In the painful yet cathartic YA graphic memoir Until We Meet Again, debut author/illustrator Lily Kim Qian balances art and text to explore her experience growing up with a schizophrenic mother.
Chinese Canadian Lily first realizes "mothers could get scared" when a minor cut above Lily's lip sends mother and daughter rushing to the clinic. Lily's father decides that a move to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island may give the three a "peaceful place to raise a family." But Lily's mother whispers "strange conspiracies" and her artwork becomes "increasingly muddled." When Lily's parents divorce, her mother moves into a basement-level complex, where she begins entering and exiting the apartment through a window. Lily grows to hate the chaos of her mother's home until, one day, it is empty. Frequent cross-country moves with her dad bring Lily new friends, extracurriculars, and frighteningly disordered eating; her mother occasionally comes back from China to reappear like a "cyclone" in Lily's life.
Qian's debut graphic novel is affecting and resonant. The first six parts are organized by place, while the last four parts--"Father," "Mother," "Gonggong," and "Daughter"--offer insight into the family's generational trauma and its impact on Lily. In "Daughter," it is only through therapy and medication that adult Lily ultimately begins to untether herself from "intangible perfection" and understand these generational roots. A jewel-toned palette with pointed and heavy use of stark black adds weight to the material. Harsh scribbles, fragmented art, and surreal imagery, such as grappling hands in a crashing wave, deftly encapsulate Lily's fractured state. Perfect for fans of Sarah Myer's Monstrous and Thien Pham's Family Style. --Lana Barnes, freelance reviewer and proofreader