83 Days in Mariupol: A War Diary
By: Don Brown
Genre: Graphic Novel, Nonfiction, YA
Number of Pages: 128
Published: May 16, 2023
Publisher: Clarion Books
Dates Read: July 16, 2023
Format: Library Book / Hardcover

83 Days in Mariupol: A War Diary is a young adult graphic novel about the war in Ukraine, especially focusing on the siege of Mariupol between February 2022 – May 2022. 

I’ve been trying to make sure to read books I find about the war in Ukraine. It’s not something that I keep up on within the news daily (truth be told, I try to stay away from the daily news in general), but I don’t want it to be something where I find out years and years later what happened or what it was like.

At first I was a little put off by the art style. I like my graphic novel reads to be full of color and usually bright palettes. But, the pen and ink art in this novel goes amazing with the setting of urgency, the brutalities and horrors of war, and the human spirit during such cases.

This is an important read, especially to the Young Adult audience it is aimed at as it gives a lot of information that, alongside the illustrations and art, can be used as a valuable resource to tell those about the war in Ukraine in a way that is more visual and memorable.