Two Tribes by Fearne Hill
Published 2023 · 90,200 words · about 4 hours at an average pace · Graphic Novel, Young Adult, Coming-of-Age
How hard is Two Tribes to read?
Two Tribes scores 21 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 20 out of 100
- A graphic novel for middle-grade and YA readers uses plain, contemporary language. Its vocabulary sits near Judy Blume's young adult register.
- Sentence structure: 20 out of 100
- Comics dialogue and captions run in short, direct sentences. Syntax is as simple as the diary and young adult anchors.
- Abstraction: 28 out of 100
- The story centres on a girl's concrete trip to visit her father, with identity questions arising through events. Like Judy Blume's coming-of-age questions, the ideas stay grounded in lived experience.
- Information density: 22 out of 100
- A short graphic novel with a single storyline and a light cast has few threads to track. Pictures carry much of the information, so the pace stays comfortable.
- Narrative indirection: 22 out of 100
- A young adult graphic novel based on the author's own life tells its story directly. Reviewers note plot tropes of a runaway and a big lie, which signal plain storytelling.
- Symbolic density: 25 out of 100
- The two heritages in the title frame the book, but nothing in the evidence points to a dense layer of motifs. The meaning stays close to the surface.
- Ironic distance: 12 out of 100
- Reviewers describe an earnest portrait of mixed identity drawn from the author's life. The tone is sincere, like Anne Frank's direct voice.
- Resolution withholding: 25 out of 100
- Middle-grade graphic novels usually give readers a clear emotional resolution. Nothing in the evidence suggests an ambiguous ending.
- Structural complexity: 18 out of 100
- A short comic about one trip follows a linear arc. The evidence shows no timeline games or multiple narrators.
How Two Tribes is regarded
Two Tribes holds a literary regard score of 24 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.