Sarah Myer

This graphic memoir of the author growing up as a Korean adoptee in a white rural town is painful and agonizing. Sarah's passions for drawing, cosplay, and anime and her racial and ethnic background set her apart as too different for the white kids at her schools. Despite being tormented by racist names and bullying, and believing that she isn't good enough, Sarah soldiers on, making some friends and diving into her passions. However, the anger seethes within for years, impacting her mental health and well-being. Her white parents love her and are supportive, especially her father who gamely accompanies Sarah to her first anime con, but their cultural competence is limited. Eventually Sarah comes to see that only she can destroy the inner monster that she created. It's a difficult read but essential as window and mirror reading. Hoping all those white classmates read this book and realize how awful they were.… (more)

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher of Macmillan, and the author Sarah Myer. Myer's YA graphic memoir reminded me of how my childhood and how my understanding of being Asian American relied on proximity to other Asian cultures and signifiers such as anime. Myer's memoir reminded me how Asian Americans weren't that visible in the mainstream or weren't known to be creating media as it is today. Myer's memoir shows how transracial adoption can be embodied within oneself and how it can differentiate between siblings as well. While Myer's style could be improving, her storytelling skills really come throughout the work.… (more)

Sarah and her older sister Lizzy were both born in South Korea, adopted by their white parents and raised in rural Maryland. Despite being some of the only Asian-Americans in their majority-white area, Lizzy seems to get along fine, but Sarah faces racist harassment that escalates from name-calling in grade school ("Flat Face") to worse in high school - sometimes physical violence. School administrators do nothing, reinforcing a white supremacist culture that is intolerant of difference. But Sarah, who has always loved drawing, cartoons, and anime, finds community in theater and in anime conventions (which her dad brings her to). There, she meets people who share her interests, and is able to explore and express her gender identity through cosplay. Ultimately, Sarah takes responsibility for the things they can control, faces their insecurities, and heads into the future with the love and support of their adoptive parents.

See also: All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung (adult memoir)

Quotes

I can't remember a time in my life when I wasn't aware of being adopted... (11)

I was too young to understand my depressive and fearful moods. My mind clung to intrusive, nightmarish thoughts...with the same intensity that kept me fixated on cartoons and drawing. (53)

I didn't know how to express my frustration over being stereotyped in a healthy or acceptable way. (59)

My violent behavior was troubling. And I struggled when I couldn't just use make-believe to justify or explain my emotions. I always felt like I was fighting someone about something. (61)

It's extremely dehumanizing to hear other people TELL YOU what they believe YOU ARE, repeatedly. (135)

The ILLUSORY TRUTH EFFECT: The tendency to believe FALSE information to be CORRECT after repeated exposure. (179)

...as I grew older, I came to believe that I must've been REJECTED because I wasn't good enough. That became my internal truth. (229)

In the end, it doesn't matter where I came from. Because I know who I am. (252)… (more)