I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Sarah Mink's graphic novel depicting the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay completely captivated me from the first page. Each story told was thought-provoking and poignant. I loved the different illustration styles and each story felt they were told separately. The comic strip style format makes this important subject easily accessible for a range of ages. Although each story was short, each one was incredibly informative and made an impact. This book is powerful and I thought about it long after I had finished it. Would highly recommend this book.
Trigger warnings: Torture, Violence.

This is an absolutely phenomenal graphic novel. It tells the real-life stories of the people working and living in the prison at Guantanamo.

I learned about Guantanamo during my MA in Politics in 2012-16 and was instantly reminded of the camps that Nazi Germany operated during WWII. History repeats itself time upon time, as we watch certain religious, ethnic and racial groups profiled and their lives made a living hell. Today, Islamophobia is on the rise and it is something we each have a responsibility to squash within our communities. Guantanamo was established upon - and is maintained by - racism and Islamophobia.

When I read They Called Us Enemy by George Takei earlier this year, I was outraged about the way Japanese people living in America were treated during the Second World War. The truth is that the same, if not worse, is happening today.

The US and UK Government created a war with an ideology (the War on Terror) in order to invade countries in the SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa) region, demonise an entire religion and systematically oppress and undermine their existence in the UK, US and (latterly) European countries. It is terrifying to watch history repeat itself in this way.

Guantanamo prison serves as a constant, physical reminder of the racism inherent in the US Government's policies and practices. To place it offshore was, simply put, an easy way to avoid abiding by US constitutional law. However, it was also a way for the US to dial down anti-Guantanamo activism. Had the prison been located on US soil, I (possibly naively) think more US citizens would be closely monitoring its activities and participating in active protests against its existence. As horrifying as it is, the phrase "out of sight, out of mind" comes to mind.

Guantanamo Voices gives space for the stories of the people who lived and worked in the prison to be heard. For the prisoners who have been deeply dehumanised by US and UK media, Guantanamo Voices stands strong as a force of humanity and a rallying cry for the abolishment of the use of the base at Guantanamo as a site of imprisonment.

I hope their cry is heard and answered.

I think every American citizen should read this book. Every single one. Each individual has a duty to learn about what's going on in that offshore prison: about the way that the prisoners were captured, the US-sanctioned torture (paid for with their taxes), the illegal detainment of hundreds of people, the role of the military in upholding the prison and the continued imprisonment of people who have been deemed to pose no threat to the United States of America.

It is a deeply unsettling read, as it should be, but I have put some content warnings below. The torture scenes were extremely upsetting for me to read, as a strong human right advocate, but I'm glad that the brutality of what happens in the prison is not neglected from this narrative.

I cannot recommend Guantanamo Voices highly enough!


Content warnings: torture, nudity, war, violence, guns.

I couldn’t really get into the story because it was so hard to read. Usually I get graphic novels as a pdf so I can zoom into it but that’s not possible on the kindle app. For that reason it was hard to identify what the text said. On top of that the art style didn’t have a good quality either. So unfortunately I dnfed it.

This illustrates some of the stories and the people which have been affected by Guantanamo, whether they be the prisoners or the the people trying to help them. In this collection of anthologies, we are shown some of the horrors that the prisoners themselves faced or the trails of the lawyers or staff trying to set them free. Some stories involve people recognizing the injustices of the prison from the very beginning, trying to stop it but ultimately failing in a system which is made to propagate hatred and racism. Some stories occur much after the truth is out to the public and lawyers who are representing the prisoners. They are fighting against a system who promises a fair trail but ultimately fails to provide its simplistic purpose for the prisoners.

This graphic novel doesn't shy away from using graphic images and is sometimes hard to read. Some of the story did bring me to tear. I think it succeeds in not only spreading information about the prison but also accurately conveying how the prisoners and the public felt about the prison. It provided multiple viewpoints towards the prison, some of them not as favourable such as the indifference felt by the staff. I did think some of the stories were better done than others.

Overall I highly recommend reading this book.

3.5 stars

As the realm of the comic book platform continues to expand, it is exciting to see works like this one emerge. The graphic memoir is becoming more prolific in literary circles, so the time for a work is hard-hitting journalism exposing a contemporary issue seems to be upon us. The work is impactful and highly detailed. Likewise with the artistry.

It is disheartening to learn what has occurred with the prisoners and policies since 2001 and continues to occur through multiple administration changes. I am concerned that the target audience for graphic novels is too young for readers to remember Gitmo in the news, so the shock value could be lost on them. I can only hope that with exposure will come an opportunity for change. This work could be a tool in that conversation.

Interesting read. I found out a lot about Guantanamo Bay that I was not already aware of. I do recommend this book to anyone looking to understand what has gone on at there and how the views surrounding it. I did like how we were able to get the different viewpoints; I feel like this helped me better understand the different viewpoints surrounding the situation.

This has Multiple perspectives on the gruesome events of Guantanamo. Each feels like a different voice filling in a part of the story.

Guantanamo Voices is an important addition to the conversation surrounding the continued presence of detainees in Gitmo and overall presence of US troops in Cuba. Each chapter is harrowing and infuriating. I struggled with some of the graphics, but I believe this was more due to the nature of an ARC than overall quality. In some chapters the art didn't quite mesh with the story being told, but again, this may be addressed in the final version.

It's impossible to read on any of my devices, the pages are too small, can't zoom them in and the formatting of the first few pages is off too.

Guantanamo Voices by Sarah Mirk is a book which I sincerely regret postponing for so long. As I imagined, the read was infuriating and devastating. However, it was also beautifully illustrated with a clear narrative.

I worried in the opening chapter that the book may prove too basic in its facts; I am familiar with the questionable “detention” of individuals at Guantanamo Bay and how it came about. As we delved further into the story, it became clear that this refresher was essential for understanding the intent and consequences of the actions taken in the wake of 9/11 and its aftermath.

Telling the story of those detained at Guantanamo, those charged with guarding them and their lawyers, among others, each vignette reveals the injustices, the anguish and the failed patriotism that surrounds the compound.

Reminiscent of Palestine by Joe Sacco, the anthology is compelling - a fact evidenced by the fact that once I picked it up, I could not put it down.

I would encourage everyone to pick this up, whether Guantanamo Bay is familiar to you or not. It’s an essential read in 2020 as we place injustices across the world under the microscope.

This was incredibly harrowing. It taught me so much about what these prisoners went through. You can't help but feel completely helpless and devastated by the atrocities that occurred. I feel like I learned a lot about the laws and the ways the government got around them to keep prisoners in Guantanamo. It's deeply depressing but a necessary read. The comic format makes it easily accessible/easy to understand. There is definitely a bit of a weird tonal balance because of the cutesy nature of the drawing and the terrible stories it is portraying and I didn't love that but I feel like maybe it will make the book easier for a younger audience to pick up.

3.5 stars.

Review Note: The copy provided for the review was an uncorrected proof. As a result, the resolution was not high. Because of this, I found some sections of the book difficult to read. The finished book will be in full colour.

When reviewing some books, it is difficult to separate one’s political convictions from playing a role in the way one views a book. When a book’s subject touches something as emotive as detention without trial, it can be easy to get carried away with one’s own righteous indignation. Simply put does a one enjoy a book because it confirms one’s own biases about a subject. This is something I grappled with while reading Guantanamo Voices.

This is a story we all know. Hundreds of detainees were held without trial or charges for years. It should turn the stomach of anyone. Guantanamo Voices examines how we got here, what went on, and, how or indeed if we can move on.

The publisher describes it as an anthology of illustrated narratives which is the perfect description. The format reminds me of a book like Penelope Bagieu’s Brazen. The trick here is that each one of the oral history’s featured is brought to life by a different artist. Given that I am reviewing an uncorrected proof, some changes to the artwork might be made. That said the artwork is gorgeous. Moazzam Begg story especially captured the Kafkaesque hopelessness that detainees faced. They were tortured, humiliated, and, imprisoned with little or no hope of freedom. Some of the stories read like absurd scenes from The Thick of It or Veep while others read like horror stories.

Some of the art styles while all individually brilliant do jar with one another occasionally, but this is only to be expected when you have a diverse array of creators working on one book—an almost inconsequential quibble given the quality of illustration throughout.

As compellingly told as the stories were, they were also grim. Most of the stories left me angry and exasperated. Was this just an effect of my own biases being confirmed or something else? This is recent. This is now. Mirk reminds the reader in the coda not to get carried away. The people running the centre are not evil. It would be easier to understand if they were moustache-twirling villains, but they are not. They were soldiers that were given lawful orders. These terrible things that people at the time tried to stop from happening.

Mirk does a fantastic job of reminding us how urgent the story of Guantanamo Bay still is. It is also a reminder that graphic novels have an essential part to play in journalism. Guantanamo Voices should be mandatory reading for anyone who has doubts about voting this year. Even putting aside my perceptions of Gitmo before reading the book, Guantanamo Voices is a fine non-fiction graphic novel that I would highly recommend. I’ll be buying a copy once it is released.

25/30

The book give a stunningly deep insight in Guantanamo. Everyone needs to go through this emotional tale. This book deserves to be bought

Reminiscent of Maus and Persepolis, Guantanamo Voices is a graphic novel that tells the stories of the prisoners from the infamous GITMO prison, sometimes through the eyes of the prisoners themselves and sometimes through the prosecutors, lawyers and defenders who tried to help these men get a trial or freedom.


The shocking truth about these ‘worst of the worst’ men is that they were innocent, or weren’t charged of a crime. Picked up from random places due to the CIA’s bad information or bounty, these people were tortured and left to rot in the prison cells indefinitely where they slowly lose their hope. Only a handful have been released and some sent to countries they have never been to before. They were the lucky ones. How a country has been allowed to build a prison in foreign soil, to detain and torture people they have no evidence on, is unbelievable! I am appalled but considering the state of affairs all around the world (including my own country) right now, I am not surprised that this place and the people who encourage these atrocities exists.


This topic was well-researched by Sarah and her team. And the twelve artists have done an excellent job in telling the story. The Kindle version was a bit difficult to read. But this is a book I will recommend to everyone. Even if you don’t generally read graphic novels, this book must be on your TBR.


Thank you Netgalley for the e-ARC.

A 5 out of 5 stars!


This book will be out on September 8, 2020.
A must read!

"Guantanamo Voices" depicts non-fiction accounts of real events that took place in the U.S. government's concentration camp on Guantánamo Bay. With beautiful illustrations, the author leads the reader through the complexities rarely told and heard accounts, hidden and whitewashed in the very recent of U.S. history. I recommend this book be placed in all high school libraries.

It's unfortunate that the children I teach are too young for this, because the harrowing and highly emotionally charged tale of Guantanamo needs to be told. This is so important and the way that this was told in such an easy to read way just means that everyone needs to read this.

This reading gave me a very sad perspective, but real at the same time of Guantánamo, I really liked the way of telling each story and the art is great.

Guantanamo Voices by Sarah Mirk is a tough, but necessary read. Being born right before 9/11, I have always been aware of GITMO, but this graphic novel really opened my eyes to the horrifying reality of the prison. The different art styles were intriguing but became a bit jarring as the novel progressed. It took me out of the reading experience and made it harder to retain the information because I was constantly readjusting to the different illustrators.

Something like Guantanamo Voices is a difficult thing to review, much like Art Spiegelman's "Maus", it exists as a documentation of the horrors that humans can carry out on each other, like Maus, it's not intended to be "enjoyed", its there to educate, using a medium that many (wrongly) associate with being juvenile, and thus circumventing the reader's expectations? However, unlike Spiegelman's diary of his father's experiences of being a Polish Jew during the Second World War, it's unlikely to be held up as being something that everyone should read, and that's because it will be far too easy for it to be brushed aside as being unpatriotic by its American audience, an audience who aren't comfortable with challenging the behaviours of their own country and its leaders.

This comic book/graphic novel is a mirror, its intention is to be held up in front of people who defend their countries actions, not just Americans, but other members of the Allied forces that invaded Afghanistan and Iraq after the events of September 11, 2001. It isn't an attempt to say the occupations of those countries was incorrect, its entire purpose is to show that just because a nation declares that they are the good guys, it doesn't mean that they can't or won't commit atrocities, war crimes and take things way too far, it exists to show us that in amongst all of this, the torture, the secrecy, the breaking of the Geneva Convention, there were also still people questioning everything they saw or were asked to do and it's hard not to see how political changes and attitudes from that period in history have also led us down the path we're currently on in regards to Police Brutality.

This isn't just one person's tale, and it's not one-sided either, Mirk has been cautious to collate together interviews from people who served in Guantanamo, people who were supposed to be responsible for its detainee's (and an important distinction is made early on that people held there were never, ever regarded as prisoners as no charges were held against them) and the detainee's themselves, stats are used in order to tell the history of the location, including that Cuba has been trying to take the land back from the US since the '50s.

Now, this collection of interviews could have been collected into a paperback that laid everything out on the table, with no visual's to give the reader an idea of the conditions at the Detention Centre, but the choice to use the medium of a graphic novel works in its favour, early on we hear the story of Mark Fallon who is listed as being "Former Chief of Middle East Counterintelligence Operations for Naval Criminal Investigative Service", who thought his responsibility was to be in charge of interrogation techniques used upon the detainee's, he discovers early on though that the people being held there had been reported to have links to Al'Qaeda, that these links were unfounded and often untrue, in fact, none of the people held was even on the list of people NCIS knew to be members of al-Qaeda. We see first hand his dismay as he finds his powers taken away from him and his attempts to try and prevent evidence being destroyed and its thanks to Gerardo Alba's artwork that we feel the tension he must have felt at going against the actions of the country he had sworn to protect.

It's the artwork, then, that makes this stand out amongst other literature about America's War on Terrorism, an with each interview being illustrated by a different artist, we get a variety of unique styles, some typical Indie comic book whilst some wouldn't look out of place as political cartoons in a newspaper, and as a whole, the work comes together to create a disturbing look into a political power that will do absolutely anything in order to keep its grip on protecting its "freedoms".

Prior to reading Guantanamo Voices I knew VERY little about Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp. I knew it was a sort of prison used by the US mainly for terrorists. I didn't even know that it wasn't actually in the US.
With all the legal and political aspects of the detention camp and it's prisoners a non-fiction book could end up very dry. But what Guantanamo Voices manages to do is incredible. This being a graphic novel meant that it was more of a snapshot of Guantanamo but information is presented in a very clear and interesting way. The brief perspectives of various people from prisoners to former guards to lawyers gives an overview of what is actually happening there. Reading this graphic novel left me with so many questions and things that I want to go away and read more about which is EXACTLY what a great non-fiction should do. It has taught me so much and has left me wanting more. What more could you ask for as a reader?
Reading Guantanamo Voices I was left feeling angry, frustrated, sickened, and shocked. It truly was a ride in to hell! Part of me wishes that I hadn't had the curiosity that made me read this book because then I wouldn't have discovered another example of how horrendous the human race can treat each other. I think everyone should read this but I think people also need to be very aware of how this book can affect you emotionally and mentally.