Anzu And The Realm Of Darkness by Mai K Nguyen

with beautiful colors by Diana Tsai Santos.

While everyone else in her family seems perfectly fine with their new move, Anzu is having a bad time. But if we’re being honest, Anzu has been having a bad time for a few years now, and especially since the death of her beloved grandmother. The other kids at her old school picked on her for bringing Japanese food in for lunch, and for loving manga. When she meets a potential friend outside the house her family recently moved into, she freaks out, to her own mortification. Sometimes, Anzu just wishes she could disappear.

When a dog steals her necklace while she’s out exploring her new neighborhood, Anzu gives chase. The necklace was given to her by her grandmother, and she’s not about to let it go without a fight. But it’s also the last day of Obon, the Japanese festival honoring the spirits of their ancestors, and Anzu has only recently become aware that another Japanese American girl around her age went missing in the same area some years before. When she stumbles into a river and discovers that the dog has transformed into the mythological creature that guards the underworld Yomi from the realm of the living, she isn’t sure how to react. The Gatekeeper tells her to go home, but a passing caravan brings along someone with other ideas. Will Anzu be able to figure out who to trust — and how to get her necklace back — before it’s too late and she’s stuck in Yomi well before her time and for good?

The writing of this Middle Grade graphic novel can tend towards the clunky but when it gets around to explaining how important it is that we all find our places in the world, this book really shines. Anzu feels lost and alone and unmoored, but the people she meets along the way teach her to trust herself and to believe that she has the strength to make and carry out hard choices, simply because they feel like the right thing to do. This is all taught through a Shintoist lens, with tons of references to Japanese mythology. It’s a genuinely eye-opening look into a world religion that doesn’t get discussed much in Western mainstream literature. I especially appreciated the author’s note at the end where Mai K Nguyen talks about growing up with Japanese and Vietnamese parents, and how that shaped her worldview.

The art is adorable and action-packed, with strong East Asian influences. The mythical creatures are charming, especially Rakko Huci. The illustrated glossary of yokai and kami in the back is both helpful and delightful. I can’t recommend this graphic novel highly enough for anyone who’s ever felt that they don’t know how to fit in and feel like they have to shrink themselves in order to be accepted. This book is a terrific reminder that not everyone is for everyone, but that you’ll find your people if you keep your heart open and willing to meet the new.

Anzu And The Realm Of Darkness by Mai K Nguyen was published May 7 2024 by Viking Books for Young Readers and is available from all good booksellers, including