Akemi Dawn Bowman
Simon Pulse
September 26th, 2017
Kiko Himura has always had a hard time saying what she feels. With a mother that centers everything around herself and holds up traditionally pretty white girls as ‘normal’, it’s no surprise that Kiko has never felt her round face and Asian features were ‘pretty’ or ‘normal’. She’s never really learned much about the Japanese side of her family either, since her mother never wanted it around, and her parents got divorced. Living in her small town has actually been kind of depressing.
Instead of the usual high school parties, Kiko loses herself in her art. She’s been counting on getting into the art college of her dreams, Prism. When she gets a rejection letter, her world shatters.
When Kiko sees her old best friend and crush is back in town visiting, she makes a sudden decision to go back to California with him and look at art schools out there. She begins to figure out who she really is, instead of what others want her to be.
Starfish is Bowman’s debut novel, and what a great debut! Starfish is a heartbreaking, beautiful work of art that hopefully means we’ll be hearing much, much more from Bowman. This is a book you really shouldn’t miss.
JL Jamieson is a strange book nerd who writes technical documents by day, and book news, reviews, and other assorted opinions for you by night. She is working on her own fiction, and spends time making jewelry to sell at local conventions, as well as stalking the social media accounts of all your favorite writers.