ultimate revelation that came to her.
The illustrations are simple and vibrant - more effective than beautiful, but it works very well, giving a genuine and cheerful prism to the story. It fits childhood memories, especially ones during holidays in a country you don't live in the rest of the year.
This is a very poignant work, with very little in it in terms of events, but emotionally deep and poised. If you loved Persepolis by Satrapi, or the emotional turmoil of Blankets, I highly recommend it.

Malaka Gharib's first book, I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir, was so delightful and presented a personal but in some ways universal story of family and history that was so vital. It Won't Always Be Like This is more of the same, which is to say that it is a vital and beautifully-rendered story. Gharib makes a living from telling difficult truths in a form that is visually striking and almost deceptively simple-sounding but ultimately profound.

This was a very beautiful memoir to read. It really pulls you in and opens the doors to a life and cultures that many would never have the experience of knowing. It highlights the struggle of someone who lives in basically two different worlds trying to find her place in both. This book also follows the family members very well and gives the reader a strong feeling of the times and experiences plotted out from the authors life.

This was an interesting memoir, albeit not as gripping as some others I have read. I did enjoy the portrayal of shifting dynamics between the various family members as time goes on, and the setting in the middle east was probably my favourite part—a glimpse into a culture I’m not really very familiar with.

The story was very compelling and I loved the way the author writes. It feels like speaking to a friend that I have known for years. This does read very fast and goes through the authors life from a child into adulthood and we mostly see her in summertime on vacation with her family in Egypt. The only thing I did not really enjoy was the artwork, the style is not something I usually like, but the story overall was very good.

This is both the second book in the series of Malaka Gharib’s graphic memoirs, as well as a stand-alone, because this takes a different angle then her first book. In this, we explore her Egyptian site, all the summers she spent with her father, when he moved back to Egypt, and remarried. What is interesting is how she felt she didn’t fit in with his new family, and sort of did at the same time.

It is odd visiting her father just during the Summer. And sometimes Malaka enjoyed being there, and other times she was bored. But she did get to know her stepsisters, and cousins, and learned how to be in both worlds. Sometimes, she wanted to be all-American. Other times, she wanted to pass.

What I really loved was how we got to know her step-mother. How we saw her change from being fun loving, and happy, almost an older sister, to being a drudge, and hating being with her father, after she had had three children, and had no friends, and nothing to do with her time.
Highly recommend it.

<em>Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.</em>

More like 3.5 stars. I’d like to thank netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. Growing up and not fitting in with both sides of her family during the 90s, sign me up. Told from a teenage girl’s perspective, we follow her every summer as she grows up visiting her father in Egypt who has a brand new family and wondering how she fits in. A lovely coming of age story told great art to match.

I really enjoyed this graphic memoir - it's a style I never knew I needed!!

This story is beautiful, and a great visual representation of what it means to not fit in, primarily as a child with different races, countries and families on each side of you. I am caucasian, but I see what my partner and my friends who are multiple ethnicities experience, and I think it is at least close to their experiences too. This is a beautiful story that can be easily be relatable to many different people. It shows the good and bad of everything, and I love that this kind of story can be told, especially in this type of storytelling.

The art style isn't my favourite, but my love for the story greatly outweighs my dislike of the art style. It's also exclusively a person preference.

Seriously great. I think this is a good read, especially for early teens who may feel lost of in a weird place in their lives.