A review by jayisreading
The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.75

What a quiet and beautiful story. The intertwining of fairy tales and Tiến‘s life was so well approached to gently open up a difficult-to-navigate conversation. An all-too-familiar situation that many immigrant families find themselves in, Tiến (the protagonist) struggles to figure out how to talk to his refugee parents in Vietnamese, as they are struggling to learn English, about a delicate topic. In this case, it’s Tiến‘s sexuality.

Of course, more that happens than this basic premise. There are so many layers to this graphic novel, exploring the complexities of grief from various perspectives in Tiến‘s family as well as in the fairy tales themselves. As gentle as this graphic novel can be, it will also tug at your heartstrings as Nguyen guides the reader through Vietnamese culture and storytelling.

Lastly, I just want to say how stunning the illustrations are. Each page was absolutely breathtaking, especially when they transitioned into fairy tales. I also thought it was incredibly clever to intertwine what was happening in “real” life and in fiction based on color.

I highly recommend picking this graphic novel up. It’s beautiful in every sense of the word.
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