Writing: 5/5
Art Style: 5/5

TW: Racism, suicide, depression, anxiety

This was a hard book to read. It was dark, emotional, and has difficult topics. It was also very relatable. It talks heavily about generational trauma in the Asian and Immigrant experience. This book made me feel seen and that my experiences are valid.

Art Style -
The text is easy to read and the drawings are beautiful. They help articulate what can be hard to put into words and really add to the experience of reading the book. The author's creativity blows me away and the visual element help add to her story.


Writing -
The writing was stunning. It was empathetic and came from a place of healing. While most of the writing was dialogue and her thoughts, the author did a good job telling the story in a fluid way. The characters were fleshed out and no one was "villainized" for the sake of the story. The author comes to terms with the fact that the people in her life, had their own issues to work through and that their experiences were just as valid as hers. Saying that, she does a great job letting the reader in which makes for a very empathetic, emotional, and relatable read. I could see myself in the experiences she had and I felt as if we were two friends reconnecting and healing on a journey together.

I really enjoyed this graphic memoir and would 100% suggest it to my school and students to read. I think Lee does an amazing job guiding readers through a number of the ups and downs that teenagers deal with. She gives voice to some of the cultural pressures other teens who are Asian American have spoken with me about.

I really appreciated the honest vulnerability she shared with her mental health. I feel like all teens (and people who were once teens, lol!) can relate to different parts of this story.

On top of that, the illustrations were great! The picture below is not from the book, but another piece the author/artist did.

At its best moments, such as when exploring the fraught relationship between Deb and their white friend Quinn, this memoir is generous and moving, and at its worst, it's not bad, rehashing well-trodden tropes of Asian diaspora writing (ching-chong name calling, Asian roll call anxieties, expectations of model minority behavior). IN LIMBO is a worthy addition to the growing body of graphic memoirs exploring adolescent Asian American identity.

I just reviewed In Limbo: A Graphic Memoir by Deb JJ Lee. #NetGalley
[NetGalley URL].
This graphic memoir by Deb JJLee showed her life story from her complicated relationship with her mother, living with mental illness, bullying, and trying to fit in. Still, she also showed us her working on loving herself, and her loving family despite her mother being flawed she still loved her and the friends she gained and lost throughout her life so far.

The art style was absolutely breathtaking, I cannot wait to read more from this author.

Thank you NetGalley and First Second Books for the advanced copy. A huge thank you to Deb for allowing us to have a glimpse into her life with this beautifully crafted graphic novel. This novel follows Deb as she struggles to find her place in the world. She experiences complications in friendships, conflicts with her mother, bullying and mental health issues. We get to see her grow and heal. It’s such a heavy and intimate story of her life.The illustrations are stunning and poignant. Please read this.

A wonderfully drawn and written graphic memoir.
Vulnerable, honest and relatable.
Seeing and reading about different people and perspectives broadens your world and horizon. I highly recommend this book to anyone who felt alone or like they didn't belong at some point in their lives,

Thanks to the publisher for sending me a digital copy of this book for early review.

In Limbo is a gorgeous graphic memoir about teenage Deb, a girl who's striving to survive, to fit in, to cope with her family problems, and her constant fear of rejection and depression. I felt identified with Deb throughout the book because I saw traces of my own adolescence in her story. I have no doubt this book will be loved by many and it will always keep a special place in my heart.
However, I decided to rate In Limbo 3.5 ⭐s because I found the ending incomplete unless of course there is a continuation, which I doubt, and because sometimes it was difficult to understand.
But I really loved it and read it in just one sitting. The illustrations are stunning, sometimes breathtaking, and the writing style is beautiful. Without any place to doubt I'd recommend this graphic novel.

I don’t think anything could have prepared me for In Limbo. It is a deeply personal memoir about the author’s adolescence navigating high school, immigrant parents, and mental health. It is an emotionally raw memoir and one of the absolute best that I’ve ever read.

Deb was born in South Korea but was raised in the United States. They deal with microaggressions and bullying from peers throughout school, including in Korean schools. Deb is an outsider no matter what space they inhabit, and I found this to be extremely relatable to my own experiences as an Asian American.

Deb’s mother is both loving and extremely abusive, and this dysfunctional relationship is harmful to Deb’s mental health and ability to form healthy connections with others. This hit so close to home for me that it hurt to read. Many of Deb’s experiences reflected my own and I felt so seen.

The graphic memoir as a whole felt like an outpouring and I appreciated Deb’s sincerity, balancing all of the ugly memories with good ones. I wept so much reading this memoir, even after I finished the book. The art throughout the graphic novel is outstanding and fits the tone of the memoir perfectly, Deb is extremely talented and I am so happy that they have been able to turn their passion for art and build a successful career.

This was a fantastic graphic memoir! There was so much feeling, both in the text and the art. All the highs and lows of the teen years mixed with added pressure from family were the main themes. 4.5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

In Limbo hit very close to home regarding identity and mental health struggles. It was a very heavy book. The ending was very beautiful and moving.

At times the order of events felt a bit disjointed and confusing.

Overall, In Limbo was a solid book.

This was a very moving comic! I love comics and graphic novels, and even more so when they depict serious issues that were otherwise harder to digest, e.g. in the form of a novel. I thoroughly liked this memoir from front to back!

Oh this was so moving! I feel like graphic novels and memoirs are quickly becoming one of my favorite genres. I’m so grateful Deb took the time to draw this and also so grateful to her family for being supportive of her sharing her story in this way. What a gorgeous portrait of mental health, too! Really, really good. Loved it.

Thank you so much Netgalley and First Second Books for this arc!
I love this book. It's a graphic memoir and as such it's able to showcase perfectly the author's emotions and experiences. It tells the story of her life as a Korean immigrant that moved to New Jersey when she was 3 years old. We see her struggles through high school, the tough relationship she has with her mother, her depression and finally her journey of self-healing.
It's such a personal story but I loved every second of my time reading it. Not only could I relate to her (especially when the author described her struggles with mental health), but it opened a new window for me in order to understand her feelings and the immigrant experience, which I'm really thankful for. Everything was beautifully explained and it made me tear up too.
As for the art style, I loved it. The drawings are amazing, beautifully well done and they conveyed every single feeling.
It's such a perfect work of art and I recommend it to everyone (obviously check trigger warnings!).
5/5

Thank you Netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review

In Limbo is a beautifully illustrated graphic memoir. I think I'm in love with how the author depicts water and the style does well to show the differences between the characters which is pertinent to the story. The memoir follows a young Korean girl, Deborah, as she makes her way through the American school system and life. It addresses things such a cultural differences, difficult home life, mental health, and complex relationships with peers.


I felt the story flowed well as we seamlessly follow Deborah through the years of adolescence. When it did address younger years they were inserted in a way that made sense and helped give richer understanding to the characters. I especially loved watching her develop and at the end addressing her wrongs in a way that showed the growth she worked hard to achieve. The relationship with her mother is another strong point. Showing the darker sides along with the light displaying just how complex difficult home situations can be. Then the author's note at the end addressing the main relationships helped bring closure in a bittersweet way. Overall I highly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone.

Ever since Deborah (Jung-Jin) Lee emigrated from South Kora to the United States, she's felt her otherness.

For a while, her English wasn’t perfect. Her teachers can’t pronounce her Korean name. Her face and her eyes—especially her eyes—feel wrong.

A reflective look at transgenerational differences in the Korean American community with beautiful artwork

i had never read a memoir in the graphic novel format before, and this was a very pleasant surprise. deb jj lee’s style is very sweet, and i love most of the topics that she tackled through her life story up until college, because some of them (re: particularly the ones about friendship throughout high school) really appealed to me. it’s always great to read accounts on the immigrant experience, and i’m glad she went and published this one, because i feel like it will resonate with a lot of people.

TWs: bullying, self harm, depression, mental health issues, abuse.

A heartbreakingly outstanding coming of age YA memoir, told in graphics about our author and her growing up years in New Jersey. An immigrant from South Korea, we follow her and her hardships of being different, being bullied, being unaccepted. Also growing up in an Asian household with a Tiger Mom who controls with more than just an iron fist, the difficulties in communicating with her parent, some transgenerational issues. But amidst her hardships and emotional roller coasters, lies a story of her resilience and strength in wanting to come out of the darkness, through the wonders of her art.

I salute Lee for being brave and coming forward to publish this. Something she has been dabbling with since 2018, this was a work from heart. It was hard and simply shattering to see her live day by day with her issues. Especially the relationship she had with her mom. I mean, growing up Asian i too totally can relate how 'wild' our moms can be. Abit of a stereotype maybe, but it is what it is. We know for most parts they are doing it from their heart and in a way they know how. A generation thing.

And what can i say about the illustrations? Splendid, absolutely breathtaking graphics. Some i had to even look at much much closely cause they look too real! How she scattered her panels to befit her story through the long timeline. I only wished she had shown us how things ended up but some things, i guess are better left as such. Lee did give us a brief look into her life now in her acknowledgements though. And i really wish her all the best, hoping she'll come out with more stuff. ❤️

I don't normally rate memoirs but this actually gets an infinity of stars.

Beautifully illustrated and often very raw graphic memoir about the artist's teenage years, her experiences with racist abuse, internalized racism, generational family trauma, depression, and suicidal ideation. Strong trigger warnings for suicide, verbal abuse, physical abuse, and depression. Insightful, but also often unsettling.

Wonderful coming of age story. Illustrations are gorgeous and story itself is well written addressing the challenges of mental health, fitting in, not being born in the US but growing up here among other things. I really enjoyed reading this and learned a lot from the story. Highly recommend. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy!