Fae's Literary Garden

The world can be made to fit you. You are already who you need to be.

pg 245

• Author: Rosena Fung
• Type: Graphic Novel
• Format I read in: Digital
• Source: NetGalley
• Genre: Coming of Age
• Total Pages: 312
• Date Started: May ’24
• Date Ended: May ’24
• Language: English

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC! Age 16 comes out July 2nd, 2024!

↳ warnings: slight homophobic comments due to the time periods, sexism. fat shaming.

↳ why i picked it: I saw this beautiful cover once I started understanding NetGalley and it absolutely caught my attention.

↬ summary

Following a story through time, we get navigate down the family line of these mothers and daughters as their lives were at the age of sixteen. Roz, the youngest one, is a teenager on Canada during the 2000s, and is struggling with the era of prom coming up and dealing with her weight and self-love of her body and personality. There is her mother, Lydia, who at the age of 16 was living in Hong Kong in the 1970s and was also struggling with her weight and being told no about the things she wanted to do with her life. And then the grandmother of the story, Mei Laan, who was living in Guangdong in the 1950s, living in a post-japanese occupied era, and wanting more of life.

↬ thoughts

This ripped my heart out of my chest, scrunched it up, and stitch it back together.

I love the art of it, and it is such a nice detail to have the three different eras have a different color, especially on *SPOILER ALERT* the scene at the end where Roz is getting ready for prom and she wears something of her mom and grandma, having those colors making an appearance nicely put together *SPOILER ALERT*. The style of everything, the details, just chef kiss!

Now the story really touched my heart. The struggle of Roz with her weight is a journey I have been myself on, and it is so hard and such a roller coaster. Her shopping for her prom dress and being stressed out about a date reminded me on my prom time, but I was lucky to have such supportive friends that didn’t add to the pleasure and no comparison. Still, it is such a hard time as a teen. Lydia also struggled with her weight a lot, but she had her aunt Ping help her love herself, saying “You can’t always find something that will fit off the rack, Lydia. But if you find you don’t fit in, you can always make things fit just for you.” (pg 177). Such an easy fix you can’t think of when everything is so overwhelming. And I am going to keep repeating it on my head all the time now.

Both mothers were really trying to be good mothers in the way they knew how to be. Mei Laan was not supportive of her daughter going away and pushed for Lydia to find a good husband, but she protected her daughter from her abusive father and trying to push her to have a better life than she did, in the way she thought Lydia would accomplish it. Mei’s own mother did what she thought was best. There was this one scene, where Mei’s mother slaps her, and later on cries at night from a nightmare where they are trying to take Mei from her and offers herself instead. Lydia tries to be supportive of her daughter, and doesn’t realize how the weight comments can affect Roz the way they affected her.

The cycle between trying to be a good mother and failing at times is so hard. Because mothers try to do their best for their daughters with the tools they have while trying to not repeat what their mothers did to them. Lydia manages to do this towards the end, respecting her daughters wishes and being kind and compassionate.

There was an author’s note at the beginning of the book, which touched me deeply. But this part specifically explains how complex mother and daughter relationships can be.

mothers can be especially critical of their daughters’ bodies. They hold the ways the world has been cruel to them as girls and women and pass it on. I recognize now that my mom wanted to protect me from our society’s hatred of fatness, but in doing so ended up repeating it. It’s taken a lifetime for me to figure out that I can accept her love but reject this inheritance.

The ending of the book I feel is very realistic and not Disney like. There is no waterworks and tears, forgiveness like nothing ever happened. Instead, there is an acknowledgement of the hurt and pain, and a nudge towards doing better in a way. Because yes in an ideal world we get the Disney ending, but this I felt was so perfect, especially with all the personalities of the characters. It truly felt like a warm hug.

This is ultimately such a beautiful work, and I will more than likely buy myself a physical copy of it when it comes out.

— much love, anto