Full review on: Flipping Through the Pages

I had some high expectations from Sincerely, Harriet considering the synopsis. But unfortunately, the actual book is quite different from what the synopsis talks about. The chronic illness angle was overshadowed by the personality disorder of the main character and that too was never addressed properly.

Sincerely, Harriet is the story of Harriet, a young Latinx girl who has recently shifted to a new city and found herself bored and lonely there. She does not know anyone in her new town and also her parents have to work overtime. Her friends from summer camp also weren’t responding to her postcards. She has an active imagination creating stories for the world around her but it was hard for her to differentiate the fact from fiction. She starts a relationship with Pearl, the older woman who lives downstairs. Pearl gave her different books to read to overcome her loneliness. She also talks about her son Nick who had been quarantined in the house during an outbreak of Polio in the 1950s. Soon we learn that Harriet suffers from MS (Multiple Sclerosis).

I loved the idea behind this graphic novel. The idea was to highlight the life of a teen with a chronic illness, but it wasn’t mentioned until half-way through the book. Also, I didn’t like the protagonist, Harriet. Her loneliness makes her a habitual liar with the poor attitude, so she’s not a likeable protagonist. But after she meets Pearl, we get to see some improvement in her attitude. She starts writing about her own experiences after she comes to know about Pearl’s son who experienced Polio.

But the format of the story itself is quite odd. Harriet doesn’t get to explain her feelings enough. Her inner feelings are often overshadowed with the other aspects of the story. Pearl gave different books to Harriet but it wasn’t clear what’s the purpose of each of the book and why those were specifically chosen for her. She doesn’t even read most of the books and we are in dark about her connection to those novels. I wish Harriet’s character was more developed. Also, I felt that the story could have been drawn out better. It ended rather abruptly, according to me.

The synopsis also hints about an “unrequited crush” but it barely showed in the story. This side was totally neglected. Harriet relationship with her parents was something I was looking forward too but I was surprised to see how it was handled. Given that Harriet had MS, her parents should have been more careful about her and should have shared a more close relationship. But they barely spent time with her. I know they had multiple jobs to do, but still having a child with the medical condition needs special attention.

The highlight of this graphic novel was definitely the art. The style was quite unique and I loved the color palette the artist has used. It perfectly sets with the sad tone of the story. It captures the various mood of the characters perfectly.

Overall, I feel that the story definitely had a great concept but the execution felt rather flat to me. If you are looking for something light to read, you can definitely pick it up and you might end up enjoying it more than me 🙂

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