Customer Reviews

Skim

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

SKIM is gorgeous. Canadian cousins Mariko and Jillian Tamaki are to be praised for such smart, sensitive, sophisticated treatment of unyielding material. Coaxing a suspenseful, surprising, hopeful narrative out of the anti-narrative horror of high school is no easy feat, but coaxing one out that remains true to the recursive slowness of the experience, the smothering isolation of it-- AND leaves you cheering for the heroine in the end-- is all the more impressive.

The Tamakis explore the complex experience of their heroine, Kim Keiko Cameron, by tapping the full potential of graphic novels to offer the reader multiple channels through which to take in information. The verbal line of the novel, with two magnificent exceptions, is the reader's primary guide through the lesbian strand of Kim's experience, while the visual line, with one heartbreaking flashback, is the primary medium through which Kim's Japanese-Canadian heritage is given witness: her mother breaking noodles, her father's thing for Asian women.

Most arresting, visually, is Jillian Tamaki's choice to give Kim the face of a traditional Japanese beauty. Short eyebrow-smudges high on the forehead and long loose hair, along with a small mouth, very rounded cheeks, and a low-placed nose are all markers used to indicate Heian-era female beauty from Tosa's TALE OF GENJI illustrations to Noh Ko-omote masks to traditional Otafuku and Benten imagery. What's canny, and oh-so-true to the tenth grade experience, is that Tamaki takes this marked-as-beautiful face and places it in a context-- an almost entirely white Canadian girls' private high school-- that completely invalidates its beauty.

Among the many riches SKIM has to offer is the chance to witness Kim's coming-of-age as a critic, which is inextricably bound up with her coming into her own as a lesbian. When Kim discovers for herself (and a lame date) precisely what strikes her as inadequate about ROMEO AND JULIET, in a way that both emerges organically from and radically illuminates the whole story we've been reading, it's a moment of breathtaking mastery on Mariko Tamaki's part.

Brava to Mariko and Jillian Tamaki, and here's looking forward to more from each and both of them.

this book is so good at what it sets out to say and show that i hesitate to describe it for fear of underselling it's attributes . the editorial reviews found above as well as some of the excellent customer reviews here might prompt you to aquire this outstanding "graphic novel" . that's the goal . for mature teens and adults .

Skim is a graphic novel that centers around the main character whose nickname is Skim. Skim is an overweight, Japanese-Canadian, gothic, Wiccan, and high school social outcast. However, none of these descriptions are actually truthgul. As the reader becomes familiar with Skim, he/she soon discovers that she is just another misunderstood high school student who is trying to find her niche will still retaining some of her identity. The plot begins to roll when the boyfriend of the most popular girl at school commits suicide and the other popular girls decide to create various vigils and clubs in honor of this boy that none of them actually knew. Skim sees through the popular girls' false sorrow and realizes that this boy's death is just an excuse for the popular girls to alienate others and draw attention to themselves. However, this death eventually created tension and forever changes Skim's relationship with her best friend. In hopes of finding help and guidance, Skim reaches out to her English teacher with whom she falls in love. Instead of finding solace in this relationship, she only becomes more confused about herself. Companionship and understanding comes in the most surprising of places: the girlfriend of the boy who committed suicide. Skim notices that the girl is actually suffering and yet her popular friends are doing nothing to come to her aid. An unspoken kinship is fostered between the two girls as they both struggle with trying to fit into their own skin.

The art in this graphic novel is exceptional. The detail is incredibly intricate and should be examined with as much interest as the text. Many of the drawings are not contained in boxes as other graphic novels and comics have used. Instead, pictures flow over the pages and blend into one another. It is possibly some of the most beautiful art that has ever been published in a graphic novel. Jillian Tamaki, the cousin of the author, is able to create unbelievable tones and depth to the gray sketches that remind the reader of Japanese watercolors.

This is an exceptional book. Lover's of graphic novels and traditional novels alike will find something beautiful and touching in this story. Skim is a wonderful character who is incredibly insightful while also being humorous and honest. Though the plot is simplistic and revolves around an event that most people have experienced while in high school, it is its everyday-ness that is so charming and at times compelling.

This graphic novel was praised almost universally in reviews, and but has still remained somewhat under the radar of the public.

Both the story and the drawing style are unusual and lovely. It's a story is set in the emotional world of a young schoolgirl. Like many bildungsromans, it is full of yearning and searching, but instead of being angsty or funny, it is poetic and kaleidoscopic, a snowglobe-like window into her changing world. I haven't seen anything else quite like it, and I've read a lot of graphic novels and comics.

Fans of Persepolis, Fun Home, or Maus would particularly appreciate it.

A fantastic, fantastic graphic novel. Modern Catcher in the Rye if Holden Caulfield were a Goth lesbian.

I am both into the illustration as well as the story (admittedly probably more into the former). Jillian Tamaki is a great illustrator and this work shows her well versed skills in brush/ink and how to combine the cinematography/composition with the storytelling. As for the story, it's about high school teenage girls and maybe not 100% targets me as the right audience but the humour and wit makes me smile from time to time while reading. I was hoping there was little bit more into the last half of the story.

Kim aka "Skim" is not really all that skim. She's mostly goth, nearly Wiccan and 100% sixteen. She attends and all girl private school with a really great English teacher, Ms. Archer. Ms. Archer and Kim start meeting secretly, but soon thereafter, Ms. Archer disappears without a trace. Kim feels heartbroken. This all happens around the same time that the whole school is mourning over a classmates ex-boyfriend's suicide. He may have killed himself because he was gay, but he may have just killed himself for other reasons. Kim's friend is no help in all this, she's too full of herself. Kim might just find herself drifting away and finding herself in a different friendship, something better.

Kim is stuck in the throes of adolescence. She has all these feelings and is growing in a different direction than her younger self, but has no desire to let go of things the way they used to be. This was a great story of growing up and apart. Kim is sixteen years old and sees her life ahead of her and sees her life now, and knows that the two are very different and that in order to be happy she has to make some changes. I like how you get to see a lot of perspectives of the school. There are people grieving a boy they never knew while the ex-girlfriend slowly closes herself off and then there is Kim, not really part of that world directly but still a part of it by default location. The illustrations in this story were really interesting, they sort of remind me of the traditional Japanese art you see in books. It really made the story work nicely. This was a fantastic coming of age tale and you should definitely check it out. Kim goes through a lot of emotions that are easy to relate to, so this book is totally relatable even if you aren't into Wicca or go to private school.

First Lines:
"Dear Diary,
Today Lisa said, 'Everyone is unique.'
That is not unique!!"

Favorite Line:
"I rode the bus all the way to the end of the line and back again."

This is one graphic novel that I can spend a long time reading. I keep coming back to it, not only to enjoy the artwork, but also to enjoy Skim's company. This story is very truthful, and unique in that it touches on what it means to be young, without being a cliched story about growing up.

Skim is a well paced and beautifully illustrated coming of age story. The story is so so. It's about high school and coming of age. The illustrations are great and are what make this book distinctive. The style is realistic and flowy. Composition of frames across each page controls the pace of reading. The graphics are just really well done, and this couldn't be the same story if it were told in text only.

Skim is the nickname of the main character (her real name's Kim). Skim and her friend Lisa are wiccans, or rather they say they are wiccans and try to read about and meet up with real wiccans as a way to find their identity because they are... coming of age in high school.

The social structure at Skim's private all-girls high school begins to change when popular girl Katie's boyfriend commits suicide. Katie's friends quickly form the Girls Celebrate Life Club and mourn in a highly visible way. Meanwhile, Katie falls off a roof, doesn't seem to enjoy the spectacles her friends create, and begins not to fit in much like Skim. That's life and that the setting. Skim's personal story is that she's dealing with her parents' recent divorce, her being unpopular as a child, and she's beginning to fall in love with an older woman. Her inability to discuss the crush with her best friend Lisa leads to them drifting apart. Eventually, Katie and Lisa switch places but maintain their different personalities while they shift around in the high school social structure. To me, the story was so so, but I am not a fan of coming of age stories in general. The presentation was good and it wasn't cheesy. It just wasn't my thing.

Overall, the strong point for this book is the illustrations. They are well done, expressive, and are worth seeking out. If the story sounds at all interesting to you, then this book is worth finding and reading.

I recommend this book to everyone, but especially girls 14 - 18. Kim, the main character, faces social pressures, frustrating friendships and life's uncertainties with dignity and strength.