Susceptible

by Geneviève Castrée

Overview

"...an aching clarity [is] evident in [Castrée's] sombre grey tones and her dexterous, serpentine lines."-Globe & Mail Best 100 Books of 2013

"With mesmerizing honesty Castrée resurrects the obscenely disorienting turning points of a childhood, the ones that haunt a person for a lifetime. After reading the last page I closed the book and wept a little bit about its simple, perfect ending."
-MIRANDA JULY, author of It Chooses You and No One Belongs Here More Than You

Goglu is a daydreamer with a young working mother, a disengaged stepfather, and a father who lives five thousand miles away. Drawing, punk rock, and the promise of true independence guide Goglu to adulthood while her home's daily chaos inevitably shapes her identity. Susceptible is a devastating graphic novel debut by Geneviève Castrée; it's a testament to the heartbreaking loss of innocence when a child is forced to be the adult amongst grownups..

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770460881
Publisher:	Drawn & Quarterly
Publication date:	02/19/2013
Pages:	80
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.70(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Geneviève Castrée was born in Québec in 1981. Sometimes interdisciplinary, she is mostly known for her work as an illustrator and cartoonist. Impatient and lazy, Geneviève never officially studied "art". She has made a few books and has had a few exhibitions in places such as Canada, the United States, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Geneviève Castrée lives and works in the Pacific Northwest. She also has a music project called Ô PAON.

Editorial Reviews

[Susceptible]'s pervasive melancholy is still lingering with me, a reminder of why we really read: to feel things besides our own emotions.” —Paris Review

“[Susceptible is] a devastating coming-of-age graphic memoir.” —CBC

“Castrée's black-and-white, Scarryesque illustrations accompany tiny, precise cursive lettering that gives the whole work a whispered, confessional quality, as if each word were an embarrassing secret. At times, Goglu's story is overwhelmingly, heartbreakingly sad, but Castrée leaves a glimmer of hope: a redemptive future shaped by art, independence, and unconditional love.” —Booklist

From the Publisher

Gr 9 Up—Susceptible is, in many ways, a challenging book. Readers who look at the front cover may take a longer pause than usual before opening it, as they face down the eyes of a child glaring out at them from underneath her unkempt bangs. The story itself is told using tiny cramped script, forcing readers to tightly focus on the small but powerful words. The character of Goglu has the potential to both attract and repel readers; they can sympathize with her problems dealing with the adults in her life while feeling disappointed with the way she turns to drugs as a coping mechanism. Both the story and the artwork will appeal to fans of Lynda Barry's Marlys comics-Susceptible also tells the story of a dysfunctional family and introduces many different characters with unappealing appearances and who engage in ugly actions. The black-and-white watercolor illustrations seem simple at first, but the more readers explore this story the more they will start to appreciate the use of shadowing, the unframed empty spaces, and the word balloons that surround and bend around the characters like living things. Long after they have finished reading this book, teens will find themselves thinking about Goglu and the choices she made.—Andrea Lipinski, New York Public Library

School Library Journal