Skim

Kimberly Keiko Cameron, known as Skim, moves through school as an outsider with interests her classmates do not quite understand. When a suicide leads the school into public displays of concern, the distance between those gestures and Skim’s private experience becomes increasingly uncomfortable. Her feelings for an English teacher bring further confusion, while changing friendships open questions about where she belongs. Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki’s graphic novel follows a queer teenager through grief, loneliness and the awkward politics of school life. Its treatment of adolescent desire includes an unequal teacher-student involvement, within a coming-of-age story about finding connection beyond the roles other people assign.