Graphic Novel Review – The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy/Graphic Novel
Length: 256 pages
Publisher: Random House Graphic
Release Date: October 13, 2020
ISBN-13: 978-1984851598
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Christmas Gift
Rating: 5/5 stars

“Tiến loves his family and his friends…but Tiến has a secret he’s been keeping from them, and it might change everything. An amazing YA graphic novel that deals with the complexity of family and how stories can bring us together.

Real life isn’t a fairytale.

But Tiến still enjoys reading his favorite stories with his parents from the books he borrows from the local library. It’s hard enough trying to communicate with your parents as a kid, but for Tiến, he doesn’t even have the right words because his parents are struggling with their English. Is there a Vietnamese word for what he’s going through?

Is there a way to tell them he’s gay?”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book that I got as a gift for Christmas.

Story (5/5): Tien loves his family and friends but is struggling with how to tell them he is gay. Through a series of fairy tales and vignettes from his mother’s past, Tien and his family both learn a lot more about each other and eventually figure out how to talk to each other. The fairy tales woven in here were amazing; both traditional European and Vietnamese fairy tales. The way these fairy tales are shown to be similar across cultures and the way these fairy tales reflected themselves in Tien’s mother’s past was amazingly well done.

Characters (5/5): The characters in here are complex and engaging and exceedingly well done. They are all caring and kind and have so many layers of history to them.

Setting (5/5): While much of this book takes place in Tien’s house and school, we also get to journey to amazing far-off fairy tale lands and to Vietnam.

Writing/Drawing Style (5/5): I really can’t say enough about how amazingly well this was all put together. This book looks at so many issues and does it so well. There is discussion around the implication of immigration and also speculation about how similar fairy tales are across different cultures. There is a lot about friendship and love (both old and new) and, of course, the issue of Tien trying to come out in a culture that doesn’t even have a word for that. The way all of these events were reflected in and woven throughout these beautiful fairy tales was amazing.

I have to also discuss the illustration in here, oh my goodness it was soooo beautiful. The fairy tales especially are elaborately drawn and just absolutely stunning. I just stared at them in awe every time I got to them. It’s all very well drawn and easy to follow, but the detail in the fairy tale parts was especially impressive.

My Summary (5/5): Overall I came into this expecting a lot and it still blew me away, it was so well done. This is such an amazing story that has so many layers to it and is woven together so well. In addition to that the illustration and artwork is just absolutely stunning. This is one I would recommend everyone read, it just had so much impact on me and I loved it so much. I will definitely be keeping my eye out for more books from Nguyen in the future.