Summary: Josh's life is a mess, and no matter how he tries, other people insist on messing it up for him. He lives in a trailer park with his mom, who is dealing drugs and frequently leaves him alone to take care of his three younger siblings while she is being pimped out by her ex-convict boyfriend. She also killed her ex-boyfriend during a domestic struggle, leaving Josh to hide the body in the woods. But the body won't stay hidden, everyone in the trailer park seems to know about it, and Josh is just waiting for the other shoe to drop, which makes it hard for him to do things like stay on top of his schoolwork, or have a normal relationship with Michelle, a cheerleader who he might kind of like, but doesn't dare let into the mess of what his real life is like.

Review: Wow. I'm having a hard time putting my thoughts about this book into words. It's not perfect - there were some parts that I thought didn't work as well as they could have - but it was still a potent reminder of what graphic novels can *do*. It's dark - that should have been unsurprising, given the cover art - but even so, I wasn't expecting it to be as bleak as it was, or to affect me as much as it did. Josh is not a perfect kid - he's broken and puts up walls and is not great at problem solving and resorts to violence too easily - but he is a product of his environment, and he is very clearly doing the best he can with what he has, which is very little. I think what affected me the most is the realization that, while Josh is fictional, there are many, many real kids in similar situations (maybe minus the dead body rotting in the woods), and while the book ends on a hopeful note for him, I'm not entirely convinced that he really has broken the cycle of poverty and neglect, nor that his solution is practical for most real-life kids in similar circumstances. And that sense of hopelessness and futility was really, really heartbreaking. This was shelved in the teen graphic novels section of the library, which on some levels, I sort of questioned - there is violence, drugs, sex, and swearing in abundance. But on the other hand, there are a lot of teens that - like Josh - have had to grow up too fast, and I think it's unrealistic to deny that and important to have their experience represented in the available reading material, both for their sakes, and as a reminder for those of us who grew up more privileged. 4 out of 5 stars

Recommendation: This book is kind of the anti-Raina Telgemeier look at teen life - no bright colors or smiling faces in Josh's world. It's not exactly an enjoyable read, but it is an affecting one, and one that's well worth picking up if you like graphic novels with a darker edge - or if you need to be shaken a little bit out of a happy-endings bubble. ( )

For the most part, Josh is a pretty typical teenager. He’s always patching the ancient tire on his bike, his sole source of transportation. He struggles to keep up with school while taking care of his responsibilities at home. Other kids tease him, and he can’t bring himself to believe that Michelle, a pretty and popular girl, actually likes him. Josh is also intensely devoted to his mother, and it is this devotion that makes him extraordinary. His loyalty is so deep that he takes care of his younger brothers and sister while his mom parties with her friends and lovers, he severely beats his best friend Albert who sleeps with her, and he is haunted by the memory of the corpse he buried, the body of a man his mother murdered.

In Trailers, Josh learns that sometimes secrets will not stay hidden. While the power of his love for his mother prompts him to dispose of the corpse she creates, it does not erase his memory of the murder. His guilt will not let him forget, and neither will the other residents of Camelot trailer park. Gradually, it seems that every one knows about the body, and they keep exhuming it to examine it curiously. Even Josh’s dog won’t leave the corpse alone, and Josh eventually has to crawl under a neighbor’s black widow-infested trailer to find the disembodied head the dog has selected as his chew-toy. While Josh is struggling to maintain some level of normalcy, get to school everyday, and get to know Michelle, every one around him seems to be going insane. His friends are partying with the decomposing body that his mother seems to have forgotten entirely as she leaves her young children with the television and stays out late into the night, doing drugs and engaging in prostitution. How long can Josh handle the guilt of having been an accomplice to his mother’s crime? How long can he take the pressure of caring for his three younger siblings? Will he finally realize that by protecting his mother from the law, he is destroying his own future?

Trailers is a haunting depiction of life at its worst. The excellent black and white illustration and provocative text of this graphic novel never make any generalizations about growing up in trailer parks or condescend to any obvious moral lessons, but instead portray Josh as a realistic teenager loosing control before he learns to take it, while his mother’s behavior gradually shatters his illusions and he knows he must save himself and his siblings from her poisonous influence. This book is recommended for mature audiences (older teens and adults) due to its gory illustrations and graphic language. It tells a powerful story, and leads one to ponder what actions one would take if faced with such extraordinary circumstances. ( )