Review: "49 Days" by Agnes Lee

49 Days by Agnes Lee
Published March 2024 via Levine Querido
★★★★

Kit is on a journey she didn't ask for: in Buddhist tradition, it takes 49 days for the spirit of a recently deceased person to pass over to the next life, but Kit hadn't expected to be on this path anytime soon.

Drawn in spare, black-and-white illustrations, 49 Days proves to be quietly devastating. Alongside Kit's journey, we see the parallel journeys of the people she's left behind—family, mostly, but also some friends—and memories of the time before. What's particularly resonant, I think, is Kit's own grief; just as her family is not ready for her to be gone, she is not ready to leave them behind. I'm not a crier, but I suspect that this will be a tear-jerker for many.

This feels like something new in both graphic novels and books about grief. I'd also recommend Marie Mutsuki Mockett's Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye to readers who want a further look at grief in non-Western cultures.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.