Skim by Mariko Tamaki (Emiko Superstar) and Jillian Tamaki (her cousin) is a teen graphic novel about a mixed race, overweight, bisexual, and vaguely depressed goth girl. ‘Skim’ is trying to learn wicca with limited success, and at the same time cope with being totally in love with her drama teacher, who after initially grooming her becomes very distant and cold. When a boy commits suicide and everyone at school is encouraged (or forced) to ‘celebrate life’, Skim and her sarcastic and cynical best friend Lisa come to learn more about their own ‘outsider’ identities and their relationships with the other girls in school.

Yup, this was pretty good. I wasn’t sure about Jillian’s wispy drawing style at first but I grew to like it. It’s written in a very teen-girl style which might irritate some but I thought the characters were believable, and I could defnitely understand the girls’ reaction to the situation, as something similar happened in my school when I was about their age. It’s also nice to read a story about the ‘freaks’ and ‘miss populars’ coming to realise that they aren’t as unalike as they might think they are. If only this happened more often in real life!