Barefoot Gen the day after Review

Title: Barefoot Gen, The day after

Author: Keiji Nakazawa

Published in 2004

Published by Gasp

Book type: Graphic novel

Before I start this review, I’d like to point out that this is a graphic novel that I had to read for school. I didn’t voluntarily read this.

Plot

This story is about a little boy carrying the name Gen. He is a boy that’s living in Hiroshima with his family during World War 2. Until one day a bomb lands on his city and fully destroys everything. The only thing that survives is Gen, his mother and the baby. They look around them to see corpses and burned people. At some point Gen’s mother sends Gen off to get her some water, because she can’t give any more milk to her baby because of starvation. Gen is off to different places and sees the horror that the bomb has created everywhere. He meets a girl on a little hill. He first thinks she’s his sister but soon realizes that she’s not. Together they go on an adventure to survive this tragedy, and to deal with the result that the bomb has created.

My opinion

I think this is my favourite book that I had to ever read for school so far. At least I consider it a book, but it’s actually a graphic novel. I loved the idea of having two books. I read the second book, so you can see what the bomb had done to the city and what kind of impact it had on the people. Also I’d like to point out the art of the graphic novel. I loved the way the burned people were displayed. It almost looked like the skin was leaking from the skeleton. I think it was such a special and unique way of displaying the terror of the bomb and the whole atmosphere. After I’ve read this book I really wanted to know more about the story. And although the plot wasn’t that strong. The story around it kept you reading. I would actually read the first book if I think about it, because I think it’s a very interesting. I also loved the way you got to see how the help was given to the bodies that were still alive and suffering from pain and such. I got another look on the world war, because I’ve always heard the stories about the thing that happened in Germany and the country I live in, but I never really knew about the things in in this case, Japan. I really loved to look at this book differently that way.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed this book in the end. It was great to read, and it was a really fast read as well. I think anyone would enjoy this book, even the people who aren’t that interested in history (Me myself.) will probably still enjoy this book. Therefore I would definitely recommend this book to anyone.

Rating

♥♥♥