This was intense. It's about a French family with a Lebanese dad. They head to Lebanon on vacation to visit family in 2006 when Israel starts bombing the country. You can feel all of the tension as their fear and terror grows, knowing everything is out of their control and if they are going to survive all of the random but continuous bombings. I can't even imagine going through this like the Lebanese did.

Inspired by real facts that took place in 2006, this graphic novel has ambiance illustrations recreating the everyday life of simple people affected by the political games of military movements that do not have nothing to do with the local population. The texts are mostly oriented towards outlining the everyday suffering inflicted by regional conflicts. The fact that Lebanon is the playground of forces and entities fuelled on hate, money and weapons that are foreign to the Lebanese society cannot be ignored. The problem when using the graphic novel format without offering the full details of the whole story and its many pieces of the puzzle is that it can end up as a cartoonish view on recent realities which it´s a pity for the story.

As I sit and write this review my first instinct was to write, "There are two types of readers in world..." While I tried to deviate from such a cliché, I find that I can't, you see, your appreciation of this book will be dependent on what kind of reader you are.

I know what it is like to travel to a country that has tenuous relationships with neighboring countries. I also know what it is like to visit my mother's country and be fearful of what may happen while we are there. Because of this, I was able to empathize with the plight of this family, even if I have never been in such a perilous situation myself.

Pretty emotional. It affected me more than I expected. This books shows the reality of behind TV and the media sell as war. I thought it would be harsger and more graphic, but it is faorly family friendly kind of story. Great work in general terms.

While a unique art style and promising premise with an important message, I ended up putting it down halfway because I lost interest in reading further.

Thank you to NetGalley, Le Lombard, the author and illustrator for an ebook copy to review. As always, an honest review from me.

My rating is actually 3.5/5 stars, but since there aren't half stars I always round up.

Yallah Bye is a beautifully illustrated, heartbreaking graphic novel. It shows the atrocities of war through it’s depiction of families struggling to survive a conflict at the Israel-Lebanon border. It shows how different people are coping with the terror, but yet are still all terrified, hurting and trying to get through each minute. The people’s fear of getting bombed is palpable throughout the intense writing and illustrations.

Yallah Bye is a great way to learn about parts of history that often overshadowed by bigger wars. I can see it being required reading in high school history or literature classes, as a foray into teaching about these conflicts. A great way to get teens and young adults excited about history!

However, I still didn’t fully understand all of the political and historical aspects mentioned throughout. I’m not that familiar with these, and the graphic novel can only cover so much. I wish there was a little bit more education for people who are a bit unfamiliar with the political scene during the conflicts.

All in all, Yallah Bye is great graphic novel that educates, entertains, and connects on a human level with the readers.

Rough but strong look at folks surviving an incredibly tough time. It isn't quite as poignant as I'd like, but still some good story telling to latch onto.

In a country destroyed by bombs, one family on vacation seeks shelter and just holds on to the hope that someone will eventually come and save them. Showing two sides of the story, one in Lebanon and one in their home, we're able to see just how much war affects people everywhere. Following Gabriel and his family, he stays home while his family goes on a vacation to southern Lebanon. Little do they know that their lives will be rocked in a flash from the past, with bombs being dropped.

This story is heartbreaking, and it's such a real story that you can't help but feel anxious for the characters. Gabriel, safe at home, can only watch the news and their reports of the bombs being dropped on the city his family is vacationing at, and his family runs for their lives and just tries to stay alive during the mayhem.

This comic is very different than others that I've read lately, because its a real story about something that happens a lot on this planet. No one has superpowers, no one is fighting aliens, and everyone is just trying to get live through their day to day lives. It seems so unfair to the people in the city that they're in, having to wait and hope that they won't be hit next, running out of food with no water and no power, they feel sick and helpless. The UN comes and everyone's excited, until they realize that they're not evacuating the city, just their own staff.

If you're looking for something completely different and about a harsh reality, this book is for you. Not only was I sucked into the story, and I'm glad I got the chance to read it. The art in this book is also really different than the others that I've read, just cartoon enough that it seems like it couldn't be real. I don't think there was anything that I didn't like about this book, although it was a little confusing at first.

Thanks for reading!
(Radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com)

I thought this would be interesting in the beginning but I quickly lost passion in this book and felt that it would be better for a different reader.

This is a very interesting comic book translated from the French original and with insight through notes where local dialect is used.
Set in Lebanon in 2006 this graphic novel tells the story of a French family returning to the country where the Father escaped from, during a previous conflict with the Israelis who were an army of occupation and he had taken up arms against them.
Now much older he has his wife and two children with them; their first born is house sitting before he can come out and join them.
What starts as a pleasant vacation around the coastal port of Tyre turns into a nightmare when following a border infringement by Hezbollah leads to Israeli retaliation with ship to shore missiles and air strikes.
The story is about this sense of siege and the distress back home where the oldest son watches the drama unfolding on TV and worries for his family trapped amid what appears to be indiscriminate bombing of villages and settlement close to Tyre.
When the violence escalated further and Tyre itself comes under fire no-one seems safe.
I really enjoyed the developing tension especially among the parents where optimism meets more practical realities of the evidence around them. The man chides his wife saying she doesn’t understand these war games like us natural Lebanese it will soon die down. The two children are dependent in different ways and adjust in their own way but nerves are stretched and arguments boil over.
You get a real sense of being sitting ducks; the paralysation of fear and in inertia of indecision. Where is safe; should we flee to Beirut or Grandfather’s - who knows best. Contact the embassy we’re French citizens.
This is played out back in France where similar emotions are felt in isolation and the lack of news due to phone contact going down and the frustration of being powerless to help.
Above all it is about the people of Lebanon; what binds a people together, a sense of nationhood and self perception. When a common enemy removes barriers such as religion and leaves just a sense of we’re Lebanese first and foremost.
The tension seems very real and the illustrations in pictures as much as the words used deliver this sense of claustrophobia and abandonment.
In a passive resistance the people ultimately stay strong and rally round but real issues are flagged up like burying the dead, obtaining fresh water and looking after stray animals.
Even the promised rescue of foreigners poses a question about those left behind as the bombardment continues as the shop sails to safety.
Also the blind faith that persists like it was just a doggy bout of food poisoning or a poor hotel that ruined the holiday it will be better next year.
Compelling and very revealing without jumping on s political soap box or over stating the obvious. The judgement is in the pictures and the countries history and I thought the Labonese view that implied by invading their country the Israeli army had already been defeated.

'Yallah Bye' by Joseph Safieddine with art by Park Kyungeun is about a family on vacation and the conflict they find themselves in along the way.

In 2006, the family of Gabriel El Chawadi left France for a vacation in southern Lebanon. Once they get there, the Israelis start an aerial attack on Lebanon. Gabriel, back in France, starts receiving phone calls about the events as he watches them on the news. At first, there is little concern, but as the story moves along the tension builds as the family is forced to move from one place to another. Gabriel's brother is a hemophiliac, so he knows he needs to try to get the French government to intercede, but he isn't alone in this quest.

I liked this story and the art. The tension builds as the story goes. The visiting family doesn't understand things, but the locals seem to be pretty familiar with events. Gabriel, back home, becomes a wreck as any son would who doesn't know what is happening.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

"Yallah Bye" is a graphic novel about a Lebanese family's experiences in Lebanon during Israeli airstrikes. Part of the family is on vacation from France and the story shows how the members of the family handle the violence differently, including one son who is still in France and trying to follow the events. The images were really well done and I like that the author included Arabic phrases in the story.

I didn't get on with this at all – it might end up having something to say about how war is bad – ooh, what a novel concept. But when I left it over a quarter of the way through it had been a blinkered collection of people muttering with no consequence into mobile phones about where was safe and what to do while in a country that was being bombed elsewhere. And that's it. No geopolitics, no drama, just uninteresting characters picking and choosing a safe place as if this was a TV property programme from hell. And the anti-Israel bias wasn't once mentioned yet was all over every page. Finally, the unattractive character design didn't help at all, either.

A very important graphic novel. Loving the European ones lately. Great historical commentary with beautiful art work.

This was both brilliant and nerve wracking.

In July 2006 the El Chawadi family leave Paris for a summer holiday in southern Lebanon. Little did they know that their holiday would turn into a harrowing ordeal. After a few joyful days in Lebanon a conflict flares up between Lebanon and Israel, and suddenly bombs are flying and the family are caught in an escalating conflict.

Meanwhile back in France their eldest son Gabriel, waits for news. He was supposed to join them on holiday but delayed his travel because of work. As the family face violence, bombs and destruction the reader is taken on a nerve wracking experience, seeing the increasing devastation, but not knowing if the family will survive or not.

The artwork is great and the storytelling is excellent. Through the graphics we get to see the fear and frustration of the father who wants to stay and defend his beloved Lebanon. He remembers an earlier war and how his father sent him away to France in order to avoid the violence. Now he has a chance to stand for his country but he has responsibilities for his children and his wife.

The children somehow manage to deal with the bombs and the devastation, but they display their own stress in different ways. One child is a haemophiliac who is slightly autistic and he cuts himself off from the events that surround him. The other is just a little girl who wants to go home. The wife who realises that they are in danger quite early on, vacillates between fear, anger, and helplessness. She is increasingly frustrated when the telephone calls to the embassy result nothing and she sees her husband as being unhelpful, and refusing to recognise the danger they are in.

So the family are left to the kindness of their friends and family in Lebanon, but will they get home safely? They move from place to place to avoid the bombs and they have to see the death and devastation that flies across the sky daily.

I thought this was a really great story. It had me on edge from beginning to end. The art work is very good and conveys the devastation and fear bombing can bring. It was fascinating to see how each individual family member reacted. From fear and anger, to ignorance and detachment, the family show the a range of emotions as they seek to deal with the situation.

When reading this comic it is very easy to make judgements and think about what we would do. Very often we wouldn't do what the characters do and I was quite conscious of this as I was reading. I really didn't like the father. I felt as if he put his own desire to fight before the desire of his family and the needs of their safety. I love the way the story manages to bring each character to life and convey their individual response to this situation. This is a great comic because it shows what it is like to live in the midst of war.

Copy provided by Europe Comics via Net Gallrey in Exchange for an unbiased review

The destruction brought by war, every war, told by the citizen point of view. A very sad story with the right illustrations, make this graphic novel a very good one.

La distruzione che porta la guerra, una su tutte, ma sono tutte uguali, raccontate dal punto di vista del cittadino qualunque. Una storia molto triste con illustrazioni adeguati che la rendono una buona graphic novel.

THANKS NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!