Radtke is, first and foremost, <b>a superhuman of illustration</b>, <b>a grandmaster like Adrian Tomine or Chris Ware</b>.
New York Times Book Review
<b>The most beautiful graphic novel you’ll read all year</b>, Kristen Radtke’s memoir is an <b>absolutely stunning</b> look at what it is to recover from grief, and is <b>so haunting you’ll be thinking about it for days after reading it</b>... At once narrative and factual, historical and personal, Radtke's stunning illustrations and piercing text never shy away from the big questions: Why are we here, and what will we leave behind?
Newsweek
<b>Brilliant</b>… The book is <b>a family drama, youthful romance, obsessive adventure, and karmic inquiry wrapped in a coming-of-age tale</b>. [Radtke's] thumbnail history of left-behind people and places, and <b>a wondrous panel-by-panel archive of the interplay between her rapacious intellect and her expansive imagination</b>.
- Elle,
[Radtke's] writing is never less than <b>lovely</b>, and her black-and-white drawings are <b>masterfully eloquent</b>: at once vivid and faded. <b>Think Shelley’s "Ozymandias", with light top notes of Alison Bechdel and Adrian Tomine.</b>
- Rachel Cooke, Guardian **Graphic Novel of the Month**
[Radtke is] <b>a master of both prose narrative and visual art</b>... In a way, <b>what she has done in this impressive book is to revive the dead and recover the lost while illuminating a world in flux</b>, in which change is the only constant. <b>Powerfully illustrated and incisively written</b> – <b>a subtle dazzler of a debut</b>.
Kirkus
<b>Remarkable</b>...a <b>breathtaking </b>mix of prose and illustration.
Atlantic
<b>One of the most haunting graphic memoirs I’ve ever read</b>... As we turn the pages on [Radtke’s] journey, we are ravaged and ravished. <b>There is a proud tradition of graphic memoirists – of those dually equipped to wield word and image – to tell the true and deeply considered story of a life.</b> Alison Bechdel, Roz Chast, Riad Sattouf, David Small, Marjane Satrapi, Art Spiegelman and others have done it searingly well. <b>Add now to that list Radtke, who proves herself an equal among equals with this debut book.</b>
Chicago Tribune
With elegant writing and arresting drawings, Kristen Radtke’s <i>Imagine Wanting Only This</i>...grapple[s] with the limits of how much understanding our past can help us comprehend our present... <b>She is a master of silhouette and shadow, of negative space, evoking a sense of potent isolation.</b>
Boston Globe
A <b>stunning</b>, honest meditation on loss... Radtke’s book is <b>enchanting</b>.
Huffington Post
This memoir’s realisation of urgency expresses itself in human beings’ silence, which might frustrate readers of prose memoir. But here <b>it is an opportunity for Radtke’s readers to focus, stare, wonder – to remain within urgency itself</b>... This is <b>a riveting use of memoir</b>.
- Sarah Heston, Los Angeles Review of Books
In her <b>exquisitely soul-, mind-, and heart-shattering</b> debut graphic memoir, Kristen Radtke explores life's big questions surrounding grief, mortality, and the impermanence of the things – and the people – we love most.
Nylon
Radtke's life – and the way she beautifully elevates her deeply personal experiences into universal lessons – makes for <b>brilliant, compelling, unforgettable art</b>.
Bustle
Kristen Radtke leads us through <b>a bleak and beautifully crafted story</b> of heart and heartbreak – creation, connection, decay, and loss. <i>Imagine Wanting Only This</i> is <b>challenging and inspiring</b>.
- Ellen Forney, New York Times bestselling author of MARBLES,
Writer, illustrator, and editor <b>Radtke’s graphic memoir does something difficult within just a few minimally designed, emotional pages</b>: she transforms the over-studied experience of being a talented artist stuck in that yearning gulf between college’s purpose and life’s demands into <b>something unique and thuddingly real</b>.
Publishers Weekly