Hi friends, I’m back for another blog tour today! I’m excited to share my thoughts as part of the blog tour hosted by TBR & Beyond Tours for Saint Catherine by Anna Meyer.

Thanks to Labyrinth Road for providing a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Click the banner above or here to check out the other incredible bloggers on the blog tour!

This was a great graphic novel that I think will appeal to readers of all ages, especially the adults but perhaps even some older YA readers. I think it will also appeal to those who have a non-linear relationship with religion. I didn’t think that a story about a young woman who believes she’s possessed by dozens of evil spirits because she missed church one time could be so entertaining. However, the author did a fantastic job bringing Catherine’s story to life. I didn’t expect to feel a slew of emotions from frustration and shock to heartbreak and overwhelming sadness to healing contentment, but Meyers made me feel it all!

Catherine was a pretty flawed character and while that made it so she wasn’t the most likable, it did make her more realistic and relatable. She’s young, makes questionable if not downright awful decisions, and is a bit self-centered at times, but she also genuinely cares about the friends and family in her life. She was raised to believe that if she “wasn’t good” she would go to hell and this fear stuck with her through to adulthood. It was honestly almost painful how relatable Catherine was to me but it also made me connect to this story even more. In particular, her struggle to reconcile what religion means to her as an adult vs how she was raised with religion as a child, was something that really hit home. While this book is specifically about Catholicism, I think anyone who has been raised religiously and whose relationship with that faith has changed as they have grown will be able to relate. I know it made me reflect on my own journey with my religion, what that means to me now considering where I live, and I’m honestly still trying to figure that out even now!

But I digress… This graphic novel clearly made me feel and think a lot and I greatly appreciated that about the story. Plus, having such wonderful artwork to accompany an impactful story made it no hardship to get through. The story is a mix of flashbacks onto childhood and the early days of her relationship with Manolo and I love the colour choices used to depict these scenes, and it was a great way to indicate the differences between the past and present. Although the overall colour palette is more muted, I think it fit Catherine’s story perfectly, especially the contrasting red and black accents. I really love this style of art and how “simple” yet evocative it can be. There aren’t many huge zoomed out scenes, rather they are zoomed in and intimate with beautiful detailing and texture. My favourite part about the art is how the characters’ feelings are captured so well through shading and simply drawn expressions. It’s so well done!

“It’s up before it’s over.”

That ending, while bittersweet, felt quite hopeful and it surprisingly made me teary eyed because I didn’t want to believe that their story was over. Those last few lines (quoted above) struck something true within me that got me hard in the feels, lol. I think this is a story that I can see myself revisiting on occasion, especially the peak and ending. I would highly recommend it if you’re looking for a thought-provoking, relatable, and realistic adult graphic novel about growing up, working through the past to heal and find your way forward, even if it’s through the most unexpected of events!

Have you read Saint Catherine or is it on your TBR?

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