BookBrowse Reviews Age 16 by Rosena Fung

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A grandmother, mother, and daughter come to understand that they're not so different after all.

Sixteen can be an exciting age, but also a painful and confusing one. In this clever graphic novel inspired in part by her own family's story, Rosena Fung shines a spotlight on the sixteenth year of three generations of women. It alternates between timelines, slowly giving the reader a fuller sense of the experiences that have shaped each main character.

In 2000 in Toronto, Rosalind feels like an outsider among her friends. They all seem so sure of themselves, with prom dates, supportive parents, and plans to attend competitive university programs. Meanwhile, Rosalind has no love life to speak of, a vague sense that she might want to go to art school, and crippling insecurities about her weight, which are only exacerbated by her calorie-counting mother. When her strict and critical grandmother turns up out of the blue for a visit, tensions within the family run high.

In 1970s Hong Kong, Rosalind's mother, Lydia, is facing her own body image issues. Her beautiful mother belittles her about her weight, and Lydia is often lonely at home while her mother goes out on dates. She loves dancing, but is barred from a performance she longs to be part of because she's told she doesn't have the right look. Lydia dreams of a different life and starts to think about applying for scholarships to boarding schools in Canada.

In 1950s Guangdong, China, Rosalind's grandmother Mei Laan is growing up in an environment steeped in poverty, physical labor, and sexual harassment. Her harsh mother is haunted by memories of war, often crying out in her sleep. Mei Laan's father has gone to Hong Kong to seek work, but hasn't yet sent for his family. So when he sends news that he's found her a husband in Hong Kong, she's thrilled. She doesn't yet know that her married life will be even more perilous than her childhood.

Intergenerational trauma is a big theme of Age 16. Mei Laan criticizes Lydia because she wants her daughter to have a better life than she does, and she believes being conventionally attractive and marrying a good man is the way to get that. Lydia sees her own ongoing struggles with her weight when she looks at Rosalind, so she thinks she's helping her by urging her to diet.

We see similar themes of self-discovery and resilience play out across the characters' stories. Mei Laan bravely travels to Hong Kong on her own as a teenager, and when her husband turns out to be abusive, she leaves and works to lift herself and her baby daughter out of poverty. Lydia makes plans for a life overseas, in a country she's never even visited, despite knowing that it will anger her mother. And Rosalind decides to live fully as herself and embrace her own quirky, artistic hobbies, even if her overachieving friends don't understand this.

The illustrations make clever use of color. Scenes set in Rosalind's sixteenth year are in different shades of purple, Lydia's in orange, and Mei Laan's in teal. As the family slowly comes to better understand one another, we see pops of orange and teal appear in Rosalind's world, signaling a newfound sense of connection.

With the Y2K aesthetic making a comeback, young readers will likely enjoy the early 2000s setting of Rosalind's story, which is full of butterfly clips, crop tops, and mix CDs. But beneath the fun is a deeper message that many of the insecurities teenagers face are more universal than they realize. This book shows body image issues, conflict with parents, and struggles to belong play out across decades and on opposite sides of the world. There's a sense of "we're all in this together" that will resonate with readers young and old, and make teenage readers in particular feel less alone.

This review first ran in the July 31, 2024 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.