Ratings35
Average rating4.2
A powerful and moving teen graphic novel memoir about immigration, belonging, and how arts can save a life--perfect for fans of American Born Chinese and Hey, Kiddo.
For as long as she can remember, it's been Robin and her mom against the world. Growing up as the only child of a single mother in Seoul, Korea, wasn't always easy, but it has bonded them fiercely together.
So when a vacation to visit friends in Huntsville, Alabama, unexpectedly becomes a permanent relocation--following her mother's announcement that she's getting married--Robin is devastated. Overnight, her life changes. She is dropped into a new school where she doesn't understand the language and struggles to keep up. She is completely cut off from her friends in Seoul and has no access to her beloved comics. At home, she doesn't fit in with her new stepfamily, and worst of all, she is furious with the one person she is closest to--her mother.
Then one day Robin's mother enrolls her in a local comic drawing class, which opens the window to a future Robin could never have imagined.
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Recommended to me via BookRiot TBR service, and was not disappointed. Comics memoir about a woman immigrating to the US from Korea when she was 14. The art is fantastic, and it hits all of the points you look for in a memoir: happy life, to unsettled life, to finding your place. I read it in one sitting. Highly recommended, especially for fans of graphic novel memoirs.
I always find memoirs hard to review since it kind of feels like you're rating a person's life. I did really like this one, though. It felt like a very honest look at family and belonging. I have never been transplanted to another country like that and my family situation isn't similar but this story was still told in a way that was very relatable.