Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR and Kirkus Reviews.
Winner of the American Library Association's Pura Belpré Honor.
Winner of the Society of Illustrators Gold Medal.
Winner of Pop Culture Classroom's Excellence in Graphic Literature Award for Adult Nonfiction.
“Uniquely positioned to comment on autocracies and authoritarianism, Rodriguez reveals his personal fears about the future of the United States, particularly after the Jan. 6 insurrection. He portrays the crowd on the Capitol much like the one in Havana in January 1959 that starts the novel, bringing it full-circle in a striking visual comparison. It’s these moments . . . that bump Worm up from good to great.”
—Donna Edwards, Associated Press
"Spellbinding."
—The Boston Globe
"Compelling."
—The Guardian
"An ominous journey from Fidel Castro’s Cuba to Donald Trump’s America . . . Worm is Rodriguez’s first book, and it is an accomplished one. He pulls few punches."
—The Art Newspaper
"It’s an immigrant’s story with sobering lessons for all Americans, and it demands the doc treatment ASAP."
—Town & Country, naming Edel Rodriguez one of the "O.G. 100"
"A brilliant graphic memoir . . . immediate and dramatic."
—Buzz
"Worm is . . . a harrowing tale of escape executed beautifully, each panel worthy as an independent work of art ready for framing. . . . Rodriguez's work tackles authoritarianism on two fronts: the present, far-right threat facing the U.S. and his experience with the Cuban regime. [These] books lay out the stakes and call on us not to stand on the sidelines as we collectively face an uncertain future."
—New Lines Magazine
“Shocking. Brilliant. Soul-shattering in its terrible beauty. In Worm, Edel Rodriguez rips open a heart-shaped window onto a hate-shaped world. I can’t believe he survived it, but am deeply glad he did and was able to tell the tale. This book is so good it will likely be banned in Florida.”
—Chip Kidd, author of The Cheese Monkeys
"Exhilarating, immensely powerful, gorgeous, Worm really does open the imagination and sweep you up."
–Philippe Sands, author of East West Street
"Worm has consumed me more than any memoir I've read before, and that is saying a lot. It belongs in the pantheon that Maus built."
–Steven Heller, Print Magazine
"A stunningly rendered elegy."
–Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A sharply observed document of totalitarianism and its discontents—this gifted artist in particular."
–Kirkus (starred review)
"A powerful addition to the journalistic memoir comics canon."
–Booklist (starred review)
"Fascinating and complex… A passionate firsthand account of historical events and a compelling coming-of-age tale in one."
–Library Journal
"[Edel Rodriguez] is a master at line, perspective and ‘economy of means’. The drawings in the book are amazing... I particularly loved the drawings of Edel’s father, Tato, who grows old throughout the book. Beautiful. I just really enjoyed this book... it was a joy to read and gave me quite a bit to think about."
–Jeff Soto
★ 2023-08-25
A renowned graphic artist and painter writes of his early life in Cuba and later life in U.S. exile, finding parallels in both countries, “where men with guns made the decisions.”
Born in 1971, Rodriguez came of age in the Cuban countryside, where, owing to an entrepreneurially minded father, the family sometimes had a little more food than their neighbors. Both parents knew how to navigate the system: “Mamá would never mention Fidel Castro’s name. When referring to him, she would quietly rub her cheek to indicate Castro’s beard, so that no passing neighbors would hear her speaking of El Comandante.” It was their children’s being spirited off to school to be indoctrinated, among other things, that convinced the parents to abandon their homeland and join the Marielito boatlift of 1980. They arrived in the U.S. and rebuilt their lives, with Rodriguez working odd jobs until moving to New York to attend art school. Rodriguez emerged there as a critic of Donald Trump’s presidency so well known as to draw down denunciation from the man himself. To that, the author has a simple reply: “To an immigrant like me, America is a dream, a land of freedom and opportunity where one can work and express oneself without fear of violence or political persecution. For me, January 6, 2021, shattered the dream.” A few scenes, such as those depicting time spent in a holding camp before boarding their boat to freedom, might have been condensed in the interest of heightening the drama. Nonetheless, the well-rendered graphic story is plenty dramatic on its own, and it’s significant not just for its portrayal of Castro’s Cuba but also for offering evidence that the Cuban American exile community is not politically monolithic.
A sharply observed document of totalitarianism and its discontents—this gifted artist in particular.