Skim

Aquietly moving graphic novel explores a teen girl’s experience with friends, suicide, cliques and love. Both overweight and of mixed ethnicities, Kimberly Keiko Cameron—also known as “Skim” because “she’s not”—is slowly moving through high school with her best friend Lisa. Both sharply witty and incisive, the two girls dabble in various forms of self-expression and exploration, like dressing with Gothic flair and trying Wicca. The two girls come to an impasse when Lisa gets an unexpected chance to join the popular clique. Coupled with her tumultuous friendship, Skim also harbors a crush on a female teacher, which leads her to begin to question herself and her desires. Long, languid lines portray Skim’s turmoil and show more angst with pitch-perfect resonance and show how, for teens, time seems to be so drawn out. While Tamaki’s faces are sometimes unsettling, the reader has the distinct impression that they should be uncomfortable. Recommend this to fans of Daniel Clowes’s Ghost World, who have been waiting for another graphic novel of teen angst and suburban ennui. (Graphic novel. YA)

-Kirkus Review show less

Spare and excellent writing paired with eloquent imagery. I don't know what I was expecting, but it blew me away. There was one image in particular that I sort of took in when reading the story. Stopped reading. Thought: that is an image of a woman drawn by someone who is in love with her. That is a first crush on paper. I read it and re-read it. It delighted me.

Skim is a beautiful and quiet graphic novel that touches on some big concepts that most people will be able to relate to. It is not a superficial book by any stretch, but the way it softly curls around its ideas suggests at depth without laboring it or being weighed down by it. I think it also had an interesting effect of highlighting Skim's adolescence, and the confusion of trying to make sense of life and growing up. Reading it as an adult with the retrospect of life experience allows you to fill in what are total blanks for her.

The artwork is gorgeous and expressive, and the writing was just right. Skim and the other characters' voices sounded believable for their ages and the time period (almost cringingly so! "Oh god, I can't show more believe I used to talk like that!"). Many of the panels are subtly surprising; Jillian Tamaki often eschews what you might expect to see in the frame after reading Mariko Tamaki's text, so there's a really pleasant interplay between them, that adds a nice extra layer if you look for it. The book is in black and white and certainly doesn't suffer from this, but I loved the coloring on the cover so much, I would have loved to have seen more of Tamaki's artwork presented this way.

The story I found to be very relatable; between the 90s private school setting, the outsider perspective, and the tentative queer awakening were all evocative touch points for me. Skim seems a little distant to start with, but by the end I was truly attached to her and wanting to see good things happen for her. It also touches on race, but it isn't a central theme in terms of the plot, but the few references to it and the nods to traditional Japanese artwork were very interesting.

The ending was quite light-handed and open-ended and very satisfying. It didn't feel like a true ending per se, but like we'd just witnessed a little portion of someone's life, and not a story with neat beginnings and ends, and that's what I loved about it. It left me with a bittersweet smile on my face and wishing Skim the best.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book, especially if you enjoyed the graphic novel version of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson and Emily Carrol. show less

This is a beautiful, poignant story. Mostly I enjoyed this book because it was like a blast from the past. MY past, to be specific. As a 16 year old, I was ostracized for being “different”, for my exclusively all black wardrobe, my interest in the supernatural, and my quiet, introspective personality. The things that the main protagonist experiences were easily things that I, too experienced. I had a lost sense of self, and I struggled to learn who I was as a person. I didn’t want to be like everyone else at my school, who would have acted exactly like the characters in this graphic novel if a popular student killed themselves. It’s all about THEM. Yes a student kills themselves, but, somehow, they turn it into why it’s show more important for them personally. And suddenly everyone’s in mourning, even the people didn’t even know the person.
I didn’t practice wicca and I’m not into ladies, but other than that, this graphic novel could have been written about me. I related to it on such a personal level that once I started reading it, I pretty much finished it all in one sitting. I found myself repeatedly saying, “Wow this is who I was when I was 16.”
While the words further the story and the plotline along, the pictures are also important. Images are shown but not discussed, situations happen that aren’t spoken about. You’re meant to take it all in. This story also has the character growing by the conclusion. It’s not just about a girl who is experiencing the isolation that goes with high school, but about a girl who experiences things and grows from them. Friendships dissolve and new friends are made. The hierarchy of popularity shifts and expands. Skim learns more about who she is and how being different and a bit “weird” is all relative. You are who you are, and I think she even begins to embrace it by the story’s conclusion. It’s written in as a first person narrative, as though to a diary. It’s very stream of conscious, so you’ll feel like you’re reading someone’s diary, with the benefit of also seeing words in connection to the diary. show less

With astonishing openness, teenaged Kim, called 'Skim' because she's not, lets us see her life, with all its confusion, heartbreak, sadness, and spots of laughter and joy. Skim is so very real, not just as a character, but with the stark relief of a person surrounded by phonies. While her private school goes into excessive mourning after a boy's suicide, Skim has a heartbreaking encounter with a teacher, a slow estrangement from her best friend, and empathy for an unexpected ally.
A very touching story, wonderfully told through the art and words.
I'd give this to a reader looking for realistic fiction with an interesting teen character, and no cotton wool.

In Skim, writer Mariko Tamaki and artist Jillian Tamaki have created a sensitive, nuanced coming of age story that has great appeal for appreciators of fine art in comics, and for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider. At her all-white all-girls school, half-Japanese 16-year old Kim “Skim” Cameron doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere. She’s overweight, opinionated, fascinated by Wicca, and infatuated with Ms. Archer, her enigmatic English teacher. When the ex-boyfriend of a classmate commits suicide, the rest of the student body erupts into a hysterical witch-hunt for other potentially depressed students, and Skim loses the few allies she had.
Jillian Tamaki’s gorgeous black-and-white art manages to be evocative of Japanese show more brush painting while carrying the story’s emotional weight in the faces of its many characters. And Mariko Tamaki’s writing has terrific dramatic irony, retaining the youthful voice of her narrator in a story that gains significance with an adult’s perspective on life. It’s highly recommended for teens and adults alike. show less

I never thought I'd enjoy a book about self-absorbed teenage girls as much as I did this one. Intelligent, sensitive writing and beautiful artwork.