Blood Song by Eric Drooker

After quickly skimming through the pages of this novel with no words, I didn't think this was a book for me. I had experienced a couple short wordless picture books before, but a novel without words?! It was hard to grasp; the fact that there wasn't much color didn't help. Little by little, my opinion changed...

I decided to take an open-minded approach and give the book a chance. A great decision on my part, I urge all other readers who take on this book to do the same! First off, it is important to read the three page introduction written by Joe Sacco (he's a famous cartoonist & journalist, I had to google him to find this out). He gives some necessary background info on Drooker and offers insight about the book; it's well constructed, grabs your attention and really does help. It's impossible not to take a second look at the book after reading the introduction.

Blood Song by Eric Drooker is intense and powerful. The book is about a young female protagonist's journey through a harsh life with themes of resistance, brutality and the struggle against oppression. The setting starts out somewhere in southeast Asia where the female protagonist and her family are introduced. They are living a simplistic lifestyle, the old-fashioned way - fetching pales of water, catching fish for dinner. Everything is happy and content until things rapidly turn dark and ugly. The girl and her dog are in the woods getting a bucket of water when army helicopters and armed soldiers land in their village, shoot down civilians and take it over. The girl and her dog flea deep into the woods and escape, everything is striped from her. They end up finding their way to a big city but come across the same problems.

This is a story about the real world and what life is really like in the big city. Drooker does not lie to us, he has no intention of painting a pretty picture of the world. He sends a tough message that destruction is everywhere. The images in this book are amazing, weaving us through a story of desperation and when we least expect it, surprising us with an image painted in bright colors rather than the black and blue color scheme that fills the pages, giving hope that better times are to come. It took a few times reading Blood Song to really appreciate it, but by about the 3rd or 4th time I found myself exceptionally engaged and entertained by each page. I found something new each time reading it and have come to respect Drooker for his honest perspective of the world.