Title: Anastasia (Part One)
Author: Magdalena Lankosz
Genre: Graphic Novel
Format: eBook
Length: 96 pages
Publisher: Europe Comics
Publish Date: June 12, 2019
Rating:  ★  ★  ★  ★ 
Recommend: Yes
Trigger Warnings: Murder, Rape, Deception, Drug Abuse,
Physical Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Explicit Graphics/Drawings

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Netgalley and Europe Comics for this free copy.

Oh my god.

I honestly didn’t know what I was getting into when I requested this, and even less when I was approved of this novel, but wow. I definitely wasn’t expecting THAT.

Let me say it clearly that this is not for children at all. Young adults, maybe. Be warned that there are graphic images throughout this novel, which deal with the warnings that I included in the beginning (murder, rape, sexual abuse, drug abuse, etc.). This is not a fun story. Nothing about this story is “good” and when you realize what happened to the little girl named Anastasia, and everything that her mother did for her to get to where she is today just really broke my heart. It physically hurt to read this, to only glimpse at how this world was back in the 1920s, and how women and girls were taken advantage of by Hollywood and those execs in that world.

Part of me wanted to hope that Anastasia’s mother (I don’t remember seeing her name, but I think they did that on purpose. Even in one of the pages, it referenced her as “Anastasia’s Mother”, not even a name) was doing it for the best intentions, but when Anastasia grows up, we find out that wasn’t the case. I absolutely hate it when adults – most especially parents – make their children feel guilty for something that they did, and say stuff like “if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have [insert whatever here]” and that’s exactly what happened here.

This novel just really blew me away. I don’t even know if I can say anymore without spoiling what happened. It’s a short one – only 92 pages – but you’ll get through it fairly quickly. I know that whenever I see this cover, I will be haunted by what happened in this graphic novel. I don’t think I can ever forget.