Wow... what a powerful book!
Joel's story is a difficult one, full of ~Fights~ but also full of love.
I cried multiple times while reading this and would recommend to anyone. It has an amazing message.

Fights viscerally chronicles one black youth's relationship to violence from ages five to around eighteen. With raw, compelling illustrations, Gill recounts resorting to fighting as a means of finding control and surviving being “adrift.” His family wavers between absent and abusive, his school friends and neighborhood foes are each carrying their own traumas, and his teachers lean towards assuming the worst from him. Throughout, Gill paints a clear picture contextualizing the pain he experienced and created. The unvarnished brutality of Gill's childhood makes the moments of joy and laughter – such as enjoying playing chess or rapping with his friends, Mike and G-Money – feel like life rafts in a sea of uncertainty and suffering. Similarly, Gill throws readers a raft with a message after the story's conclusion for both adult and young readers to keep compassion in mind. With this memoir, Joel shows us that empathy is a choice – a difficult choice to make at times - but ultimately he found it possible to redefine his story and become more than his environment and upbringing. Fights is an uncomfortable but insightful and rewarding graphic novel for teens and adults alike.

Graphic memoirs are becoming ubiquitous and sometimes lacking in quality and vision - but Fights stands out. I love the voice of the narrator, relaying his rough childhood and trauma growing up in the South during the '80s and early '90s. The art captures a kind of wide-eyed wonder, fear, and confusion of early childhood. The timeline of girlfriends was hilarious. The fight scenes shied away from glorifying to show the perspective of the young boy and man.

Trigger warning: molestation
This story, Joel's story is the story of many children, past, present and future. He fought his way through adversity, poverty, abuse and racism. Every child should read this novel. The story grips you and causes you to review your own life. Seek out peace because being battle worn weighs on you and one can be consumed by constantly fighting.

Thank you for writing this book Mr. Christian. I am glad you found peace and am grateful that you shared your story with us.

This was a pretty powerful book. Artwork was okay-ish, but the story in general was just so heartbreaking. I hope when this book comes out, people are able to read this and make a connection to it.

Joel Christian Gill's graphic memoir, "Fights," is a beautifully illustrated depiction of the author's youth, which was characterized by poverty and violence. Gill's father died when Gill was just a boy, and his mother was often absent, which left him vulnerable to abuse from his caretakers as well as to temptations to cause trouble of his own. He learned to fight early to defend himself against schoolyard bullies, and thereafter fights seemed to find him, but as he gets older and the stakes get higher, he begins to question the role of violence in his life and to consider the kind of man he wishes to become.

As a memoir, "Fights" is a departure for the artist and writer. His "Strange Fruit" and "Tales of the Talented Tenth" series have illustrated little-known events from black history. But these books all bear the imprint of the author's style, and here, warm colors provide a sense of danger, anger, and heat, and though Gill often uses little black dots to depict a character's eyes, his careful rendering of faces ensures that scenes are nevertheless evocative and his characters' emotions and motivations are clear. The book contains its share of heartbreaking and disturbing scenes, but there is a beauty in them that helps readers see nearly all the characters here with empathy.

Readers in high school and up can appreciate this portrait of growing up to become a black man in America. While much of the content will resonate with some readers, individuals who do not share the author's experiences are likely to develop compassion and understanding as a result of their encounter with "Fights."

This was absolutely amazing, I couldn't tear myself away from it to go do anything else until I finished! The art is not the style I'm generally drawn to, but it's great and really works well here, and the story is incredibly ...real. It made me furious, it made me sad, it made me smile. I don't know how many people have the capacity to keep on taking hits and, to use his own analogy, somehow keep swimming and stay afloat, I can't imagine how difficult that would be. But I am so very glad that Joel Christian Gill has come out on top, and that he has shared his story for others to feel less alone, and more aware. I am definitely going to be reading more of his work.

I have been sitting with myself and my reflection on this book for several days. I know that it is not written for me, so I want to be expressly fair in my review.

The illustrations are fantastic. The drawing and color of them fantastically aid the story and depict the emotions and struggles of Joel.

I loved that when white characters use "The N word" it is clear what is being said, but the word itself is not used, rather an emoji of a monkey. When the characters of color used the word amongst themselves the word was spelled out, either with -er or -a' depending on the sentiment of the interaction. I think this helps readers see the difference in how the word is used and how it feels different when a white person uses it in comparison to it being used between African-Americans.

The story was a bit choppy and I didn't love how much narration was used.

Overall I think there is value in this book for many young people and will consider adding it to my library's collection.

Thank you netgalley for the free copy.

A very raw and emotional coming of age story about a young African American boy. This book deals with abuse, trauma, moving, bullying, and violence. There is a lot of adult content in here but I could see it helping teens who may be encountering serious issues at home, in school, and on the street. I think it is also a good read for adults who do not always consider the challenges facing children and teens and how it manifests in their behavior.

I feel very fortunate to have been approved for this graphic novel.

A well written and beautifully drawn memoir of life for a young black man. There is no sugar coating in this story.

I highly suggest reading, but when you do, make sure to absorb every inch.

While the book addresses bullying, difficult home situations, and other tough topics that many students are faced with, it does not address the topics in a tasteful manner that I would be comfortable buying for my students. The language used was a major turn off for me. While I understand it is what happens in the real-world, I would not provide such language to students who are 11-13 years old.