Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History (Maus, #1)

Vladek counting his crackers and saving every scrap of copper really hit me. Survivors don't just leave the trauma behind when the war ends. It stays in their bones forever.

“I know this is insane, but I at least fairly often wish I had been in Auschwitz with my parents.”

Artie feeling guilty about having an easier life than his parents is so relatable. He struggles with a shadow he didn't even live through. It shows how grief passes down through blood.

Seeing the Nazis as cats and Jews as mice makes the cruelty feel different. It strips away the human excuses. You see the predator and the prey clearly.

Vladek was so resourceful and clever to stay alive in Poland. He found paths where there were none. But that same intensity makes him impossible to live with now.