A candid if potentially triggering exploration of mental health challenges in South Asian families.
Sixteen-year-old Nitasha’s gnawing feeling that she doesn’t fit in keeps growing.
At home, she feels burdened by her traditional Indian parents’ expectations that she excel academically and pursue medicine. Fraught family dynamics and maternal nagging to master domestic chores for her future husband further suffocate Nitasha and narrow her options. Growing apart from her best friend and her crush, who both present white, translates into heightened insecurity about her looks. Nitasha copes by using alcohol and self-harming (her cutting is explicitly shown). At a high school party, her drinking gets out of hand, and a slut-shaming video of her spreads on social media. Nitasha’s delicate mental health shatters, and she attempts suicide (contrary to widely recommended practices, her method is detailed in the illustrations). When her family and broader support network rally around her, Nitasha feels supported and initiates a mental health support group within her religious community. This keenly observed graphic novel touches on rarely discussed themes of alcoholism, mental health, self-harm, and emotional avoidance in South Asian communities. Though some plot points lean into melodrama, the portrayal of overbearing immigrant parents and the pressures of high school feel true to life. The illustrations make interesting use of color, with sepia-tinted panels for scenes from the past and pinks, blues, and purples enhancing more dramatic situations.
A candid if potentially triggering exploration of mental health challenges in South Asian families. (content note, resources) (Graphic fiction. 16-18)Pub Date: May 13, 2025
ISBN: 9780063237537
Page Count: 288
Publisher: HarperAlley
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
A troubling depiction of an unhealthy relationship.
A battered girl and an injured rugby star spark up an ill-advised romance at an Irish secondary school.
Beautiful, waiflike, 15-year-old Shannon has lived her entire life in Ballylaggin. Alternately bullied at school and beaten by her ne’er-do-well father, she’s hopeful for a fresh start at Tommen, a private school. Seventeen-year-old Johnny, who has a hair-trigger temper and a severe groin injury, is used to Dublin’s elite-level rugby but, since his family’s move to County Cork, is now stuck captaining Tommen’s middling team. When Johnny angrily kicks a ball and knocks Shannon unconscious (“a soft female groan came from her lips”), a tentative relationship is born. As the two grow closer, Johnny’s past and Shannon’s present become serious obstacles to their budding love, threatening Shannon’s safety. Shannon’s portrayal feels infantilized (“I looked down at the tiny little female under my arm”), while Johnny comes across as borderline obsessive (“I knew I shouldn’t be touching her, but how the hell could I not?”). Uneven pacing and choppy sentences lead to a sudden climax and an unsatisfyingly abrupt ending. Repetitive descriptions, abundant and misogynistic dialogue (Johnny, to his best friend: “who’s the bitch with a vagina now?”), and graphic violence also weigh down this lengthy tome (considerably trimmed down from its original, self-published length). The cast of lively, well-developed supporting characters, especially Johnny’s best friend and Shannon’s protective older brother, is a bright spot. Major characters read white.
A troubling depiction of an unhealthy relationship. (author’s note, pronunciations, glossary, song moments, playlists) (Romance. 16-18)Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2023
ISBN: 9781728299945
Page Count: 626
Publisher: Bloom Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
An unflinching portrayal of the devastating effects of domestic violence.
After a horrific domestic violence incident, Zoey Ward and her family finally find their footing in Las Vegas only to have their lives overturned by a house fire.
Learning that her father has been recently released from prison, Zoey suspects he had something to do with the blaze. After their lives go up in flames, literally, Zoey along with her mom and her younger siblings, Kate and Cole, flee Las Vegas with the help of her older brother, Will, and his best friend, Tristan. They take refuge in California, where Tristan and his sister welcome them into a world where things seem hopeful and more stable than anything they have ever known. Yet the fear of being hunted down by her father consumes Zoey. The story is narrated from Zoey’s and Tristan’s first-person perspectives, and Gray (Run Away With Me, 2017, etc.) has masterfully captured the uncertainty and terror that come from domestic violence. Tristan and Zoey share a budding romance in which Zoey slowly but surely learns to love and be loved in a nondestructive, healthy way despite her fears and reservations. With everything she has been through, Zoey is the underdog readers will find themselves rooting for. Gray spares no detail in this intense tale. All characters are assumed to be white; Tristan is dyslexic, and there are several queer characters.
An unflinching portrayal of the devastating effects of domestic violence. (Fiction. 16-adult)Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-4281-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
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