Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story

Brutal, but also sweet (?), graphic memoir about an elder Millennial navigating their late 90s/early 2000s teenage wasteland.

So I think Sarah Myer (they/them) and me must be the exact same age cuz BOY DID THIS HIT HARD. I had forgotten - and this book made me horrifyingly REMEMBER - how that 1999/2000 high school business was like. But especially: how damningly socially retrogade we all were? Good Lord.

Myer was born in Korea, adopted by white parents in suburban/rural Maryland, and grows up to be super nerdy, quirky, anime-loving and gender non-conforming. They love drawing and are HUGE DORKS. Boy, did that hit hard too! Unfortunately, their surroundings are... well, middle America in 1999. AKA there's racism, homophobia, transphobia, just a bunch of toxic sludge sloshing around all over the place. Identity politics was just gaining steam, I would say, around those issues, and so it was, indeed, very normal to sling around “gay” as an insult. Confession: I remember one of my bffs, who was gay, once stopped me in my tracks in 2001 by being like, “you know, that's very hurtful”. Teenage me was like [Pikachu surprised face] IT IS???? Gawd, I'm so embarrassed, still, about that. Thank you, [redacted], for tolerating my ignorance!!!

So Myer had, unfortunately, some very awful instances of bullying - and this memoir does a good job of both contextualizing that bullying, as well as reflecting on it with compassionate, adult distance. This memoir was also such a sweet, inspiring portrayal of (transracial) adoption gone RIGHT; something I really needed, after the horrors of We Were Once a Family. I really appreciated how Myer's parents ALWAYS had their back - the scene where they go to Otakon with their dad, just SINGLE TEAR.