This book is a fantastic depiction of the grief that accompanies the planning and carrying out of a funeral and sorting through someone's affairs after their passing. I loved the artwork in this book and the story itself was lovingly written.

A beautifully illustrated graphic novel with a touching, reflective story. Sole Otero combines intricate artwork with emotional depth, making this a captivating and poignant exploration of memory, family, and identity. A must-read for lovers of graphic novels!

Mothballs is a family memoir that spans three generations, blending unreliable accounts from the past in an attempt to make sense of the future. Nineteen-year-old Rocio, amid an identity crisis, tries to understand her grandmother Vilma's life—a woman who fled Mussolini's Italy due to her father's communist beliefs, only to face a life marked by otherness. Capturing the 20th century's treatment of women, the story contrasts the melancholy of oppression and constraints with today’s lonely and directionless life of choices.

Themes and Triggers: Identity, intergenerational trauma, immigration, orthodox thinking, realistic representation of 20th-century women, the rationalization of rape and victim blaming, age of non-existent women's rights, transphobia, homophobia, sexual and physical assault, pregnancy loss, non-sexual nudity.

Disclaimer: If you are looking for a positive review, you should skip mine. Many loved this book, but despite my best efforts, it fell flat for me. Some of its beauty got lost in the translation, and the cursive font was the death of my reading experience. A partial ARC—is that a thing?

Critique:
When tragedy strikes, the onus of offering sacrifice often lies with women. Be it the loss of friends and family due to immigration or giving up their dreams to support the men in the family, cycles of generational trauma are perpetuated without guilt. The matter-of-factness of Vilma’s misfortune and the deft tackling of the unreliability of oral history were impressive.
As strong-willed women surrounded by societal pressures, Rocio and her grandmother are more alike than she knows. As Rocio unspools her immigrant grandmother’s experiences, she begins to understand how her ancestors’ lives have shaped her worldview.
The house, with its gothic presence, warps space and time. The introspective narrative lends to the eerie presence, a shadow lurking just out of reach within this inheritance. In the house that remembers everything, memories drown out the present. The betrayal, the conflicts, and the loneliness saturate the space. I wish this surrealism was explored in more detail.
The art style successfully complements the mood, leaving a lingering sense of gloom. However, the proportions felt inconsistent, and the cursive font was grating. AGHHHHHH!

Thoughts:
While the book addresses heavy themes, it only scratches the surface, leaving much unexplored. For me, the storytelling was the deal breaker. My prior exposure to stories and real-world knowledge of brutality against women left me with no sense of novelty in the narrative.
The storytelling was more telling than showing, which isn’t something you expect from a graphic novel. Don’t get me wrong, the artwork is thought-provoking, but the way the story unfolds grated on my nerves.
Rocio, as the protagonist, seemed relegated to being a looking-glass for her grandmother’s story. A lack of progress on her end made her feel like an ineffective character to introduce the narrative. Themes like identity crisis, women's oppression, immigration, and the house of inheritance offer a chaotic sea of possibilities—none of which were explored in depth.

Conclusion:
While Mothballs has an excellent premise and raises important themes like immigration, intergenerational trauma, and women's oppression, the execution fell flat for me, leaving much of its potential untapped. Despite the thematic appeal, I found the storytelling tedious. Still, I wish the best to the author for future works.

I am grateful to NetGalley, Sole Otero, and Fantagraphics Books for the partial eARC of this graphic novel.

A book of how differently individuals deal with loss and grief.

As Rocio explores her own path of life, she is searching for the stories of her late grandmother's past. This is a touching story for sure.

Thank you NetGalley and Fantagraphics for giving me the opportunity to read this!

Unfortunately I missed the part which said that this is a partial ARC.

Why provide a partial arc? I always feel that partial arcs should get partial reviews but this was such a great book and a gripping story.

The artwork was okay but the written text was hard to decipher. Nevertheless it was a good book but please let reviewers have complete books. A fantastic family memoir with great artwork!

A very well-done graphic novel, that depicts very real world emotions and feelings. I really liked the art style and the narration.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

It was a book and it was read. I didn’t feel much towards the characters because it felt a little over the place, but the art style was nice. It just could’ve come together a little bit nicer than it did.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing the ebook in exchange for an honest review. This was a decent graphic novel where the main character dwells into her family history. Honestly, I felt bored in between and had to rush to finish it. It talks about some serious topics which is appreciable. The illustrations are good but the narration couldn't keep me hooked in the beginning. I almost dnfed.

For some reason it is difficult for me to express my opinion about the book. Maybe because, despite the difficult and important topics the story is about, it didn't particularly affect me. I prefer this kind of theme to be developed more deeply and at length in a novel rather than as a comics.
Despite everything, I read it easily and quickly, and I enjoyed the illustrations.

I think the paneling has a good narrative flow. I like the premise of the narrator trying to figure out her family history but also acknowledging the unreliable accounts passed down over time. I would've liked to have seen more development of the narrator's personal journey.

I'm not sure this was for me; I think it was geared towards a different audience. I found it to be a little odd and seemed kind of all over the place. The art work was nicely done though.

I feel bad that I've been in such a reading slump because I haven't been able to care about a lot of these anticipated releases like this one. I really wanted this one to be the one to break the slump, but unfortunately, this wasn't it for me.

A story of a family through 3 generations told from the point of view of nineteen year old Rocio. It begins with the sparsely attended funeral of Rocio's grandmother - and goes back in time to see Vilma (the grandmother) arrive as a child, fleeing with her parents to Buenos Aires - as her father is a communist which puts the family in a great deal of danger in Mussolini's Italy. While the men of this family are not immune to tragedy and sacrifice - it is the women who end up dealing with the brunt of it - from leaving friends and family behind to move to a new country and not speaking the language to perpetuating generational trauma cycles by putting one child's education and ambition over the others, to homophobia, rape and restrictive gender roles.

The art and colour is stunning throughout - and heavy topics are dealt with without it feeling too... heavy.

I really love a story that shows how the past informs the present - and the 'why' of why people do the things they do - and this had that in spades!

The only detraction was the cursive writing used while telling the grandmothers story - I found it quite hard to read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a copy of this graphic novel in return for my review.

The story is so captivating and I love it a lot. The illustrations are interesting and flows with the story. Throughout the book, we encounter the events that made today; the family bonds, sexual violence, homosexuality etc... Besides, as we learn more about the grandma, we understand her character better and emphasize with Ro, her granddaughter.

The only thing is that the font, the one used for the past events are kind of hard to read. Maybe it's because I read it from my phone but I found it hard to read.

overall a good read and interesting story. I love complex family dynamics portrait, which we all have and it was shown so well. and the art is very interesting too. and I like to believe she had closure at the end of the story.

I enjoyed so much the way the novel engulfed me in Vilma's story. Every traumatic event and thought were presented in such a delicate way.
The phone ringing in the book sounded in my head as I gasped for air coming back up and diving right in after each phone call was over.
The artwork was what brought me in, but the story and all it's qualities have stayed with me for quite a while after reading the book.

I was captivated by the synopsis of this graphic novel and I was not disappointed at all! Heart breaking and heartfelt all at the same time. Sole Otero’s art style is so unique and beautiful I was captivated with each panel. I cannot wait for this to come out.

I would have loved this if I could read the font! The illustration is delicious, the story sounds moving - but I really couldn’t make out the words. Thanks to NetGalley for the arc!

This was my first time reading a graphic novel and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the unique illustrations, and the moving story of their family, the secrets, and hardships they faced. I was very invested in the story when it abruptly ended, so I’m not sure if my arc was incomplete. Either way, I’ll be keeping an eye out for it.

"Mothballs" is a poignant, multi-generational graphic novel that deftly explores themes of family, ambition, and breaking cycles of isolation. After her grandmother Vilma's death, Rocio uncovers her family's tragic history spanning Italy and Argentina. Otero's nuanced storytelling draws poetic parallels between Vilma and Rocio's lives as strong-willed women constrained by societal pressures. With tenderness and whimsy amidst the pain, "Mothballs" chronicles fraught family dynamics and Rocio's pursuit to forge her own path. Otero's tour de force cartooning marks her as a major talent, making this a must-read that will linger with readers long after the last page. An emotional, sensitively rendered gem.