MESSY ROOTS

A sparkling YA debut graphic novel about growing up (queer, artistic, rebellious) in Wuhan, China and West Texas, USA.

After spending her early years in Wuhan, China, riding water buffalos and devouring stinky tofu, Laura immigrates to Texas, where her hometown is as foreign as Mars - at least until 2020, when COVID-19 makes Wuhan a household name.

When Laura is in Texas she's too Chinese; when her parents take her back to Wuhan, she's not Chinese enough. Her memoir flashes back from present-day discrimination against Chinese immigrants to her teen years, when she must negotiate her confusing first crushes; her first forays into expressing herself through art; her parent's unfair expectations; and her always-tangled thick black hair.

With a light touch and plenty of humor, MESSY ROOTS touches on such weighty topics as immigration, racism, sexuality, and assimilation. This is one of the very few graphic memoirs to grapple with the intersectional experience of being Chinese-American and part of the LGBTQ community.

Insightful, original, and hilarious, toggling seamlessly between past and present, China and America, Gao's debut is a tour de force of graphic storytelling.

Laura Gao is a comic artist and bread lover currently living in San Francisco. Laura's art career began by doodling on Pokémon cards and has since blossomed to be featured on NPR, HuffPost, and, most notably, her parents' fridge. She is a proud queer Asian American immigrant and strives to inspire others to live unapologetically loud. Laura's pronouns are she/they.