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La Perdida

By Jessica Abel

(9)

| Paperback | 9780375714719

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Critics

La Perdida By Jessica Abel

A mold-breaking new graphic novel you'll want to consider is La Perdida, by Jessica Abel, who publishes the zine Artbabe. La Perdida follows Carla, a young Mexican-American woman who sets out with vague motives to explore her heritage. She goes to Me ... (read full critics)

bookpage published on Sat, 18 Sep 2010

Bookreporter.com - LA PERDIDA by Jessica Abel

The quest to find one’s self --- that mythical, magical journey of self-discovery --- is difficult enough in the country in which you were born. For Carla, our narrator and tour guide in Jessica Abel’s LA PERDIDA (now available in paperback), it’s an ... (read full critics)

bookreporter published on Thu, 2 Sep 2010

2 Reviews

I did enjoy this book to start with, though it felt a little unfair on the beats. A young woman moves to Mexico City to find herself. She quickly gets fed up with the expat community and despite doing all the tourist things herself, wants to experience Mexican culture first hand. It is interesting t ... (continue)

I did enjoy this book to start with, though it felt a little unfair on the beats. A young woman moves to Mexico City to find herself. She quickly gets fed up with the expat community and despite doing all the tourist things herself, wants to experience Mexican culture first hand. It is interesting to see how she repeatedly fails to fit in. How she's so judgemental and how her brother is able to effortlessly move into Mexican culture and is able to find the cool hangouts and fun things to do.
What's really odd about the book though is the move from "exploring cultural identity" to kidnapping and murder. While it was an intense read, claustrophobic and quite gripping in retrospect it seemed quite odd. It really was the "pot is the gateway drug" story that all the anti-drug propaganda war warned us about. It seemed that because she was hanging out with "communists" who smoked pot, it was inevitable that she would get mixed up in the murder and kidnapping, because she had poor choice in friends. Whereas the white people who only hung out with ex-pats were fine. It seemed to be a very odd message. Particularly as it ended up with the main character never able to return to Mexico. It seemed to focus on the negative whithout giving much positive insight into the culture.
The art style was ok, not exactly my thing, the lines were quite heavy. I must admit while I did find this quite interesting I am not that keen on getting any more works by this author.

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Robot-mel said on Apr 28, 2011 | Add your feedback

I like the way that Jessica Abel incorporates Spanish into the text. It has a very authentic feeling without being alienating. I want to go back to Mexico.

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Antonia said on Jan 2, 2009 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback