It Won't Always Be Like This

 Tell me a story...about not knowing where to belong

It Won't Always Be Like This by Malaka Gharib

Publication date: September 20, 2022

Date read: October 14, 2022

Nine-year-old Malaka Gharib arrives in Egypt for her annual summer vacation abroad and assumes it will be just like any other vacation that she’s spent at her dad’s place in Cairo. But when she arrives, her father shares the news that he had gotten remarried. Over the next fifteen years, as she visits her father’s growing family every summer, Malaka has to reevaluate her place in his life and figure out where she fits in. 

I’ve never read a graphic novel memoir before (I know, I know, I haven’t read Persepolis yet), so while I read a fair amount of graphic novels, this was new for me. 

Every graphic novel artist draws their work differently, and it’s usually a matter of personal preference if the artwork works for the reader or not. This style was harder for me to get used to, and wasn’t my favorite, but it was done well. The style was very childish and sketchy - but as a choice, not because the artist did a bad job.

Reviewing a memoir is always harder than reviewing  fiction, because you’re not really able to make judgements on the story itself, but only on how well the story is told. (Who are you to tell a writer that you don’t like the plot of their personal history?) I thought Gharib told the story very well, and I agree that a graphic novel worked much better for this story than a strictly written one. 

While I couldn’t personally identify with Gharib’s story, I think there is definitely an audience for this book. Middle grade kids and young adults who are from broken and/or immigrant families will, I think, get a lot out of Gharib’s struggles to identify with her family and culture. 

Overall, while the artwork wasn’t in a style I loved, I thought that the story was well-written and will be appreciated by the right audience. Recommended to young adult and middle grade readers. This would be a great place to turn for young readers who aren’t comfortable yet with memoirs, and need a place to start. 

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Trigger warning: divorce, sexual harassment/assault, physical abuse 

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.