Beautifully haunting set against a backdrop of muted blues and grays and vibrant pinks and oranges, Lightness follows a writer’s journey to find beauty once more after a massacre.

I expected Lightness to be light and easy to get through, but it was the opposite. It was thought-provoking, long, and difficult to read because of its subject matter. I really enjoyed reading Catherine’s internal struggle as it littered the pages. It seemed like a jumble, but I liked that artistic style as it portrayed Catherine’s emotions. This is both a pro and con because at time, there were too many words on the page - too much where I had to step back and let it all sink in.

The art is stunning and I love the juxtaposition of a cartoonist style with the over abundance of words. It’s not a graphic novel that can be simply read in a day, but one that makes you ponder about life after a tragedy, and how hard it is to get back to normalcy, which can or cannot be attained. The ending was bittersweet and left me in a reflective state.