If Anything Happens I Love You

April 2, 2022 Guest User

Will McCormack, Michael Govier, and Youngran Nho

Unimaginable loss yields to the power of human connection in this simple, moving story from the filmmakers of the eponymous Oscar-winning film.

A companion to the Oscar-winning short film of the same name, this graphic novel brings new elements to a story that has, horribly, become a familiar narrative in American life. In the aftermath of a school shooting that takes their daughter’s life, a father and mother must rediscover love in a world that’s been leached of color. Their daughter’s soul—“the part of you that is really you”—helps them along, bringing forth memories of her joyful life and enabling them to process her tragic—and tragically preventable—death together. With any exercise in adaptation, there is the question of harnessing medium specificity; this work more than rises to the challenge. McCormack, Govier, and Nho, the animated movie’s co-creators, take their successful cinematic story concept and give it new life with the addition of a carefully written text that explicates the philosophy at the heart of the original. Scenes are reordered to relate to one another in new ways, and characters are endowed with enriched backstories. The cat, an adorable fixture of the film, takes on a moving new role. The result is a book that holds its own, settling comfortably into its own niche, ready to welcome a new audience. Shadows, silhouettes, and occasional washes of color are expertly used to increase the emotional impact. Main characters have paper-white skin and straight, dark hair.

Kirkus Reviews