A Review of Sumni’s Firebird (HarperAlley, 2023)

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Written by Stephen Hong Sohn
Edited by Corinna Cape

I was sad to see that Sumni’s Firebird (HarperAlley, 2023) didn’t have too many reviews for it, but at least we’ll remedy that issue by covering it here at AALF! Let’s let the official marketing description give us some key contexts: “Sunmi’s gorgeous two-color teen graphic novel debut examines the power of resilience and reinvention, following the lives of Caroline and Kim, two queer, Asian American teenagers growing up in the suburbs of the San Francisco Bay Area, as they forge an unexpected connection. Caroline Kim is feeling the weight of sophomore year. When she starts tutoring infamous senior Kimberly Park-Ocampo—a charismatic lesbian, friend to rich kids and punks alike—Caroline is flustered…but intrigued. Their friendship kindles and before they know it, the two are sneaking out for late-night drives, bonding beneath the stars over music, dreams, and a shared desire of getting away from it all. A connection begins to smolder…but will feelings of guilt and the mounting pressure of life outside of these adventures extinguish their spark before it catches fire?”

I loved this graphic novel for its streamlined, yet nuanced rendering of burgeoning queer, racialized friendships and relationships. It is Kimberly Park-Ocampo who is the free spirit of the two. Though she comes from a family that is under financially strained times (as a note, I believe that Kimberly is part Filipinx-Korean), she always maintains a positive attitude, especially toward her younger siblings. When Kimberly meets Caroline for the first time, you can tell that Kimberly has the upper hand, but Kimberly’s so down-to-earth that she instantly can make friends with pretty much anyone. Caroline is far more uptight, with a complicated living situation, just like Kimberly, as their fathers are essentially both absent figures. Caroline feels pressure from her mother to perform well in school, but she’s always seeking social outlets and the possibility of romance. Eventually, Kimberly and Caroline begin to bond, with the clear sense that something else might be on the horizon. Sunmi’s expertise is in the understated way she keeps pacing readers toward what will eventually be a satisfying conclusion between these two characters. The art has a cartoon-ish style that I very much appreciated, though at times the cursive writing was a little bit hard to read. This one is certainly a graphic novel I could see myself adopting in a future course of mine. My sibling and I agreed: this work is the type of graphic novel we needed when we were younger so that we could see the complex lives that queer, racialized teenagers could lead and that even romance could be possible.

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