Interview with Noémie Honein

At 20, Noémie Honein was diagnosed with lymphoma. Her debut graphic novel, Hanging On by a Thread, tells the story of what happened next — not through dramatic plot twists or simplified narratives, but through quiet honesty, disorientation, and fragments of thought captured in poetic, expressive drawings.

In the interview below, Honein speaks candidly about what pushed her to make this book. She doesn’t center the disease itself — “It’s not really about cancer,” she says, “it’s about what it did to my brain.” What follows is a conversation about emotional shielding, drawing as processing, and the strange feeling of floating outside your own life during illness.

The book reflects those same themes. It doesn’t aim for a heroic arc. Instead, it explores the mental fragmentation of a young adult coming of age inside hospital rooms, family pressure, cultural tension, and an overwhelming sense of being unprepared. Her style — flowing lines, soft colors, and a refusal to box things in — mirrors that sense of emotional drift.

Raised in Lebanon and trained in France, Honein brings a bicultural lens to her work. Her influences range from shōjo manga and coming-of-age anime to fine art and observational storytelling. There’s humor here too — dry, bitter, necessary — especially when describing how surreal and infantilizing the medical system can feel to a 20-year-old just trying to stay alive.

Critics have called Hanging On by a Thread “harrowing but also hopeful,” and Honein’s own words make that clear. This is a story about someone learning to live in a body they don’t recognize, in a country they don’t feel at home in, surrounded by people who don’t know what to say. And she tells it with honesty, restraint, and striking clarity.

🖊️ Watch the full interview with Noémie Honein below to hear more about how this powerful graphic memoir came to life.

Hanging On by a Thread is available now from Black Panel Press.