Review for El Deafo

Review for El Deafo

207020804.5 stars!

I heard quite a lot of good stories about this book, a lot of people all over the internet gave it great reviews and that wasn’t the only reason why I was interested. I love graphic novels, and the topic of the book seemed interesting. Especially since you don’t often find a book about deaf kids/people.

This book was indeed really good and I felt sorry for Cece, especially in the beginning. How she went from a happy kid to a kid that was sick and lost her hearing. But as soon as the problem is discovered she finds happiness again. Though the road of a deaf person isn’t an easy one it seems. Cece finds out that people aren’t always kind about her hearing aids, people laugh at her or act like she is an idiot.
What I loved about Cece is that even with everything that happens, she stays strong. Sure there are moments that everything sucks, but she makes up these wonderful stories about her alternate ego: El Deafo to counter and help with these problems. El Deafo defeats her enemies or problems and occasionally due to her El Deafo persona she solves a problem or talks to someone she would never have dared to talk to.

There is a whole variety of characters, not all of them are really nice. Like Laura, I really disliked her and how she treated Cece. No one should treat someone like that, acting like they are all superior, and even sending the dog after her as a game.

Martha was a lovely character, but I was sad that after events she ran away from Cece. However, I can imagine, she is quite young and to see something like that happen when you know that person is already deaf. Though I wish she would just have put aside her guilt and fear and just opened up to Cece about it. Now it felt a bit silly and overly dramatic. She did more harm with running away constantly.

It was a bit weird that the characters were all bunnies, I was kind of hoping that it was only the cover that had a bunny. At times it just looked weird (with how they wear headphones or how their hair looks).

Another thing that I found weird was that Cece apparently never wore anything else than a bikini in the first parts. I thought at first that it was just her imagination and that she was actually wearing something normal, but then we saw pictures of her and friends… and even in the middle of the winter she was wearing a bikini…… Why?
It is just a small piece, but it bothered me a bit and it felt awkward.

The story was great, there was lots of information about how it feels to be deaf (at least from Cece’s Point of View) and all about the deaf aid and sign language. I didn’t like how the teachers behaved at times, especially that PE teacher. He should be helpful and not just carelessly drop expensive equipment like that.

The illustrations were colourful and fun. There were enough details, though again, bunnies. It was just awkward.

All in all though, I would recommend this book to everyone.

4.5stars

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