Oh Look, I Read A Book...

The graphic novel I read is entitled “Skim”, with words by Mariko Tamaki and drawings by Jillian Tamaki. Geared towards the insecurities of teenaged girls and those struggling “just trying to fit into” an average high school, this novel tells the story of Kimberly Keiko Cameron, aka Skim. Living in Canada in the early 1990s, Skim encounters a variety of typical and not-so-typical day to day situations.
Although the details of Skim’s story are not aspects of life we all encounter everyday, the way she deals with these situations are universal and therefore make her character relatable. Skim practices Wicca along with her best friend Lisa and is just generally rather cynical when it comes to dealing with normal life situations. Skim’s life is thrown upside down, however, with the suicide of classmate Katie Matthews’ boyfriend and the introduction of Ms. Archer. At first, the death of Katie Matthews’ boyfriend doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of significance to Skim. As the story progresses though, the suicide and how the people around Skim deal with it, coupled with Skim’s growing homosexual relationship with Ms. Archer, cause Skim to question her own existence. As the story begins, Skim is just a slightly eccentric teenager casually trying to make her way through the high school fish bowl. Because of the two aforementioned factors though, Skim is quite changed by the end of the novel. The plot progresses through Skim’s typical interactions with her best friend Lisa, the death of Katie Matthews’ boyfriend, the formation of the Girls Celebrate Life! club by the “popular clique” (Skim’s arch enemies, of course), a relationship with Ms. Archer, the sudden disappearance of Ms. Archer, Skim succumbing to depression, Skim bonding with Katie Matthews’ over how ridiculous everyone is being over the boyfriend’s death, and the separation of Skim and Lisa, as they each find their own life paths. Yup.
The novel’s main theme is about accepting ones self and learning to do what makes you happy and unique. Skim discovers this mainly through conflict with Ms. Archer and conflict with Lisa. Although Skim finds her relationship with Ms. Archer to be new and exciting, it does nothing to make her happy. Ms. Archer leads Skim into something far too mature for an undeveloped Skim to handle and then abruptly leaves town. This is a main contributing factor to Skim’s spiral towards depression. Also contributing to Skim’s depressing slump is her relationship with Lisa. Lisa is Skim’s best friend, but she is overbearing and often exploits Skim’s weaknesses to make herself feel powerful. Lisa often gets upset with Skim for little reasons, adding more stress to Skim’s life as Lisa fails to acknowledge the extent of what Skim is going through. As a result, Skim and Lisa’s friendship fades out as Skim finds companionship with Katie Matthews’ and realizes who and what she actually needs in her life.
This book is clearly geared towards teenaged girls and therefore should be read by such. I can’t really see a 60 year old economics professor getting much enjoyment out of this story. The details of Skim’s story are what make it tolerable, although the plot progression, conflict, theme, and resolution are all extremely typical and predictable. Although this book doesn’t fall anywhere near my top ten list of all time favorite things EVER, the part I enjoyed the most was probably Skim’s break away from Lisa. It showed strength and dimension in Skim’s character, factors that the story had been slightly lacking in previously.