Book Review: “Call Me Emma: One Chinese Girl Finds Her Way in America” by Makee
“Call Me Emma: One Chinese Girl Finds Her Way in America” by Makee (2025)
Genre: Graphic Novel, Fiction
Page Length: 246 pages (electronic review edition)
Synopsis:
Yixuan Liu, a 16-year-old Chinese girl, just moved from China to America with her family. To try to fit in to a new school, a new city, and a new culture, Yixuan chooses an English name, Emma.
As she works to succeed in school and make friends, Yixuan/Emma is confused by the anti-Asian and anti-Black racism she hears from her teachers and her friends. She must learn to be herself and stop striving to please everyone else in order to make sense of it all.
Balancing chaotic school life with divorcing parents, her sister’s mental illness, and a new crush, Emma must ask herself, “How do I know who I really am?”
Review:
Call Me Emma is a graphic novel centered around culture, identity, and immigration. The story is about the artist’s Makee’s story of immigrating from China to New York in her youth. Told through memorable illustrations the story portrays the emotions of feeling like a fish out of water and finding the balance between honoring culture, but also adapting to a new place and ideals.
Reading this graphic novel felt like a diary of sort as Yixuan is very in tune with her emotions of page and readers can empathize with her struggles of fitting in, learning a new language, and the many moments of culture shock she experiences. Everything is so new to her and she struggles to grasp new customs and the English language which is easier said than done.
My only complaint about the novel is that I do wish she had structured the novel a bit cleaner instead of the bits of pieces of a coming of age story presented for the readers. Because of the page length of the novel, it feels like certain parts of the story are missing and as a whole the novel feels a bit disjointed. Instead of jumping all over the place (time-wise), I wanted to explore more of Yixuan’s and experiences that were glossed over in the novel.
I really enjoyed Makee’s art style and how it was a blend of realism mixed with a cartoon style in its illustrations. It made the characters and situations feel more realistic and added to the immersion of the reading experience. I would recommend this novel to those who enjoy graphic memoirs or coming of age stories.
Final Verdict:
FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.
I am not very good with graphic novels as I tend to read the text too fast and not look at the pictures properly! But this does look important, although a little flawed in its structure, so I will keep a look out for it.
I understand. I really enjoy reading graphic memoirs and I think you would enjoy this title too. Hopefully you get a chance to read it soon.
I feel like I’ve had this experience too, of things seeming a little fragmented, in debut comics; maybe it’s hard to get started in a career when you’re writing/drawing “between” so many other commitments.
I happy to be reading a graphic memoir by Theresa Wong right now, also about how she adapted to life in Canada as the daughter in a Chinese immigrant family, required often to translate for her mother, for instance, and how her relationship with her mother changed over time (and didn’t change). I’m really loving it! (It’s her second non-fiction graphic publication too: now I want to find her first!)