A review by felice
Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese-American by Laura Gao

5.0

Everytime I struggled to fit in the world around me, I thought if I flew away far enough, like Chang'e, the perfect home would magically appear. But when your roots are tangled across so many different places, that perfect world may not exist. So I'll grow my home from the ground up using roots I've nurtured.

I don't know how to begin with how much I loved this book. It had hit so close to home as a queer person of Chinese diaspora who have a lot of dreams about moving abroad. It did a wonderful job of depicting the constant struggle of belonging when you are a part of so many different worlds that contradict each other. I relished in the moments the author talked about specific cultural things that they had experienced, and ached at all the ways the author had changed herself to fit into the mold others want them to be fit in. There were also a lot I had learned with the different specific details of our backgrounds, such as Wuhanese culture. 

Not to mention, the art was also so captivating; I was at constant awe in the way I felt transported into the different places the author was showing, and how much was said through the characters' expressions alone. Even though I had teared up and the topics discussed can be heavy, I was surprised at how often I had laughed because the delivery of the story-- mixed with the author's art style-- was so comedic.