The Weight

by Lorraine Chun, MLIS

Content Advisory: This book includes domestic violence. National Domestic Violence Hotline in the United States is 800-799-7233; https://www.thehotline.org/

This book made the top ten adult comics on the Publishers Weekly list for Fall 2025. Melissa Mendes tells a riveting story that involves intergenerational trauma but also highlights how parental love can still prevail and contribute to resilience. Readers are introduced to Marian, who gives birth unexpectedly at her parents’ home. Her parents lovingly welcome Edie, their new grandchild. Still, Marian’s husband seems uninterested and immediately informs his father-in-law that he is moving to another town, far away from Marian’s parents. It is the first inkling to the reader of the spouse’s abusive behavior and isolating Marian and her newborn from a family support system. As a young child, Edie is exposed to domestic violence, alcoholism, and secondhand smoke. She experiences upheaval as Marian desperately tries to escape abusive behavior from her spouse and seeks refuge with her parents. Unfortunate circumstances leave Edie in the care of her grandparents, and she is angry, grieving, and unable to process her emotions with her new caretakers. We see Edie focusing on farm chores and settling into a steady rhythm of farm life. However, Edie continues to be at odds with her feelings and is unable to articulate them. We see her anger, at times, vented towards the grandparents, at school, and with her classmates. As Edie reaches adolescence, it becomes an even more confusing time, and she struggles to process what her body is going through and is unable to articulate this to her grandparents. She seeks refuge with the local boy, and Edie decides to marry him. The cycle of domestic violence and alcoholism, unfortunately, repeats itself with Edie. But resilient Edie, through the support of her grandparents, fights back, stopping  the cycle from continuing.

This book reflects intergenerational trauma in a stark way with its artistry and portrayal of human emotions. I felt like I wanted to reach out and hug Edie and tell her everything would be all right. The point of resilience and efforts to stop the cycle comes through with Mendes’ artwork and storytelling. It is a powerful piece of work.

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Lorraine Chun is a medical librarian at the New York College of Podiatric Medicine. Librarianship is her second career after spending many years in public health administration. New to the field of graphic medicine, she finds that graphic medicine is a vital teaching tool to students of medicine.