Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman

The gorgeous cover fits this young adult novel about a teen artist. In Starfish, debut author Akemi Dawn Bowman uses art metaphorically to explore multicultural identity, mental illness, and resilience. A victim of sexual abuse as a young child, Kiko paints the feelings that she is too scared to share with anyone. Since her Japanese American father signed full custody to her Caucasian mother, Kiko lost her chance to understand her Japanese heritage. Her narcissistic mom transfers her resentment about divorce into criticism of anything Asian, making Kiko and her brothers ashamed of their biracial roots. Living in a white suburban neighborhood in Nebraska with racist peers doesn't help.

Kiko's confusion about her identity exacerbates her social anxiety disorder: "I can't imagine feeling like I'll ever belong anywhere. I'm either too white, or too Asian, but never enough of either. And I'm weird. People don't react well to weird."

When her dream art college in NYC rejects her and her abusive uncle moves back in with her family, Kiko drives off with Jamie, an old friend/crush, to look at other art schools. In California she meets a Japanese American artist who offers to mentor her, but her anxiety makes it hard to trust anyone, including herself. Jamie, like the reader, often becomes frustrated with Kiko, but with love and acceptance, her self-confidence grows and her art improves. Their sweet romance offsets the pain.

Most chapters end with a description of Kiko's art, which captures her daily mood: "I paint a girl with white hair, blending into a forest of white trees, with stars exploding in the sky above them like shattering glass. If you don't know where to look for her, you might not see her at all."

Despite her dark issues, Kiko has a good sense of humor. On her mom obsessing over the "Best-Looking" in her yearbook: "Sometimes it feels like she belongs in high school more than I do."

Akemi Dawn Bowman portrait by Rory Lewis

As you can see from these excerpts, Starfish is brutally honest, surprisingly funny, and often lyrical. The author, like her protagonist, is hafu Japanese American and has social anxiety as well. Her novel will help multicultural teens feel less isolated and encourage empathy from others. The sexual abuse part of the story, although understated and not explicit, would make me not recommend this book to younger teenagers. However, Starfish would crossover well to adults since it's so introspective and the central relationship is with the mother. With all the media speculation on a certain president's narcissistic personality disorder, this book is timely. Although the college application process was somewhat unrealistic, the artistic process ringed true. I wish I'd read Starfish senior year in high school, as a young artist myself.

Since I was raised with two religions and married an immigrant, I relate to the identity issues facing Kiko. I have faced anti-Semitism but was also told that I wasn't Jewish since my mother was Christian. On the plus side, my brother and I have always been more open to people who are different from us. I married a British man and my brother married a Japanese woman, and we raised our children with multiple religions and time abroad to understand their mixed cultural heritage. Blended families need books like Starfish. Thank you, Akemi!

Reviewer's Disclosure: The hardcover was published in September, 2017. I searched four bookstores until I found Starfish at Print: A Bookstore in Portland. I connected with the author on twitter.

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@Barrie Summy