While reading Sabrina, I found that Drnaso’s style affected me, as the reader, greatly. Between the relatively large number of textless cells, the occasional moments in which one action just jumps to another sans explanation, and the way in which many of the characters sort of blended together, I found myself experiencing a delirium of sorts that mimicked the one that I feel when grieving. When my grandfather passed away last week, there were things that just didn’t seem real and Sabrina made me feel similarly.

For me, one of the major factors that influenced my feelings while reading this graphic novel was Drnaso’s style of illustration. The colors were generally muted and the characters seemed flat, almost waxy in a way. This is a style that I generally appreciate because it allows me to focus so much on the storyline without being trapped in a sensory hall of mirrors. I wouldn’t say that this work embodies Calvino’s idea of exactitude, nor would I expect it to. However, I find that it does embody some form of exactitude. It is more of an emotional exactitude where one might not see or hear every detail, but instead may be more likely to feel them.

            Sabrina wasn’t particularly flashy or ostentatious, but I found that it was very honest. Those pages contained a distillation of these characters’ emotions in the wake of tragedy and how the internet can put those feelings on blast, making their personal experiences more of a reality show than actual, human experience.