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A review by goldentortoisebeetle
Stone Fruit by Lee Lai
challenging
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
5.0
here's the summary from the publisher:
Bron and Ray are a queer couple who enjoy their role as the fun weirdo aunties to Ray's niece, six-year-old Nessie. Their playdates are little oases of wildness, joy, and ease in all three of their lives, which ping-pong between familial tensions and deep-seeded personal stumbling blocks. As their emotional intimacy erodes, Ray and Bron isolate from each other and attempt to repair their broken family ties — Ray with her overworked, resentful single-mother sister and Bron with her religious teenage sister who doesn't fully grasp the complexities of gender identity. Taking a leap of faith, each opens up and learns they have more in common with their siblings than they ever knew.
This book was excessively intimate and complex - I think reading the back cover I thought it was going to be like...a polyamory situation? but it's more like just an "unconventional" family / parenting arrangement. There's Amanda, mother of Ness, who is divorced from Ness' dad. There's Ray, sister of Amanda, auntie to Ness. There's Bronwyn, girlfriend of Ray, auntie to Ness. Ray and Bron get Ness on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
The story really captures the anxiety of intimate relationships well. And the love and miscommunications between family members. And how mental health feels. And loaded / traumatic history. Can you ever really know someone? This quote across two pages stuck with me:
Bron and Ray are a queer couple who enjoy their role as the fun weirdo aunties to Ray's niece, six-year-old Nessie. Their playdates are little oases of wildness, joy, and ease in all three of their lives, which ping-pong between familial tensions and deep-seeded personal stumbling blocks. As their emotional intimacy erodes, Ray and Bron isolate from each other and attempt to repair their broken family ties — Ray with her overworked, resentful single-mother sister and Bron with her religious teenage sister who doesn't fully grasp the complexities of gender identity. Taking a leap of faith, each opens up and learns they have more in common with their siblings than they ever knew.
This book was excessively intimate and complex - I think reading the back cover I thought it was going to be like...a polyamory situation? but it's more like just an "unconventional" family / parenting arrangement. There's Amanda, mother of Ness, who is divorced from Ness' dad. There's Ray, sister of Amanda, auntie to Ness. There's Bronwyn, girlfriend of Ray, auntie to Ness. Ray and Bron get Ness on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
The story really captures the anxiety of intimate relationships well. And the love and miscommunications between family members. And how mental health feels. And loaded / traumatic history. Can you ever really know someone? This quote across two pages stuck with me:
"For the first couple of years, the differences between me and Bron made us fucking voracious. As if they made up this great sprawling landscape that we could flood across, towards each other. So much ground to cover. It kept us up at night - trying to reveal and examine all the pieces that seemed totally alien, totally fascinating. Later on, that big space became all mixed up with lethargy, and something like hopelessness. Like there was no amount of storytelling or sharing or talking that would close the gap."
The art was perfectly perfect, all in black and blue tones. I liked that the aunties and Ness became "beasts" when they were deep into play / acting feral. At first i thought it was a magical realism thing, then I realized it was just like, deeply how they felt represented on the surface.
This book has won a shit ton of awards, including 2022 Cartoonist Studio Prize WINNER, 2022 Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize WINNER, 2022 Lambda Literary Award WINNER for LGBTQ Comics, 2022 ALA Stonewall Award Honor Book, 2021 National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree. It deserves all these accolades.
I will buy this book and I recommend it to...anyone.