I started reading this book nearly three months ago, and I don't know exactly why it took me so long to finish it. Other graphic novels came and went, and I read a chapter of WHALITC here and there, but I finished the last 40 pages in one sitting at breakneck pace. Usually, after finishing a book that took me a long time to read for no real reason at all, I end up feeling a bit bummed that I got so distracted. But, with WHALITC, I felt that reading at a not-so-typical pace added so much to the story. The characters still stuck out in my mind, and I could pick up right where I left off in this jarring story.

With other stories like We Need To Talk About Kevin, Room, and even movies like the VVitch, I felt like I was watching or reading something that I shouldn't. Like those stories were too personal and I was intruding on something horrible happening to a family behind the supposed privacy of a home. But what makes a home? Or a family? Can either endure tragedy, scorn, destruction, and exile?

I've been thinking about this story a lot since finishing the book, and I have a feeling it's going to stick with me for a while.