The Magic Fish

In Trung Le Nguyen’s debut graphic novel, we meet Tien, a poor Vietnamese boy, struggling with coming out to his mother. Tien reads fairy tales to his mother to help her learn English. Since Tien and his mother understand two different languages, they struggle with opening up to one another. With the power of storytelling through fairy tales and family stories, they try to express their feelings to one another. I love how Nguyen weaves various Vietnamese fairy tales and Tien’s family history into Tien’s story. The artwork is absolutely stunning and breathtaking! I love the illustrations, especially the artwork of the fairytales and all the beautiful gowns and dresses. The gowns all look so luscious and gorgeous as they flow. I’m usually not a fan of stereotypical long princess hair, but I have to admit that I love the uber-long medusa-like hair. I especially love how Nguyen is able to depict the long flowy gowns and hair to show movement because it’s especially difficult to do in a book. I highly recommend this book because it is such a beautiful immigrant and LGTB+ story about family and love and acceptance.