![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiomara posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
asianamlitfansA Review of Sea Sirens (written by Amy Chu, illustrated by Janet K. Lee; Viking Books for YR, 2019).
By Stephen Hong Sohn
So, on the same night that I picked up Super Sikh Vol. 1, I also picked up this title. I guess I was in a graphic narrative mood; I had yet more entertaining fun with Sea Sirens (written by Amy Chu, illustrated by Janet K. Lee; Viking Books for YR, 2019). Let’s get the official description first:
“Dive into this visually stunning, middle-grade graphic novel about a spunky Vietnamese American surfer girl and her cantankerous talking cat who plunge into a fantasy world of oceanic marvels . . . and mayhem! Trot, a Vietnamese American surfer girl, and Cap'n Bill, her cranky one-eyed cat, catch too big a wave and wipe out, sucked down into a magical underwater kingdom where an ancient deep-sea battle rages. The beautiful Sea Siren mermaids are under attack from the Serpent King and his slithery minions--and Trot and her feline become dangerously entangled in this war of tails and fins. This beautiful graphic novel was inspired by The Sea Fairies, L. Frank Baum's ‘underwater Wizard of Oz.’ It weaves Vietnamese mythology, fantastical ocean creatures, a deep-sea setting, quirky but sympathetic main characters, and fast-paced adventure into an imaginative, world-building story.”
One of the interesting things about this graphic narrative it is multifaceted genealogy, weaving together multiple intertexts. I didn’t realize that L. Frank Baum had written something called Sea Fairies, but The Wizard of Oz was the first “long” novel I remember reading as a kid. In any case, Trot and her pet cat are great characters. The best thing that Chu does it to make sure that Cap'n Bill gets to talk. The comedy factor ramps up once these two figures are allowed to have some more dialogic banter. I’d also like to provide my requisite spoiler warning here—look away lest you find out more than you would like—and discuss the fact that Chu decides to make the king of serpents be another human. In this case, Anko—a.k.a. the king of serpents—took this position because he happened to be drowning at the precise time that the previous king of serpents was dying. The other serpents, thinking that this human was the reincarnation of the king, decide to christen him their new leader. Correspondingly, the dying serpent king breathes magic into this human, allowing him to breathe underwater. Anko spends his time in the undersea realm actually trying to find board games and other such things to keep his eternal life more interesting, while the sea sirens have been assuming that the serpents are actually waging war against them. In fact, their animosities are, at that point, more of a misunderstanding rather than anything else, so Trot and Cap’n Bill are somewhat employed (at least on the plot level) to broker a kind of peace between the serpents and the sea sirens. Of course, they can’t possibly stay in the undersea realms forever. A late stage appearance by a surprise guest to the undersea world also offers them yet more motivation to return to the surface where they have to consider the fact that they have lives with people who can breathe in air rather than water. Lee’s visuals are absolutely perfect, and Chu’s story is certainly one for all ages. I have to say though that the Asian Americanist in me did wonder about whether or not Chu would choose to connect these Vietnamese American characters with the refugee experience, given the boat flights of so many, but this relationality is untouched!
For more on the book Go Here!
Review Author: Stephen Hong Sohn
Review Editor: Nicholas Clark
Web Posting: Xiomara Forbez
If you have any questions or want us to consider your book for review, please don't hesitate to contact us via email!
Prof. Stephen Hong Sohn at sohnucr@gmail.com
Nicholas Clark, PhD Student in English, at nclar004@ucr.edu
