I didn’t have time for this book when I was approved. I plan to read it in the future though. Looks fun!

A moving portrait of a young woman working as a care provider at an assisted living center, that has a real sting in its tail. The art is impressive, in its limited colour palette.

Full review will be posted soonish and I'll add links to blog as well.

I would like to thank the publisher and netgalley for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

The White Lady by Quentin Zuttion is a bittersweet look at perhaps one of the most uncelebrated but wholly necessary professions out there – assisted living and/or hospice nurses. The main character, Estelle, tries to put on a happy face and live a normal life, but everything comes to a sobering halt from time to time when people that she has grown to love come to the end of their lives. One would think that would harden someone, but Estelle hangs on and tries to be there for her residents creating sometimes inseparable bonds. The gentle and soft artwork gives way to an important commentary on how we as a society treat our elderly, and the utter devastation that dementia can do to a person.

I don’t want to scare anyone away from this book thinking that it’s heavy social commentary with a scathing rebuke of our modern world, if anything this book is more gentle in its approach. It reminded me a bit of an older book by Europe Comics, that I read last year, Forget me Not, in that the bleakness of the subject matter sat in total opposition to the almost “wholesome” presentation of such heavy topics. It’s a tightrope for sure, but the author has pulled it off here. The artwork is minimalist watercolor-styled pictures in a blue monochrome, something that definitely adds to the atmosphere.

Overall, this wasn’t an easy read by any means, but the story is so touching that you can’t help but come away with that much more appreciation for what care-workers have to go through day after day. As with any comic from this publisher, they find a way to tackle subjects that most American comic companies would easily ignore, thus making this that much more special for someone tired of endless superhero books. If you don’t mind the subject matter, and a possibility of being sad after reading a book, this is a well done story.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

The White Lady is a graphic novel story about Estelle who is a nurse at an assisted living centre for elderly people. Estelle feels very overwhelmed when the people she cares for, plays with and supports pass away. This book is quite emotional in places and I love how it shows how much the residents impact on Estelle which I should imagine is a true reflection of most people within this job role. I really enjoyed this story but I felt the artwork let it down slightly hence the 3 star rating. The artwork is in blue and grey watercolour tones but it didn't give me the emotional edge the story deserved.

This was a fantastic, and somewhat sad tale. The work that is done by people in this profession is underappreciated and i feel for the personal toll that it must take on these staff. I strongly recommend this book to anyone that knows someone working in aged care of that has or has had a family member in aged care.

Death! It’s coming for us all. Of if it was that easy to sum up The White Lady with just that statement. Instead, we find a complex look at how we care for our elderly. Is there kindness we can provide at the end of one’s life be it a simple gesture of pretending to be someone’s granddaughter after they begin pulling back from them. Quite frankly, I do not think anyone has the answer and there are all sorts of legal gray areas when it comes to end of someone’s life.

The story follows Estelle, a nurse at a care home for the elderly. It follows her as she becomes entangled in the lives of the people she is caring for and how as more and more time passes the harder it becomes for her to say good by to these people. She begins to feel as if she is their family or at the very least that she understands them better than their family. There is a level of empathy that Estelle achieves with each of the people in her care. It begins to unravel though as she loses more people and her compulsion to keep a memento from each person leads to her taking a Nintendo Switch and playing Animal Crossing with one her patients under the guise of it being his granddaughter. Her coworker and friend Sonia discovers this and becomes wrapped up in the events making her question if she is crossed a line because of Estelle.

While the story and pacing are well crafted, the ending is unrewarding. There is nowhere for Estelle’s character to go, we just see her unravelling, but there are no consequences to her actions. At the logical point in the story in which we would reach the consequences, the story flashes to the future in a predictable way and ends there. There is a great concept here, but there isn’t a full and complete story to go along with it. Yes, the relationships between the nurses and the elderly are touching and moving, but it feels like a collection of short stories all taking place in the same setting with the same characters.

It is a shame because you really want to see where this is going for Estelle. She is lost in the world, settling for less from her relationships outside of work and when her secret is revealed not once, but twice everyone just looks past this very serious problem of hers and try to move on as quickly as they can. It deflates the story the first time, but then there is a great build up to Sonia’s discovery. Soon after though we are deflated again as we see Sonia making a similar mistake and getting too close to the family of a patient.

What the story does well is ask the question of how do we care for our old? As a society we pay so much attention to how we care of someone at the start of their life, but not nearly as much care or thought about the end of their lives. Do some yoga once a week and watch tv before you drink your wine. Then it’s off to bed with your meds to do it all over again. Its just that it asks this question repeatedly with each new elderly character the story follows. It does not particularly try to answer that question, which is fine, but it also does not need to repeat it over and over again.

The artwork is mostly blue and white. All the linework is blue apart from water-colored pages filled with color. Otherwise, it is blue hues used as the shadowing and lines. Which is fitting considering the overall feel of the book is blue. The water-colored pages or at least it looks all water colored, is wonderful. The details are masterful, making the characters look realistic. The elderly characters look their age, saggy boobs and all. There’s nudity in a way that is normalized in the story and handled with maturity. The art brings that out and captures the emotion that Estelle and Sonia feel for the people in their care.

It is a shame that the story really went nowhere. In some sense it tries to say that we are the sum of our experiences and the people we experience them with, but that is a stretch I’m not willing to give it. Especially since I am filling in the blank for them. It’s enjoyable read, even if it is extremely melancholy. You are not going to slap your knee and say, “damn that was some good reading!” You may come away with a new appreciation for people at the end of their lives and the people we put in charge to care for them.

Quentin Zuttion have created a masterpiece! The story brilliantly portrays Estelle's experience of working in a geriatric care home. She takes care of humans at their last stage of life, makes them comfortable and creates funny, precious memories. When someone dies, a new person comes in and the pattern repeats. Dealing with deaths of people who she loved, saw everyday, cared about takes a toll on her. She begins to collect the dead's personal item in secret as memento and place them all in her treasure chest. It was quite an emotional read and left me dazed. The illustrations are so beautiful and detailed! They capture the emotions, especially the gloom and depressive nature of it all with precision. Highly recommended!

I really liked this story despite the reality of dementia. We all just long to have recognition and to remember good things that happen in our lives.

I keep picking up these Europe comics and even knowing what I am in for, continue to be surprised by the depth that these books explore. The topics are things I would not read about otherwise, at least not in this form. The words are few, the colours fewer and they convey a lot more than an individual would like to bear while being precisely what many deal with on a regular basis.

I am not going to comment on the ethics of the people in the narrative, it is not the kind of life I can imagine being easy. Our lead protagonist is a nurse in an assisted care facility. There are the people who receive regular visitors and can care for themselves, mostly. There are others whose lives are sadder to watch unfold. In this emotionally heavy situation, Estelle lives by her own rules. She does it to cope, but the repercussions of her choices will be realised at some point!

It is not a book for the faint of heart. There is no ending or story arc as such. The last few pages, however, did improve my reading experience by seemingly providing a conclusion. It is not a quick read, but an intriguing one. The graphics are typical of the Europe comics, not completely to my taste, but I am starting to get used to them.

I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!!

This was a very touching story, that despite being narrated with a rather simple art style didn't lose its deep meaning.
The author's way of symbolizing how and how much her patients' stories influenced Estella's life and her later life was highly effective and perfectly conveyed the general sense of the graphic novel.

I didn't find it a depressing ending or a saddening one, but a wholesome one: despite the sadness of her late job, seeing old people being almost forgotten by their families, watching them dealing with loneliness and then watching them die, there were also good things. Good memories got made and they sticked with Estella throughout her whole life, with maybe a bittersweet feeling, but still strong enought to still colour her life even in her last years

I gladly reccomand this graphic novel, but anyone who wants to read itmust take into account that it is not a "light" story, it has a deep meaning and themes that may trigger certain readers.

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974

Trigger warnings: Death, grief, Alzheimer's, and suicide.

Estelle is a caretaker who loves each of her patients. Caring for those who cannot care for themselves is hard. The pay is minimal, the families can be supportive or create hindrances for the staff and loved ones. The art work and script were hauntingly beautiful. Estelle does an amazing job as do some of the other caretakers.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an eARC of this title in exchange for my honest review.

Honestly, I've never read a book that makes me feel so vulnerable, defeated, and dejected after reading. I did not find this enjoyable at all. If you read this as a cautionary tale, you may enjoy it. This made me terrified of growing old only to potentially be treated like this who signed up for it to be their job, Maybe that was the point. To open my eyes about how we as a society turn a blind eye on assisted living homes and the kinds of treatments their patients receive, but I cannot bring myself to give this a higher rating.

Thank you netGalley for letting me review this book.

Simple yet breathtakingly story.

I probably would say that this graphic novel really did well in drawing out such points and presented topics that I honestly wouldn't dare to read because I easily cower over it.

Overall, I did enjoy the story, although, there are parts that left me confuse as well as unsatisfied as it ended.

This book was absolutely devastating, and I am surprised by the way that feeling snuck up on me. The art style is deceptively gentle, and the soft blues really draw you into the story and into each character. The pivotal moment of the graphic novel -- when we truly get to see Estelle's emotions -- comes so suddenly that you definitely feel the tears coming up and spilling over. I am so wowed by the subtlety of this novel and I was surprised at the ending (which I did find a tad abrupt) but it was so beautifully done.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free copy of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. I text my reading group when I was only at 16% of the book telling them I had already laughed out loud and almost cried. Both things very hard for a book to make me do. Up until that point, every situation they talked about I had one to go along with it. I felt seen. Toward the end, I definitely didn't have those experiences but still enjoyed this novel.
As a nurse, this was beautifully written. It really brings the reality of what it's like, especially now with covid. You get attached to patients, and when they die, you're just left. They're not family, so you have nothing to remember them by. It gets hard. So many of us are dealing with so much sadness and trauma, but we hide it and just try to live life, knowing no one will understand unless you're working alongside each other.
Thank you, Quinten, for writing this beautiful, sad, funny, and REAL novel. It's not very often someone gets the feeling of nursing right, but you did. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

A very touching graphic novel talking about the aids that ease the last year of people's lives in nursing homes. This is a different work, talking about lots of things considered taboo and talking about the mixed emotions of grief, how people deal with it differently, how aids are forgotten in that process and how it weighs on the soul. We live in a strange time, where generations are parked off and different moments of life are segmented, rarely communicating. This delicate book reminds us, this is often a choice, our choice too... an emotional bittersweet ride that doesn't hold back punches, but doesn't fall into any pathos traps either.
Perhaps this talks to me because I just lost my last grandparent. I think many of my generation are going through this right now and wondering what it all amounts to... I highly recommend to people who liked Forget Me Not by Alix Garin.

It was an alright read. Estelle is a nurse who cares for old people and has to leave with the fact that they can die anytime. The book got a bit confusing because of the art style but asides that, it's a great read.

This book will make you cry. It is a beautifully written graphic novel that humanizes the experience of seniors who live in a care home and the workers who take care of them. This story shows you what happens if you blur the line between keeping things professional and getting attached to those in your care. I really liked the ending and thought this whole story was just so emotional.

Beautiful comic and thoughtful, will probably not add to a classroom bookcase but would add to a personal collection.