Review by Frank Plowright
Just about to turn thirteen, Eugenia Wang, or more commonly Genie, is the victim of her overbearing mother’s wishes for her to do the best she can. Education prioritised from a young age, her life is strictly regimented and includes no time for what Genie enjoys if it’s considered trivial. Her path to becoming a doctor or a lawyer is already mapped out, but she’d rather draw comics.
From anyone other than an Asian-American creator The Misfortunes of Eugenia Wang might be a problematical book. Stan Yan highlights the stereotype of single-minded, domineering Asian mother, and gives her an immigrant’s dialogue where the meaning is clear, but it’s not grammatically correct.
Keisha is accident prone, so Genie’s mother won’t even have her in the house, let alone for Gen’s birthday party, despite her being Genie’s best friend. However, that’s not her biggest problem, which is profoundly disturbing dreams about personal disaster. Yan handles this well, filtering in beliefs about dreams predicting the future, and separates the dreams visually as per the sample art by vivid red colour. Eventually Genie starts drawing comics during blackout periods, and whatever she draws shows a friend being hurt. Do they predict the future?
The expressive cartooning is appealing, the goofy style ensuring barely anyone is idealised, the exception being Enrique, the boy Genie fancies. It’s also contributes greatly to understanding the cast. Genie’s annoying little brother William has some great expressions in prompting many of Genie’s tormented moments, and the wild dog Peanut is a magnificent creation.
Yan drops suggestions as to what might be happening throughout Genie experiencing weirdness with comics seemingly drawn by her subconscious, or could it be she’s possessed by spirits? He also builds disagreements with her mother extremely well. Adults will understand her concerns to a degree, but she’ll be a villainous figure for young readers.
This is a gratifying graphic novel, but stretched too far. Everything is constructed to build towards Genie’s birthday on April 5th, but starting on March 24th is too great a lead-in. The consequence is repetitive sequences, but when the final stretch is reached Yan smoothly ties it in with earlier events while retaining a slight supernatural edge. Shorter would have been better, but The Misfortunes of Eugenia Wang finishes strong, with a thrilling final chapter that’s everything you’d want from what’s been set up.
