Age 16 - Rosena Fung - ★★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Rosena Fung

GENRE: Coming-of-Age Graphic Novel

PUBLICATION DATE: July 2, 2024

RATING: 4.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: An impactful OwnVoices graphic novel highlighting toxic parenting and intergenerational trauma, through the narratives of a granddaughter, a mother, and a daughter. Loved the triple timeline approach, each with its own powerful point to make. But some more elaboration could have elevated this story even further.

Plot Preview:

2000. Toronto. Roz is a typical teen, nerding out on alien fiction, evaluating her college options, and looking forward to the prom. But as she is plus-sized, her body weight is her constant worry, exacerbated by her mother’s demands that she eat less. When her estranged grandmother arrives unexpectedly, the relationship between the trio is further weakened.

The plotline is mainly focussed on Roz, but there are two other timelines – 1972 Hong Kong and 1954 Guangdong – detailing her mother’s and her grandmother’s backstories respectively.

Bookish Yays:

🌹 The introductory note by the author gives the right start to the story. She makes it clear that this is a fictional work as well as a generational memoir.

🌹 The triple timeline, each focussed on a sixteen-year-old (hence, the title: ‘Age 16’) in a different location, lifestyle, and era, but struggling against similar expectations: parental, societal, and cultural.

🌹 The themes, especially the pressure on girls to fit into a certain body size and shape, how bullying can occur even at home, and how parents don’t realise how they are passing on to their children the same stress they had undergone in their youth.

🌹 The mother-daughter relationships in this book are tricky to appreciate, but the story shows how leaving too much unsaid never works in the long run. Communication is key.

🌹 Love how Roz and Lydia are shown to be so much more than their weight. While their weight is a prime cause of tension in their respective timelines, the story lets us see them as a person than as a fat person, which is so very important.

🌹 I also love how all three of the main characters have inner voices talking to them, questioning their every move and casting doubt in their hearts. It highlights how deeply we can be affected by naysayers, not just the external ones but also the ones in our head.

🌹 The illustrations follow a triple colour scheme, each in a secondary colour palette: monochrome purple for Rosalind in Toronto, monochrome orange for Lydia (the mother) in Hong Kong, and monochrome green for Mei Laan (the grandmother) in China. The hues suit the youthful tone and the chaos of teen age, and also serve as a reliably easy indicator of the active timeline. Towards the end, the 2000 timeline starts using green and orange, showing the developing harmony among the trio.

🌹 I liked the ending. It was not perfectly sealed, nor an unrealistically happy one, but an aptly hopeful finish.

Bookish Nays:

🌵 What could have been a perfect experience is somewhat marred by the unanswered questions, especially in Lydia’s and Mei Laan’s stories. Granted, Roz is the key character as the past affects her present the most. But without knowing the extended details in the two historical timelines, the decisions of Lydia and Mei Laan feel vague. Mei Laan’s arc is the weakest of the trio. I wish her reasons for not sharing the secrets of her traumatic past with her daughter had come out more clearly. Moreover, as I could see the struggles of all three characters, I faced mixed feelings when one timeline made me sympathise with a character but another timeline generated frustration towards that very person.

All in all, this graphic novel has a meaningful plot and an impactful theme, but it could have been an even more memorable experience had it developed the historical backstories in more detail. Nevertheless, it is a great option for young adults who will hopefully learn to accept themselves as they are and communicate with their parents or guardians instead of silently wishing for the best while living the worst.

Definitely recommended to YA readers looking for a good coming-of-age and self-acceptance story in graphic format.

My thanks to Annick Press and NetGalley for the DRC of “Age 16”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Content warnings: Fatphobia, fat shaming, eating disorders, toxic parenting.