I wish I'd had the actual hard copy graphic novel

I read a lot of Advanced Reading Copies (ARCs) of books but I've read very few graphic novels.

Because this was an ARC and I read it on my Kindle, some of the reading experience was off for me. The formatting was definitely not correctly in place and the reading experience became a matter of putting a puzzle together. The illustrations were in black and white, which didn't ruin the story but they were smaller than I'd hoped for. And I have a Kindle Fire HDX which actually usually allows very good picture quality.

But the story is powerful, even though a bit outdated. One example is the way gays are treated by the military (at least legally). I would have liked to have seen the story updated to present day.

This is a story about Liz, a female soldier who served in Iraq in 2007 and is now back home in New Hampshire. She had been a military working dog handler in the war, is injured in an IED attack, and her dog is killed. She is now trying to transition back to civilian life, suffers PTSD, and is angry at the world.

I thought the story and illustrations were great. One thing I don't agree with is that this is being promoted as a Teen and Young Adult book and the language and situations in the book are adult themed.

I received this book from Candlewick Press through Net Galley in exchange for my unbiased review.