This graphic novel is a memoir about the author Tiitu Takalo, and how she had a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of thirty-eight. The haemorrhage totally changed her life, disrupting her career, affecting her mental health and well being, as well as bringing her abruptly face to face with her own mortality. It is a brilliant book.

Tiitu had a ruptured cerebral aneurysm which had a major impact on her life and she went through a long and complicated recovery. She spent days and nights in an intensive care unit, and she had two major operations, but she gradually recovered. As she recovered physically, she eventually realised that she needed to recover mentally and psychologically

This is an excellent book especially in the way in which the book takes us through the different stages of recovery and explores the difficulties that Tiitu Takalo experienced.
The artwork conveys the twists and turns, and the agonies and the fear. The colouring is ok and suits the story, not brilliant colours but kind of muted and dull. It is an excellent book.

Copy provided by Oni Press via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Copy provided by the Netgalley

I thought this book was beautifully written and drawn. I felt the author’s fear and grief after her cerebral hemorrhage. As a nurse and working in neuro, I see what patients go through when the have a life altering health scare, but many people do not realize what people with a chronic or life changing illness go through. I thought she described it so well.

This is a pretty straightforward tale of a medical emergency. Celebrated Finnish comics artist Tiitu Takalo writes about her having survived (against the odds) a cerebral hemorrhage that took place six to eight years ago. Though she has written several graphic novels, this is her most personal story. And scary, where she is sure she is going to die, she encounters depression, or at least a kind of paralysis around doing work. She has the support of a loving husband and extended family to help her survive.

There are by now, thankfully, many graphic memoirs in the category fo graphic medicine, and if you have never read one, this could be moving and insightful but I honestly saw nothing really remarkable about it, compared to other graphic medicine stories. It's a straight-through chronological telling, well drawn and personal, for her, it can help the field of medicine and the general public better understand the psychological dimensions of disease. But as one doctor tells her, she got lucky, living against the odds. That fact is in itself not comforting, but luck is clearly still part of survival.

Memento Mori, a graphic novel by Tiitu Takalo was a truly outstanding piece of art. It follows her personal journey of survival and recovery after experiencing a cerebral haemorrhage in her late 30’s. I have previously worked as a nurse, and currently work as a paramedic so I was immediately drawn to this book as broadening my understanding of each patients experience is something that is very important to me. It contained painfully accurate descriptions of the hospital experience including the loss of independence and reliance on the knowledge and experience of someone else to keep you alive. I will definitely be recommending this graphic novel to my colleagues in the health sector as I think there are many lessons to be learnt from Tiitu’s story about the impact our interactions have on each patient’s journey and how important it is to have an understanding of the long term effects of life-altering illnesses.

thank you netgalley and oni press for the arc!

i did not expect how this graphic novel would move me. it was heartbreaking and brought me to tears.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of this book.

This was a pretty difficult book to read, but I'm glad that I did.
Long hospital stays in books being described has always scared, especially as a disabled person with quite a bit of medical trauma, but it was done pretty well in this book. The drawing were a bit scary looking at times, but I guess that sometimes that was the point. To make everything seem scary, because being in the hospital all of a sudden with a bad health scare IS scary.
So yeah, I liked it but it also was nerve-racking to read.

Tiitu Takalo was a healthy woman living her life as a renowned cartoonist in Finland when a cerebral hemorrhage upends her life. She shows us her frustration with medical professionals, the effect of the hemorrhage on her brain and body, and the stress and fear of her partner. Her life is now divided into before and after her illness.
This is the story of her recovery, lived with a new perspective of a person who now knows how fragile life truly is.

Memento Mori takes us on a candid voyage through the author's experience with a brain haemorrhage and subsequent recovery.
This one hit me HARD, I've spent many years in hospitals and had more than a handful of surgeries so relating to some of the experiences in the story was incredibly emotional. The stay at the hospital that comes with a loss of independence, exhaustion during recovery, mental health, contemplating mortality, misdiagnosis and converging doctor's opinions... I have no words, this was beautifully put together with some gorgeous graphics and sentiments that will draw on your heartstrings.

This is an extremely hearbreaking and intense memoir. The art work is amazing and it really portrays what the main character went throught when she was recovering without the dialogue just a way to support it. It's such a beautiful story about the fears of recovering and what might happen after.

This book was sent to me by NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.

I was offered this graphic novel as an ARC via NetGalley and found it to be a beautiful and poignant exploration of the complex physical and emotional experiences of Takalo. Although it is a highly personal account of her cerebral hemorrhage, there is much that is universal to living through acute and chronic illnesses and conditions. Her rendering of her experiences of being in hospital, particularly how it differed from her expectations, were insightful and honest. The reader is vividly taken along with her in the highs and lows of recovery, something that can so often be overlooked by a medical profession that aims to cure - the emotional fallout from the shock of a sudden illness can last much longer than you would imagine. Although my conditions are chronic, I found that her comments about how, rather than being depressed, your emotions are much more akin to grief insightful and highly resonant. These sorts of things are often not openly discussed along which when added to the sense that telling other people (friends etc) about your experiences means that you need to emotionally support them too can leave the patient feeling very isolated and confused. There is so much more praise I could heap on the artist for her honesty and openness before even starting to talk about the artwork itself which is appropriately atmospheric and emotive. An excellent visual rendering of a highly moving story.

4.5 stars, rounded down
This is a stunning memoir. The art is gorgeous -- it's as emotional as the story is and does a great job of capturing what Takalo felt during her recovery, supporting the dialogue she wrote, and telling the story even on panels with no words. This isn't an easy story to read and the art echoed that. It's haunting and sad, from the color palate to people's expressions to the size of panels. I was really invested in Takalo's recovery from the get-go, and the format of a graphic novel made me need to keep reading. I got to see everything that happened, not just imagine it.
I do think that because the nature of a graphic novel makes the reading experience shorter, I lost track of how much time had passed in the recovery process, so I often had to stop and think about where we were in the timeline. But other than that, this is a nearly perfect book that I'm sure I'll be thinking about for a while.

An extremely touching and intense autobiographic work.

Reading I felt the distress as my own, the first disconnection of the author from the time passing by and herself, the fears, an endless routine through the process of recovering, and after that the pity of others that doesn’t help at all, the tiredness, having to readjust your life knowing there’s the possibility that you are not going to have a lot of time left, the depression and the anxiety.

I loved the drawing style and the use of colours and how they are a tool to keep in touch with the feelings of the writers.

Thanks for the opportunity to read this work in exchange of an honest review through Netgallery.

What a beautiful portrayal of life after surgery. Makes you think. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an advance review copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Memento Mori is a powerful and harrowing story. The art and memoir recount a journey through difficulties, and recount the artist/author’s truth in visual narrative. A strong example of what a graphic novel can do outside of the usual genres.

5/5 stars

"Now everything felt different. The way I had been brushed by death. No... It was more like having my hair pulled by death. It was scary and shocking, and it put things into perspective."

Memento Mori is an impressive, candid graphic memoir depicting the authors experiences after suffering a cerebral hemorrage. Through her signature drawing style she covers her journey from hospital to readjusting to life after, and the full spectrum of emotions that come with it.
I'm not typically a fan of comics/graphic novels, but this kind is an exception to the rule. Some experiences feel beyond words, and are best captured through a visual medium, and Takalo does that brilliantly. I especially loved her use of the colour palette to help her captures fear, grieving, hope, frustration, the feeling of being misunderstood (by doctors and family) and more in just under 200 pages.

This is an autobiographical piece of art that I highly recommend to anyone looking for a powerful depiction of the hospital-experience, and life after a life-changing event.

Great story, beautiful artwork and a very emotion book from start to finish! I recommend it to everyone!

This comic was a hard read for me, since my father had subarachnoid hemorrhage too. A comic to make you think about your health (both physical and mental) and your life choices, and to make you appreciate the gift of life and the people who surround you. Great artwork. I would suggest this to my university students who want to learn more about cerebral hemorrhage and to all autobiographical graphic novel lovers.

TW Blood, hospital, medical procedures, mental health issues

So rarely do books bring me to tears, but Tiitu Takalo's Memento Mori's poignant hope hit me in ways I was not expecting.
A story about healthcare, about surviving, and about navigating the after.

It is a graphic novel to the full height of the art: beautifully crafted, so that the illustrations are just as powerful as its story.

Immense thank you to Oni Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

First, thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Content Warning: blood, surgery, hospitals, depression

Okay, so. Wow. I didn't fully realize this was autobiographical until I got about a third of the way into the story. Sure, there's a note at the start that discloses that, but wow.

Memento Mori: Remember that you will die. This is the story of the author's recovery from a serious, life-threatening medical emergency. There are some depictions of the medical procedures and a surprisingly refreshing honesty of what happens in hospitals. There's something raw about how the artist works through the depression and anger after their first hospital stay: no motivation to do what they love (drawing), no motivation to work, the anger of not knowing why this happened...

So, is it good and worth the read? 100% yes
Will I ever go back and re-read it? possibly.

It's a hard read for those that may have gone through or had loved ones go through similar situations, but it ends well and with hope.

Final Rating: 5/5 stars