Robin Ha's Almost American Girl was fantastic. This graphic memoir follows Ha's abrupt move from Seoul to Alabama. She excellently captures the turbulent emotions of being thrown into a foreign country and the alienation of being a non-English speaking Korean girl in the American South.

Ha was particularly skilled in capturing the messy, intense emotions of her teenage years. Her frustration at her mother and loneliness at school was visceral. It was particularly heartbreaking to see the big and small ways Ha felt unmoored during this time in her life. From bullies to parental pressure and catty step-siblings so much of this time in Ha's life was rage-inducing and I related to the frustrations of being a teenager with no control over your own life.

But, Almost American Girl wasn't all doom and gloom. The lifelong friendships Ha makes were triumphant to see develop after experiencing the struggles she had connecting with her peers. I loved seeing the community she found in fellow comics lovers and the long-distance friendships she cultivated with her friends in Korea were equally heartwarming.

One of the most outstanding aspects of this memoir was the ways Ha unpacked her relationship with her mother. Ha, and her mother were incredibly close before they moved to America and the schism caused by this upheaval was incredibly emotional. What I found so impressive was Ha's ability to step back from her anger and sense of betrayal at her mother for uprooting her life with no warning. Ha spends some of the most engaging portions of this memoir unpacking the reasons why her mother felt leaving Korea was necessary and gave the reader a holistic understanding of how oppressively conservative Korean society can be for a single mother. I applaud the empathy Ha demonstrated for her mother despite some of the hurt she caused. Ha masterfully demonstrated how your parents can let you down, but that with understanding, perspective and sincere apologies you can come together and move forward.

I connected deeply with Ha's exploration of the transient space she takes up as a Korean immigrant to America. Ha explored how while she is in some ways an outsider to American culture after almost a decade living outside of Korea she feels separate from that cultural space too. As someone with similar experiences, Ha conveyed the haziness that in-between feeling perfectly.

My only criticism of this graphic novel is that its final few chapters felt rushed in contrast to the rest of the memoir. We breezed past Ha's experiences in high school which was unfortunate because it's the time in her life she truly began to fit in and I would have loved to see more of it.

Overall, Almost American Girl was a great read. Ha is a compelling memoirist with a skill at capturing vivid emotions. I'll be on the lookout for whatever she does next.