“People are places, and you are a sacred place.”

A prayer/help call to the beings in power to let Mother Earth heal.
A letter to those who are fighting depression and need some hope in their life.

I’m not sure whether the poetry-like illustrations are paper-drawn or digital, but the watercolor/aquarelle(/-effect) does give a calming, traditionally drawn vibe. If it is drawn on paper, it would definitely enhance the message even more. (And inspiring to paint again, as an artist.)

I do love how you can’t tell the genders of the 2 characters sleeping. Makes it easy to see oneself in the bed.

A bit too much mentions of god, as for me the fact “mother earth is dying” can’t go hand in hand with the belief “god loves his creation”. However, on the other hand, I also get wanting to hold onto the tiny idea that god (or whatever you believe in) hasn’t yet given up on us.

I’m not religious, rather agnostic, but I was raised catholic. This book basically feels like one of those lengthy prayers that you find in children’s religious books. Not the Bible-stans who force everyone into their cult, but the positive side of Christians – those that spread kindness and want to create a safe heaven on earth for children.
Combined with fighting despair. And a pinch of melancholy.

Let’s hope that god (or whatever higher being) hears this prayer.

~

Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing on Netgalley for an eARC.

-24.03.25

A spare yet remarkably moving collection of poetry and images about finding hope amidst the crushing hopelessness of climate change. If you've ever felt like the future is so grim that it's not worth living to see, please, please, please read this.

Delicate yet profoundly hopeful, You Are a Sacred Place is a collection of comics centred around the climate crisis and the despair stemming from the perceived inability to create change. It is a beautiful book filled with gorgeous illustrations and thoughtful, minimalist prose.

However, I’m uncertain if these pieces can actually be called visual poetry. As impactful as they are, there still aren’t enough words to provide a sense of being alive — of greater feeling and cadence fundamental to poetry. Rather, I think it’d be more fitting to call the pieces in this collection visual stories as the illustrations are the ones carrying most of the meaning.

Nevertheless, this book is a balm to the soul. It is a good book to turn to when you’re feeling down and in need of quiet solace.

Nothing will ever be more powerful at visually depicting the climate crisis/wildfires than the image of the 4 panel window engulfed in red smoke…..also the ones in black smoke later on too. The only issue is that some of the poems are almost too short. It leaves you wanting something more fleshed out.

Thanks NetGalley and Andrew’s McMeel for making this available! :)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion!

Madeleine Jubilee Saito, the woman you are! This book of poetry reached into my chest and twisted my heart, and I'm very grateful for that. As sad as grief is, it truly does connect us as humans and there is such a beauty in that.

You Are a Sacred Place contains powerful images and equally powerful words that intertwine to create a powerful reminder of our role in the destruction but also the restoration of earth, and to give us hope for the future.
Sometimes Saito speaks with words, but more often than not is her art that speaks for her, that capture the reader and convey her ideas to them.
I absolutely recommend You Are a Sacred Place to art and poetry lovers, but also to everyone because the climate crisis could be resolved only if all of us work together to solve it.

This was lovely. The simple art made the message more impactful. We are sacred, we are loved.
The message of hope, loss, love and a need to help one another and the world around us everyone really should take to heart.

Shout to to NetGalley for the ARC! What an amazing amazing book. The artwork is absolutely gorgeous!!! The art mixed with the poetry in this book amplifies the author's message and I believe each illustration felt like an extension of the poetry in this book. I need more!!

Thank you to NetGalley for this Advanced Reader's Copy.

I loved this book, I just have a hard time thinking of it as a graphic novel. To me, this is one long illustrated poem. But, then again, I probably never would have read it if it was marketed as a poem (yes, I know the word poem is in the title.) It is beautiful and haunting and stark and moving and I highly recommend it.

This was a beautiful book that I came across by chance on NetGalley. I'm sure the physical copy will be even more beautiful than the digital version, which was already great. Madeleine Jubilee Saito embeds hopeful poems alongside and within art in simple but meaningful panels. The simplicity adds to the beauty. There are hardships; there is pain and damage. But there is hope and community, she says, in the ongoing struggles of life and climate change. This book is a good addition to high school libraries even though it's probably geared more toward adults. I'm thankful to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

You Are a Sacred Place is a beautiful meditation on climate hope and grief and community and faith and more. The beautiful illustrations serve as a way to ponder and feel the words as they guide you through the book. It was lovely to sit with those thoughts and feelings, and to absorb wisdom that's so helpful and healing in the fight for a livable planet.

A visually stunning and content-wise beautifully made piece of literature.

I basked in the vivid imagery from start to finish as I absorbed the moving words Saito shared. Despite being directed at 'God', I believe anyone with a sense of 'something bigger' can read this and feel seen.

Intense, lovely, and dreamlike, this collection of poems in comics form embraces the pain of fire, flood, and capitalism-driven climate change. More importantly, it crystalizes our collective strife into a call for justice. The book’s 17 poems are presented in a series of painted images, mostly four panels to a page.

In addition to the emotional text, the poems use the visuals to set or continue the mood and narrative. Some sequences go on for several pages without a single word — poetry by way of image and imagination. It’s a powerful experience that deserves our attention while it attempts to heal our souls. (Available March 25.)

Netgalley ARC - an important visual poem. I think the formatting is done super well and works in tandem with the art style. I like how it played with repetition and sequence. I didn't realize it was christian/came in part from a religious place, but seeing an anti-capitalist religious narrative was oddly healing.

The illustrations were absolutely amazing, I truly loved the ones on the black background and those with stars.I was a little confused in the beginning on how to read the text( I figured it out rally quickly) but then it was a little difficult to read from left to right then down left and down right, I think it would be nice in some pages with more text to place it above or in one of the squares, something easier for the reader. It was nice but I had difficulty connecting with the stories but I think that’s a me problem. GOOD JOB !

“You are a scared place” is a beautiful piece of illustrated poems. It displays gorgeously the side effects of global warming and how we, humans, are destroying it. It’s used almost as a wake up call to people don’t realise what the effect Climate change and global warming has on the world

The mixture of beautiful artwork and the hard hitting words make this something the whole world needs to read.

A really touching poetry collection. I resonated with some, but felt like there was more the author wanted to say. The art really brought the poetry to life, especially for solely visual segments. The crushing feeling of isolation and helplessness brought on by the climate crisis really came across but it left me wanting more. Some of the artwork felt repetitive without purpose, while nice to look at I just felt like some lines of poetry were missing on some pages due to this. Overall it was a nice calming read, a well needed break from the noise we're constantly surrounded by.

You are a sacred place is an illustrated collection of poems that talks about the environment and the damage that is being done to it.

Here you will find divine illustrations, although some are without words, they manage to convey a lot. Madeleine speaks from her heart, concerned about the good of the environment.

I think it is a work that can be read by everyone since it seeks to give a global message.

I recommend it, but; However, if you are looking for something more inclined towards poems, I think this is not the reading for you. In this aspect I feel that it falls short, the message is there, the illustrations are beautiful but the poem is missing.

You Are A Sacred Place has a gorgeous art style as well as a beautiful message. I would recommend it to anyone who feels bad about the current state of the world.

The only thing that took me out of the reading experience is the religious side of the text which was fine and not that present but it was distracting to me nonetheless.

This book resonated very deeply with me. I have had a lot of climate related anxiety for a while now and while I have done a lot of work towards managing it, it is always present and often flares up during the next climate related disaster.

The illustrations are beautiful and resonant and the poetry itself is clear, commanding, and empathetic. There were a few different spreads where I found myself getting a little emotional. I will be purchasing this one to come back to during times when I need some reminding that yes, things are very bad, but as the author says "we are not the beginning and we will not be the end."