Graphic Novel Review: Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls

Posted on May 14, 2024 at 6:28 am by Gene Ambaum

Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls. MCD, 2024.9780374601652. 386pp.

Tessa Hulls’ Chinese grandmother lived with her family when she was growing up. Her grandmother had been a journalist, had escaped communist Shanghai to Hong Kong with Hulls’ mother, and had written a best-selling memoir. She had also, as Hulls explains and shows, lost her mind. This is a memoir about Tessa Hulls trying to make sense of her family’s story, about trying to connect not just with her grandmother and her mother but with her own feelings as well. It takes place in the past, exploring history and her mother’s and grandmother’s lives, and also in the present, where Hulls digs in and tries to understand it all. It’s difficult to summarize the level of reflection and research present in these pages, not to mention the amazing art. I absolutely loved it, and it deserves all of the attention it’s been getting in Seattle bookstores.

I don’t think I’ve ever read a graphic novel as slowly as I read Feeding Ghosts; I’d sit down in the evening and read ten pages and some moment would just destroy me. I had to go wash the dishes or straighten the house to reflect on Hulls and her family, especially about her place in it and the way she responded to trauma. When you pick up this book you should plan to spend some time with it. It’s awesome, and reading it will demand as much from you as you’re able to give it.