This book offers a realistic portrayal of a girl dealing with absent family members, sadness, and issues of self worth. I wish we could have explored more of the notes exchanged between friends since there was such a heavy emphasis on them, I was hoping we’d get to read them in full.
The art style is stunning and does an excellent job of capturing the emotions Briana is experiencing.
Reviewing a semi-autobiographical novel feels a bit odd, but one thing I found lacking was the development of the side characters, none of them really stood out. While the story is realistic and sad, it feels like not much happens and then it just ends.
Many reviews mention a sense of nostalgia about the school aspects but to me those parts felt off. Might be because I didn’t grow up in that era or on the same continent.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e copy!

I loved this haunting and sad graphic novel. I immediately requested the authors previous graphic memoir when I finished. This was beautifully done but will be particularly moving for those who were raised by a person suffering from addiction and/or mental health struggles.

A graphic novel memoir of contrasts. Some pages have very little writing on, others – when they do – have a good amount. Some pages are very formulaic comic strip in form, with a 2x2 grid pattern and neat and tidy guttering. Others – the ones with the text – are paragraphs at a time of what purports to be autobiography, scribbled on anything – square-lined maths paper, cardboard, the insides of cereal boxes… This ad hoc diary shows a girl unable to find what she wants from the world and from life – and from her parents that never once enter the frame, visually. For no, despite all that some good friends and all that mid-90s indie pop and rock can give her, she is coasting and idling from one dreadful report card to the next, with interest in writing and drawing and movies and little else.

We're not told what makes her father such a junkie wastrel and why her mother is a control freak, forever wishing every last molecule of the creator be tidied away. That may be in her previous book. The key scene involves a remarkably different look, and a kind of practically wordless daddy issues dreamscape, after which the diary gets integrated with the other frames, and something has happened to boost the girl's connection to her adult voice. She's proven herself able to find herself. And these pages prove she can look back at her middle and high school years with more than enough distinctiveness and distinction to make it worthwhile. Yes there's bullying, yes there're the thrift-store clothes, yes there's the listless routine of hanging out, failing at homework, hanging out, failing… But this makes for a version of that which is quite different to the norm, and definitely deserving of four stars. I did wish for the parental absenteeism to be nailed down and explained, but either way this makes for an intriguing origin story of our current comic artist.

Raised by Ghosts by Briana Loewinsohn is a beautiful portrayal of the author's childhood and adolescence told through illustrations, personal notes, and diary entries. It captures the emotion of overwhelming loneliness even when one is among family or friends. The shift toward the end of the graphic novel threw me off, since it isn't really addressed or resolved by the narrative's conclusion. (Without giving anything away, there's not a plot twist, but rather a tonal shift.) As this is Loewinsohn's second graphic novel, I'm interested in checking out her first which apparently explores mental illness in more depth.

Raised by Ghosts is a quiet, aching look at what it means to grow up feeling unseen. Briana drifts through middle and high school, struggling in silence while her parents remain caught up in their own lives. Friendships become her anchor, but when those start to slip, she’s left to figure out who she is on her own.

Told through class notes and diary entries, the story feels deeply personal, like flipping through someone’s old notebooks. The loneliness is palpable, but so is the resilience. It’s a tender, understated read that lingers long after the last page.

No strong opinions about this book. The ending felt a little abrupt; I wanted a little more on what the author is trying to tell readers. Not sure I'd recommend for younger readers.

I really love the artwork for this—wonderfully moody and dark—but I felt like I was reading half a story with so much more taking place off-stage.

A graphic novel that takes you back to 1995. The story is beautifully written through what looks like notes between friends written on random scraps of paper, filled with cozy hues of browns that give the book a nostalgic and heartwarming feel.

Briana, is a quiet and sweet girl struggling to navigate life between two households during her high school years. She feels alone when at either parent's house, finds friends who understand her & starts to fall behind in school work.
Briana's connection with her friend Jacob is particularly touching, and their bond adds depth to the story.

Bri's solace lies in her art. All she wants to do is get lost in her drawings, where paper and pencil are her true companions.
This heartfelt narrative captures teenage struggles and the power of friendship and creativity.

Raised By Ghosts - Briana Loewinsohn

Pages:216
YA - Age 14+
Pub date: 2/4/2025

This was a beautiful slice of life - I felt like I stepped right back into my teenage years. The ache and confusion jumped off the page in this coming-of-age tale. I highly recommend.

I really liked the format of this book. The notes on paper were really cute and I’ve never seen another graphic novel that has done it. This book made me really sad for the main character but also unfortunately, very relatable.

Having an alcoholic mother makes it hard to go home, sometimes. Briana will sometimes pause before unlocking the front door, unsure what she is going to find inside. She finds peace in drawing and writing, and falls into her little world. It is tough, but she makes friends, finally, passing notes between each other.


It is rather a sad look at struggling, and yet joyful when Briana does find some hope in life. Drawn in sepia tones, make the story even more bleak. The only time things get brighter is when she travels off in her imagination.


This is a beautifully drawn story, slow and thoughtful.


Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. I got it as an ARC, and now it was published this month.

This is a fascinating examination of loneliness in childhood that stems from absent parents. It was written and illustrated from the authors own experiences and perspectives from childhood.

Love is found written between the lines. Something that Briana has to search for and almost create the sense of it herself. At times when she’s alone and entertaining herself she can seem almost listless. Aimlessly wandering through life and searching for meaning in the fragmented relationships that she does have.

This was a sad read for me as I experienced something similar in the times I lived with my grandmother and her partner. Seeing a parent nursing an alcohol addiction is a hard thing. Feeling uncared for and holding on to the tiniest of moments to prove to yourself that that person really does care about you. Moments that are fleeting and far in between.

Briana shows herself lost in her own imaginations. She spends a lot of time by herself and in her own head and she draws and writes to build her own worlds. This is another thing I deeply relate to. Giving myself a world to live in that is exciting and fun makes you feel less lonely.

This is a great and at times a difficult read, but I loved it.

This was such a sad story about a teenage girl who feels alone in this world. parents who barely gave her any attention, they also didn't take care of her properly. loved the illustrations, i loved how it was written as a personalised letter from her. I think a lot of teens could relate to her feelings, how lonely it can feel in this world.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. As someone who spent my teenage years in the 90s, this was a great throwback. I remember intricacies of folding notes to pass between classes. A great coming of age graphic novel.

Raised by Ghosts is a powerful story that sheds light on what it’s like to have parents who aren’t really there.

The main character, a young girl with divorced parents, drifts through life feeling completely alone. Her parents are so wrapped up in their own issues that they barely notice her—except to scold her when chores aren’t done.

This story deeply resonates with the loneliness many teenagers feel, even when surrounded by others. It captures that sense of being unseen, unheard, and left out, making for an emotional and relatable read.

It seems to evoke a universal feeling of growing up and finding your place in the world and people you feel comfortable with, but through a more lonely perspective than I usually see in this type of media. I loved the integration of text into illustration as written notes that they gave eachother.

A poignant look at surviving your teen years. As someone who grew up in the '90s , this comic gets the tone of the time period spot on including making mix tapes and going to all ages clubs. Definitely hit the right nostalgic notes for me.

Es una historia que tocará a varios, narra el sentimiento de sentirse rodeada de fantasmas, seres que no existen en tu realidad y se deslindan de tí. Además de que está acompañada de unas ilustraciones muy bellas.

Raised by Ghosts is lacking. It's a kind of graphic novel memoir that reads more like the present day Briana rewriting her own history than an actual story to be read. Perhaps in hind sight Briana thought those things, or was going through those things. As a reader it seems like the author is embellishing how self aware she was. It comes off as pretentious and off putting. The structure is visually gross and sloppy. The torn diary like pages and the word bubbles of gibberish or scribbles. Why a graphic novel if you're going to do it dirty like this? Why not put the story in the story instead of having these empty word bubbles?

The overall feeling is loneliness and neglect.

Thanks Netgalley and Fantagraphics for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review.
It was an AMAZING trip.
The materiality of the notes, the journal entries, EVERYTHING was incredible.
Hopefully it gets some Eisner nominations, I'm hopeful it will.