Tina's Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary - A Graphic Novel About An Indian-American Teen With A Small Subplot That Has A Gay Character

Tina's Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary by Keshni Kashyap, illustrated by Mari Araki

Tina M., sophomore, is a wry observer of the cliques and mores of Yarborough Academy, and of the foibles of her Southern California intellectual Indian family. She's on a first-name basis with Jean-Paul Sartre, the result of an English honors class assignment to keep an "existential diary."

From Tina getting dumped by her smart-girl ally to a kiss on the mouth (Tina's mouth, but not technically her first kiss) from a cute skateboarder, this graphic novel follow's Tina's path towards 11th grade and maybe... enlightenment.

There's so little representation of 1) Americans of Indian descent in teen fiction, 2) LGBTQ teen characters who are also people of color 3) those two things in a teen graphic novel, that I'm including this book here on the blog, though you shouldn't expect it to have major LGBTQ content. Having said that, there is a gay character in this, I'm happy about it, and I'm happy to let you all know about it.

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