Names and Faces

One of Publishers Weekly’s Top 10 Spring 2026 Adult Comics

“[The] stunning new graphic memoir in essays, Names and Faces, [is] a lyrical, inventive exploration of the self that also looks out into the world through comics that experiment with form and content. In a fast-paced society that demands our attention on screens, or our impulse buys and constant clicks, this writer and artist invites you to slow down and take a deep breath… . Hook’s poetic, introspective writing style and innovative cartooning will appeal to readers of lyrical nonfiction works like How Far The Light Reaches: a Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler, for her interweaving of identity, belonging, and the natural world, and alternative, autobiographical comics full of depth and feeling such as Portrait of a Body by Julie Delport, for her innovative layouts and equally beautiful prose. The art asks what a comic can do in pages full of visual metaphors that break out of the strict confines of the form, much like Hook breaks out of the mold society tries to box her into.”–Southern Review of Books

“Hook beautifully marries the verbal and visual representation of her internal struggle [in her] thought-provoking, poignant debut graphic memoir.”–Shelf Awareness (starred review)

“Alternating structured panels with looser pages for emotional impact, this book works as both mirror and window. Every face, every name, has a story to tell. An erudite reflection on the experience of holding two cultures within oneself.” –Kirkus Reviews

“Insightful… . layered and colorful, complicated and bold.”–Publishers Weekly

“Names and Faces is a moving portrait of a young biracial woman claiming herself in wholeness, deftly dissecting the threads of her complex identity to forge a self that is more than the sum of her parts. This smart and tender memoir will help anyone navigating the question of where they belong.”–Tessa Hulls, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Feeding Ghosts“What a gift Leise Hook has given us: a book tender and beating, inquisitive and quiet, bursting with guts and brains. I read it all in one long gulp, on a dreary afternoon turned magically lush by Hook’s gorgeous, compassionate exploration of what it means to be a human being, multifaceted and messy and loved, within a world that demands uniformity. I can’t wait to read it again.”–Kristen Radtke, author of Seek You

“With beautifully drawn panels and deftly created layouts, Leise Hook’s deeply reflective memoir bridges personal identity, family history, and a wide range of cultures.”–Eddie Ahn, author of Advocate

“In this extraordinary memoir, Leise Hook tugs at the threads of her complicated relationship with identity, and unravels surprise after surprise in the process. Hook pulls us inwards and propels us outwards at the same time, on tangents that range from linguistics to ecology to the history of toys. She’s a master of visual metaphors, weaving together the personal and the political, the highly specific and the universal.”– Kathy MacLeod, author of Continental Drifter

Leise Hook is a cartoonist and illustrator who grew up in college towns in Michigan and Virginia, and previously worked in art museums in New York City and Beijing. Her work has appeared in The Believer, The New Yorker, Catapult, and Spotlight PA and has been short-listed for a National Magazine Award and the Cartoonist Studio Prize. She is a graduate of the MFA program at the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont. She currently lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with her husband and tabby cat.

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