Lara's Reviews > How To Survive in the North

I mean, OBVIOUSLY I was going to read this graphic novel tying together Ada Blackjack and the Karluk, weirdo obsessed with dead polar explorers and Ant/Arctic adventures that I am. I was a little nervous because a number of reviewers seem to have found this hard to follow or too depressing, but I didn't have that trouble at all. Then again, I already knew how things turned out on both these expeditions, so none of it came as a surprise to me and I didn't go into it expecting a light and fluffy everything-turns-out-great-in-the-end kind of story.

Another complaint I've seen is that people didn't like the third story that takes place in recent times and didn't feel like it fit with the others. But actually...I really liked the parallels, and I appreciate that they're subtle. The theme is dealing with being shipwrecked, through the choices the various characters have made, and about figuring out how to survive and move on from that, and I feel like that third story really worked in that vein. Plus, I love the idea of coming across one little thing that makes you curious and then going down a rabbit hole into a ridiculous amount of reading and research and how it can just...change you. Ahem.

The whole thing is quiet, with the colors of the Northern lights and the sparseness of the Arctic landscapes, and...I don't know, I just really liked it, all of it. I think Luke Healy's done a beautiful job with this one, and I'm really glad I picked it up.