Stitches: A Memoir by David Small

David Small's life was filled with silence, half-truths, secrets, and darkness. At 14, he entered the hospital to have a growth removed from his neck; he left without his vocal cords and not knowing he had cancer. His mother lived a double life, his father carried around terrible guilt relating to David's cancer, his grandmother ended up in an institution. It's amazing to think about all of the information conveyed through this book; if it had been a book written with words instead of images, it would have been quite an overwhelming read. Stitches, as it stands, is an engrossing tale of Small's life, the kind where I found myself, with eyes wide, wondering what new revelation would come in the next pages.

The book was initially marketed as a book for adults, but then started getting recognition as a title that would hold interest for teens (perhaps the most controversially as one of the finalists of the National Book Award for Young People's Literature).


Find it at IndieBound.

Read it with:
I Never Liked You by Chester Brown
It's a Good Life if You Don't Weaken by Seth
Blankets by Craig Thompson
Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person by Miriam Engleberg
Epileptic by David B.