Note: Pages 1-45 of Book One. The second half of Book One is also available in digital format in the shop. However, Book Two has not yet been released.

Crushed is a biomythography (a literary form coined and mastered by Audre Lorde). This is the graphic memoir of cartoonist and poet Trinidad Escobar. Follow her character Nicole (an undiagnosed Autistic book lover) as she journeys to the Philippines, reuniting with her first family over glasses of brandy after years of being apart due to the forced adoption culture rooted in colonization and perpetuated by imperialism.

By way of tales of aswang and giants, dwende and sirena, Nicole learns about a new perception of neurodivergence, spirituality, and trauma. Ultimately she uses indigenous talkstory— the antithesis of colonial silence— to mend her fractured Self.

Item details:

Themes: Trauma, adoption, feminism, self-love, childhood and domestic abuse, emotional abuse, intergenerational experience, mythology, spirituality, healing.

Trade paperback

Color cover

BW/Greyscale interior pages

Digital

Suggested reading ages 13+