I'm really starting to love graphic novel memoirs and this one is probably one of the best I've read. It does a great job of showcasing the author's struggles growing up in America, losing connection with her own culture, familial relationships, high school and friends, depression and (tw) suicide attempts. It was an emotional journey that I really appreciated, a gorgeous art style, and I plan on buying this when it comes out as a gift for a friend.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

In Limbo is gently moving and very warm memoir about growing up. It touches some personal aspects in a softest way and it all makes me cry because it brings so much memories from the past.

The art style is bold and calming at the same time.

I have a soft spot for both memoirs and graphic novels so this book was the best of both worlds. At first I had just requested this because I love graphic novels and wanted to find new ones, but I was not expecting it to rock my world.

In Limbo is a gut wrenching story about depression, mental illness, suicide, cultural identity, friendship, family, and the trials and tribulations of high school. I have never felt so seen and had my experienced reflected so clearly. It knocked the breath out of me and made me cry on several instances.

The art style was so poignant and reflected what the author was going through so well. The use of muted tones and blurred panels really hit the tone it should have.

This is definitely going to be a new favorite and I will be recommending this to every single person I know.

Thank you to Netgalley and First Second for the Advanced Reader Copy! In Limbo: A Graphic Memoir is out March 7, 2023!

I think this graphic memoir did a wonderful job illustrating mental health struggles and rocky relationships with parents. It didn't shy away from being honest with the audience when detailing what it's like to have societal pressures put on you at a young age. This book made me reminisce about my teenage years and how my emotions felt similar to the protagonist. The author's note also put many parts of the story in perspective for the readers when it comes to mental health and how it is a journey and not just a race.

Firstly, I want to start off this review by expressing deep gratitude to be able to read this memoir, and receive this ARC.

Since some time, I stopped reading E-Books because it just felt too draining for me, to read something on digital media.

But today I decided to catch up, and I was very grateful and surprised, when I got the notification that my request for the ARC had been approved. I started this book like some hours to go, and now finished it.
I think this graphic novel has got me out of some kind of a reading slump, lol.

To get right into the book;
It is always difficult to review a memoir, since you have to continuosly take into consideration, that it is in no way fiction.
I really loved the artstyle and the soft, blue hue colour palette of the canvas!!
The thing I could relate most to, was probably the relatable narration, which gave me, as a reader, insight into feelings and the opportunity to directly relate to the situation and the difficulties, that especially Deborah was going through.
I especially related to her feeling of loss, as in being torn between two cultures, and not being able to choose between one.
The simple, yet outstanding narration made it so easy to feel empathy towards the characters and the actions.
(Disclaimer: This graphic novel; memoir deals with heavy topics.)
I can‘t to anything more than sending out lots of greetings, hope and sincere wishes to the author, for being able to portray her own difficulties and not losing hope because of them!

This has got to be one of the most beautiful graphic novels I’ve ever read. The illustrations are so detailed and convey so much emotions which is appropriate for this book that’s focusing on such heavy topics around mental health. I personally enjoyed the mix of English and Korean text because I am able to reach Korean, but I am unsure what others would feel if they can’t read Korean.

There were some moments I was a little unclear what was happening but otherwise thought the graphic novel did a great job of highlighting issues around race, friendship, adolescence, and mental health issues.

I cannot express how utterly breathtaking this graphic memoir is. I was instantly blown away by how wonderful the art is, which continued to be throughout the story. The plot was so complex but so complete and *real* in a way that I don't see achieved often in graphic novels.

I think this would be an excellent read for teens to see a side of highschool not often depicted (with warnings of attempted suicide), as well for adults to reflect on their own experiences.

Thank you to First Second and Netgalley for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Honestly, I love memoirs and I especially love graphic novel memoirs. This one had all the tenants of the latter category for becoming a classic work — a rich sense of personal narrative, a strong grasp of what element of the author's life they wanted to explore, and an art style that perfectly mirrored the emotional beats of the story. I was bowled over by the style: it balanced both simplistic illustrations with lush ones that never seemed overwhelming or out of sync in either direction. Genuinely I am so glad that I got to read this, and I cannot recommend it enough once it comes out!

“Growing up is about being sad and angry sometimes. You were just being yourself. It’s hard.”

In Limbo is a graphic novel memoir by Deb JJ Lee, and it details their life growing up as a Korean American teenager. It touches on difficult topics, such as depression, suicide, racism, and growing up with an abusive parent. Overall, I found the beginning of the novel to be a little confusing, but it came together in a beautiful coming of age story. I love when a memoir makes me feel like I’m peeking into a window of someone’s life, and the detailed illustrations served this purpose in a literal sense. I could feel the emotions through Lee’s depiction of the characters, and loved the drawing techniques used to fade timelines together.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, First Second Books, for a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A Korean-American high schooler’s perspective on life. This is the first graphic novel as a memoir and it’s now my favorite genre/format. This book is so many things - and touches so many important topics.

About feeling different and alone
Parental pressures/expectations
Mother/teenager relationships
Distant family relationships
Feeling like a failure
Academic pressure
Self harm/suicide
Do something you love for yourself
Finding your passion
Finding happiness
Forgiveness of others
Self-forgiveness
Therapy

“I’m both a non-American and a non-Korean. Forever in between.”

“For a long time I thought things had to be fixed for me. When really…I had to work on myself to make the hardest parts of my life more manageable.”

So poignant and relatable. Much love to the author/illustrator for living this and sharing her story.

This book was beautifully written and illustrated. It covers some heavy topics but does it in a way that you don’t want to put it down-I read it all in one sitting! I can’t wait to see what comes next for this author and I really appreciated the opportunity to read about their life..

I absolutely loved this graphic novel. The artwork was stunning and the detail left me in awe in some parts. Deb’s story includes mental health struggles, friendship challenges, discovering ones identity, beauty standards, intergenerational language barriers and so much more. Highly recommend.

Lee's graphic novel takes readers through her experience as a Korean immigrant navigating a predominantly white high school environment. In her struggles with her mental health, family, and friendships, Lee reveals a resiliency. While readers might not identify with Lee's Korean American identity, they can identify with her having to navigate school, familial and cultural expectations, and figuring out what direction they want their life to take.

“I love you when you’re at your lowest just as much as at your best. Growing up is about being sad and angry sometimes.”

What could have been a depressing and angsty coming-of-age is ultimately saved by a rewarding & bittersweet narrative arc. As a Korean-American teen girl in the very white New Jersey suburbs, Deb feels and is made to feel like an outsider. She’s introverted and insecure, struggles to make friends, has been subjected to her peers' bullying and racism, and feels very much stuck ‘in limbo’. Her dissatisfaction with her physical appearance, in particular her eyes, is exacerbated by white and western-centric beauty standards and feds into Deb’s self-hatred. Although not without friends, Deb, who is either made to feel visible or hypervisible, is deeply lonely and constantly aware, thanks to the microaggressions of her peers and of the adults in her life, of her ‘Otherness’. When she makes a new friend she soon invests all of her energies in this friendship, but her insecurity and need for validation ultimately pushes away said friend.
Contributing to Deb’s poor mental health is her strained relationship with her mother, who is shown for much of the graphic novel shouting, snapping, and even getting physically abusing her daughter. While others dismiss Deb’s mother's behavior as a result of ‘cultural’ differences, her mother’s verbal and physical 'outbursts' still affect Deb, who is made to feel worthless, a failure. There was an instance where a verbal ‘fight’ escalates into something more that came across as somewhat staged (Deb leaves the kitchen in shambles and tells her mother she doesn’t have time to clean it up now because she’s behind with her work…).
Sometimes depression can make you quite self-centered, as you are so overwhelmed and fixated on your own sadness, failures, and insecurities, as to never take into account that the people around you also may be going through some difficult times. Thankfully towards the latter half of In Limbo Deb does realize this, and even takes accountability for the way she behaved with her friend. Yet, I did find Deb's propensity for self-victimization and her possessive and obsessive behavior toward that friend rather annoying, especially when the narrative frames most of Deb's not-so-great actions as not really her fault.
I think the ending section, when Deb goes to Seoul to visit relatives, as well as Deb’s interactions with her father, had a great emotional resonance. I also appreciated that while much of the story presents Deb’s mother in a rather negative light, Deb, rather than forgiving and forgetting her mother’s physical and emotional abuse, tries to understand her (her experiences growing up, her move to the us, etc).

The art style never completely won me over, for instance, I often confused Deb's friends (one was blonde, the other a brunette, but i forgot often which one was which). Speaking of art, Deb's passion for art also comes into play but I kept hoping for it to be explored more.
While Deb's friends and the people in her art class did feel rather one-dimensional, I did like that one of them brings up how often adults and authority figures fail to see when a young person is struggling, chalking up their depression or unenthusiasm to laziness or in the case of Deb's friend drugs. I think Deb's story also examines how it feels when you feel that your parents aren't there for you, or worse still, they just confirm everything that you hate about yourself or fail to recognise your pain.

Maybe I would have found this more hard-hitting if I hadn’t watched Kim Bora's House of Hummingbird on the same day I finished reading this, which is also a coming-of-age that deals with domestic abuse, dysfunctional parents, loneliness, growing-up, feeling left behind by your friends.

Thanks for NetGalley for providing this advanced copy of the book.

This wonderful biography told through the stunning illustrations is such a raw and real depiction of how life as an East Asian American is.

We follow Debbie; or Jung-Jin, through many stages of her life. Giving up the violin to pursue arts, failing to learn Korean against her best efforts and her rocky relationships with her mom, her friends, her heritage and with herself are all themes that get explored in many details.

The relationship with her mother was so insane to witness because you know that mothers like this exist. And still, in the end you’re not pushed to hate her mother but rather go on the journey with Deb and starting to forgive her.
It’s really hard to say anything about the plot, because there isn’t one. It’s just somebody’s life. And still every plot point is perfectly woven into the wonder illustrations. Have I Talked about how stunning the art is in this book? The backround, the character design and the colours! Everything was so, so good.

I feel like I can’t write as much as I’d like to because this memoir was just so amazing. It hurt because it was so real. It’s heartbreaking and wholesome and hopeful and raw and ugh!!!! All I can say that I cried so much while reading it and that I’m recommending it to everyone :D

this was so much darker than I thought it was going to be and that hurt! The art was really gorgeous and the storytelling was easy to follow, though the ending left me feeling a little confused and like I needed more of a wrapped ending. I did think it discussed some hard things to read about which I hadn't realized would be in the book when I read it.

I feel like this book would be really difficult to recommend just because of the difficult topics discussed. However, it was genuinely a heartbreaking and uplifting story to tell

4.5 stars

Ever since Deborah Jung-Jin Lee and her family emigrated to the United States from South Korea, she's felt alone. Isolated. Different from everyone else. Everyone around her makes her feel like an outsider, like she will never fit in. And just when she thinks that maybe things can get better, she enters high school. Where things start to get even worse.

A change in friendships and escalating conflicts with her mom lead to Deb's mental health taking a plummet, resulting in a suicide attempt. But Deb survives, and slowly, starts to use art to help heal her mental health. And her relationship with her heritage, leading to a better understanding of herself.

Thanks to NetGalley and First Second for an advanced copy of In Limbo by Deborah Jung-Jin Lee to review! I was immediately drawn in by this cover. It is absolutely stunning. Since this is an advanced copy, the illustrations were in black and white, and I'm not sure if the final draft will be in color. Even so, if they stay in black and white, the artwork throughout the book is just as stunning as the cover.

There have been quite a few graphic novel memoirs of this nature that have come out in the past few years, about growing up an immigrant in the United States. This one delves a little deeper in talking about mental health, specifically suicide and depression. There are some absolutely heartbreaking moments in this, and you can feel the emotions through the illustrations. The writing paired with the art makes this book a truly emotional experience.

Lee doesn't shy away from the difficult nature of suicide and the aftermath of a suicide attempt. I appreciated that art was one of the ways that she used to help take care of her mental health, and it's reflected in the graphic novel format itself.

I always have a hard time rating memoirs because they are accounts of real people's lives. But I think there's a lot teens will find to relate to in this one, and I can't wait to see what the final illustrations look like, honestly. I'll have to check out a final copy when it comes out in March.

All in all, this is a powerful, emotional graphic memoir that you'll want to add to your shelf.

This graphic memoir follows Deb's life throughout her high school years; through bad grades, friend drama, and mental health struggles. Following Deb as she faces problems that every high school student (that didn't quite fit in) also faced is extremely reassuring and comforting to read. Deb deep dives into her mental health struggles in high school and how those aspects of her life heavily affected her experience during those years. Watching Deb slowly find her place in the world through the amazing illustrations of Deb JJ Lee is so interesting and enjoyable to read.
I felt like the time jumps and the scene jumps were a little hard to follow at times when there wasn't a clear distinction between scenes but other than that I really enjoyed this graphic novel and the story it tells. I was pulled into the illustrations of the story throughout each section and scene. Although the graphic novel is most specifically centered around generational trauma within an Asian American family I think that any person who struggled in any way during high school or felt like high school wasn't the best years of their life will relate to Deb's story. The art was beautiful and so detailed and symbolic to the story.

This was a heart wrenching graphic novel about a girl struggling with herself. It depicted the realities of friendship and cultural pressure during depression, and I appreciated that, I really loved the art and I enjoyed this graphic memoir.

Miigweetch NetGalley and First Second for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This was a heavy book, and the art style complimented the somber story.

I recommend this book to readers interested in Korean-American issues and the Korean diaspora, as well as fans of biographical comics.