This story didn't do much for me. The characters never drew me in, and I felt no empathy for them. It is a sad topic, and an important one, but the way it was presented was not very interesting. I think you could find better books on the topic. ( )

A disturbing tale of three high school boys living in a small town. Their fathers, like many people in the town, have been shipped off to the Iraq war. Left to take on responsibilities and face realities about violence and adulthood, the boys flounder but maintain a tight friendship. The art is not great (I was surprised to learn the artist had used models for the characters, as I had a hard time telling them apart), but there are a few scenes of beauty or well-conveyed emotion. ( )

This sounded like it was going to be a lot more interesting and deep than it turned out to be. Very few words throughout the entire thing. It was one of those reads that was mostly pictures, and that had just enough conversation to fill in the blanks and make some impact.

Overall, I don't have much to say about this book. It was so swift and without anything really of consequence that I read the entire thing, front to back, in less than half an hour. I took no breaks, and whatever thoughts I had weren't notable enough that I felt I even had to put up status updates to comment on them. It was one of those reads that... I just... read. And then when it was done, it was done. '_' Comments? No, don't really have any. Feelings, emotions, thoughts? ...well. I get what they were trying to portray through it, and in some senses, I felt like I was getting a little bit of the message. But for whatever reason, I couldn't empathize with these characters. It had nothing to do with the fact that they were high school boys, or that they did crazy things, or that their fathers were in the war. I just felt there was not enough content to... warrant any reaction. It ended up leaving me really "Blaaaahhhhh" to the whole thing. *Shakes her head* I don't even know what to say to this. I didn't like it, and I didn't hate it. It gets no emotions out of me, and I even have to question whether or not there's anything worth more than a few pictures here.

It seems like they wasted an awful lot of ink and paper to give us a message that could have been conveyed on a couple of pages at the most. '_' Shameful.

In the end, would I read it again? Probably not. Would I recommend it? Eh~ It was alright. If you want to check it out, don't buy it. Please. Save your money. It's not worth it. Get it from your library or read it in the comic book store if you have to. It'll only take 30mins at the most, if not even less. It's that easy of a "read." ( )

This is a raw graphic novel with a lot of emotion. It is about three teenage boys in Bend, Oregon, whose fathers are all Marines stationed in Iraq. They each spend a lot of time sitting and waiting for their fathers to email them, hitting Refresh constantly to see if they have responded. They also have misinterpreted what it is to be an adult male, trying to drink illegally, pick up girls and use casual violence to see how tough each boy is. There is a lot of violence and blood spatter throughout the book, but it is strangely contrasted by the lack of violence from the fathers in Iraq. The fathers are totally divorced from the action at home, including unpaid bills and boys at loose ends. The painful end culminates with one of the boys choosing the Marines over a college education - it is definitely painful to read. But a very interesting look at boys today, and their lack of direction and their misinterpretation of being tough. ( )

I don't really know how to write a review of this book, which I guess is why it took me so long to do so. It's so sad, all around, and so hopeless in so many ways. The three boys that are at the center of the story aren't the only ones affected by the war, most of the town is, so there isn't really anywhere for them to go to get away from the worry and fear that they themselves feel. Each of them deals with it in their own ways, coming together for their fights. The prevailing feeling is pain. The fights just make that pain physical, shared, and visible.

Most of the story is told through the artwork. The dialog and text are pretty sparse. It works so well in this graphic novel that I can't imagine the short story it was based on. The lack of words make the faces and feelings take on so much more meaning and, in the end, the feelings are what this book is about. And it's beautifully drawn. The images pulled me into the story in a way that I don't know if the short story would have.

Anyway, I really thought Refresh Refresh was very good, but I know that I'm not doing it any kind of justice here. Just trust me, it is well worth the read.

Book source: Philly Free Library