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Started reading it slowly at first, enjoying the expressive little vignettes that offered glimpses into Kate's life and the decision to move to the oil sands. But as the moments accumulated I began to read faster wondering where all these scenes would lead to. By the end there wasn't so much of a climax but a realization that life has no climax—that every moment is a chance for bravery and tragedy; that with intention memories can be digested into lessons not just for ourselves but for others as well. I think the comment by Alison Bechdel on the dust cover says it well:

“In Ducks, Kate Beaton doesn’t tell us how capitalism extracts, exploits, commodifies, and alienates. Nor does she show us. She recreates life in an oil sands mining operation in granular detail and allows us to make the connections ourselves―as she had to when she showed up to work there at age twenty-one. The effect is devastating. Despite the brutal toll Beaton suffered personally, she has woven from her experience a vast and complex tapestry that captures the humanity of people doing a kind of “dirty work” in which we are all complicit, and it shimmers with grace.”―Alison Bechdel

When I think about the story that comes together in these pages I cannot help but feel the unbelievable tragedy they describe. And yet I would recommend it to any fan of the medium of graphic novels/webscomics.