The Magic Fish

Fairy-tale retellings are my favorite subgenre, and this book hit every right note for me. I loved the incorporation of stories, known and unknown to me, with art so beautiful there are days I pick this book up just to marvel at it.

The last one brought tears to my eyes, a feat that doesn’t happen often, superseded only by the end of the novel. I cannot recommend it enough.    

Nguyen is another artist whose drawings blow my mind. On top of his gorgeous, fluid, imaginative artwork, this book showcases a unique and gently told story about a boy who processes his burgeoning queerness through his and his mother’s shared passion for fairy tales.

Nguyen adds literary flair with a limited and intentional color palette—red shades for the present, blue for fairy tales, and yellow for memory—and also explores themes of immigration and assimilation. (The protagonist and his family, like the author-illustrator, are Vietnamese.)

Language is powerful. For those of us who are children of immigrants, language can also be a barrier.

In this beautiful graphic novel, Nguyen, shows how stories shared among parents and children can help us bridge language gaps between us. The way he adapts well-known fairytales to fit within the framework of the Vietnamese diaspora is so flawless that I felt they were a part of my own family’s retellings.

Also, the illustrations are beautiful. Novels like this remind us that even though we may be different, at our core we want to love and be loved for who we… show more.

This semi-autobiographical book is a beautiful and captivating read that touches on themes of family, coming out, immigration, and love.

The author cleverly employs color to convey different perspectives and uses fairy tales to navigate real-life challenges. The visual storytelling in this graphic novel is truly remarkable, leaving a lasting impression on readers.

This graphic novel is gorgeous and strikes the perfect balance between sweet and serious.

The lead character is Tiến, a child growing up in the American Midwest in the 1990s. His mother grew up in post-war Vietnam; she and Tiến read fairy tales aloud in the evenings as a way to practice English and as a bridge between generations and cultures.

The whole graphic novel is a visual treat, but the fairy tales are especially beautiful, incorporating Vietnamese culture and fashion across multiple time periods as well as reflecting the family’s experiences in Vietnam and in the United States.

The… show more.

The Magic Fish felt like a beautiful stain glass window into the life of first-generation immigrants. Every time I pick it up, I read it straight through and from that first read it has had a permanent place on the shelf of books I have to pull from for inspiration or to recommend. I think it uniquely captures this experience in a way that is so personable, it’s impossible not to like. When the characters found a way to communicate through stories it felt like a triumph. 

“They’re only stories. They’ll change when they need to.” A beautiful, lyrical, and visually staggering coming-of-age story as a young gay child and his immigrant mother come to understand each other through the telling and retelling of classic fairy tales – each illustrated with Nguyen’s poignant elegance and inflected by the dreams, fears, and cultural influences of their respective teller. This graphic novel made me weep at its beauty – both that of its incomparable art and the careful, sweet kindness of its story. A treasure and a work of art.