Steinfrucht

by Lee Lai, Henrieke Markert (Translator)

Die großen Fragen nach Zugehörigkeit, Liebe, Akzeptanz und dem richtigen Umgang mit Traumata werfen ihre Schatten auf die queere Beziehung von Bron, einer trans*Person, und Ray, deren ohnehin nicht einfache Liebesbeziehung zusätzlich dem Druck ihrer beiden Familien standhalten muss. Eine Befreiung aus ihrem Alltag und eine willkommene Ablenkung von diesen Problemen sind die regelmäßigen Ausflüge mit Rays junger Nichte Nessie, persönliche Höhepunkte voller Wildheit, Lebensfreude und einer verloren geglaubten Leichtigkeit. Steinfrucht ist eine einfühlsame Geschichte über Liebe, Familie und die Kraft, die es braucht, um als Mensch zu wachsen. Und darüber, wie schmerzhaft und heilsam zugleich es sein kann, sich vor seinen Liebsten verwundbar zu zeigen.


Lee Lai ist eine aufregende neue Stimme des internationalen Autor*innencomics, der mit ihrem Debüt eine der bemerkenswertesten aktuellen Graphic Novels gelungen ist und bereits mehrfach ausgezeichnet wurde. So gab es den nordamerikanischen Independent-Comic-Award Ignatz sowohl für die Autorin (Beste Herausragende*r Künstler*in) als auch für das Werk (Herausragende Graphic Novel).

Zudem wurde Lee Lai für dieses Werk als erstes Comic überhaupt bei den National Book Awards für die Kategorie 5 Under 35 Honorees ausgewählt.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Queer, LGBT, Comics, Fiction, Mental Health, Lesbian

232 pages, Hardcover

First published May 11, 2021

About the author

Lee Lai is an Australian cartoonist living in Tio’tia:ke (known as Montreal, Quebec).
She has been featured in The New Yorker, McSweeneys and The New York Times, and was recently named one of the 5 under 35 honorees by the National Book Foundation. Her first graphic novel, Stone Fruit, was released last year with Fantagraphics, Sarbacane, Coconino and other publishers. Mostly, she writes about people eating, talking, and making questionable decisions.

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my top ten graphic novels of 2021:

As of the time of this initial review, this also included four other works:

The Secret to Superhuman Strength, Alison Bechdel
Friend of the Devil, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
The Begging Chart, Keiler Roberts
Fictional Father, Joe Ollman

Stone Fruit is a first graphic novel about a queer couple, Bron and Ray, who are the aunties of Ray's niece Nessie. Not much in the way of "plot" really happens in this long form work: Bron, who may be trans--in that there is a reference to to this by Ray--is confused about who/what she is; she loves her family, or at least some of her past with them, but her conservative parents are unrelenting, and religiously conservative, unrelenting.

Bron loves Ray, but is still miserable about what to do with her life; at one point she leaves Bron and goes home to see if this might again be where she best fits, but her parents have their lives and they can't comprehend what/who Bron is. She aligns herself with her younger sister Grace, and goes to with her to youth group at church, but somehow, nothing seems quite right. Except with joyful, free niece Nessie, who just is as she is, which may be the way Bron was when she was her age.

The sparkplug in the story is Nessie, a kid--imaginative, playful, and surprisingly insightful about all the angst and sadness swirling around her. When Bron is gone Ray reconnects a bit with her (own) sister, but Ray also learns to kinda let go with Nessie, be in that joyful space a bit.

All these folks are private people who can't easily articulate what they feel or need, but the wonder here is Lee Lai's capturing of subtle expression with her pen, mostly black and white, with some gouache backgrounds. And then periodically when Ray and Bron are with magical Nessie, they turn into creatures. No explanation, just magic, imagination, magical realism, beyond language. Off the gender grid, maybe, for magical moments?

I might say it is comics for those new to comics who really are most comfortable with literary fiction, but you can't do what Lai does except in comics. It most reminds me in this reliance on images of Jillian and Mariko Tamaki's This One Summer where so little seems to happen on the surface but then so so much happens if you slow down and just take your time with each and every panel. Look at those faces! Breathe when you explore comics like this. Comics as meditation, as reflection!

The line work is subtly expressive, and there's so much restraint, reminding me also in different ways of the careful work of Craig Thompson (Blankets, especially, but also touches of fantasy in Goodbye, Chunky Rice). In the acknowledgments she mentions Tommi Parrish, but I also thought of the work of Isabel Greenburg who works hard in her work also on women and relationships, though grounded more in mythology. But some of the drawing reminded me of Greenburg, too. Stone Fruit is for the most part straight up realism, taking a close look at women in relationships, how hard it can be to understand each other and ourselves.

I (think I) have never read Leslie Fineburg's groundbreaking lesbian/trans Stone Butch Blues (though I owned it for many years!), but from what I know about it, Stone Fruit seems to be very much in conversation with it.

This is, again, one of the best graphic novels of the year, with real anguish and love and joy in it. Do yourself a favor and read it, savoring it.

[Sunny Lu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taylor Swift songs: seven, right where you left me, ivy

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful and sad graphic novel about two queer women (one white and trans, the other cis and Chinese) living in Montreal as their relationship with each other disintegrates at the same time as their auntie relationship with their niece holds them together and brings them joy.

They also explore new relationships with sisters they had both grown apart from; I especially liked how Ray came to understand where her single mom, overworked sister was coming from. Her sister's speech to Ray about what it means to be family -- just being there, showing up for a kid, even when you're in a bad place -- really resonated with me.

I haven't read anything this committed to the nuances of relationships and the complexities of human beings in a while. The art is gorgeous and has a fun way of drawing the adult and child characters as monsters when they're engaged in "feral" imaginative playing.

[Skye Kilaen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can I go ahead and nominate this for any "Best Queer Graphic Novels Ever" list that anyone might be making? I can't believe I waited so long to read this! It's the story of two women: Bron (trans, white) and Ray (cis, Chinese), a queer couple whose relationship is on the rocks. It reminds me of an independent film in the best way in its focus on the connections between people, in a story tightly focused on a small number of characters. The art style is super distinctive, especially when Bron and Ray are babysitting Ray's niece and they're all engaged in imaginative play. I can't wait to see what Lee Lai does next.

[Rod Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow-burn, lives-of-quiet-desperation relationship drama that starts with Ray and Bron literally running like wolves in the wild while babysitting Ray's niece, but then metaphorically stepping into the trap of unresolved family baggage and finding themselves gnawing their legs off to be free. Melancholy and painful, but enthralling all the same.

[Alison · Rating 2 out of 5]

I always feel bad rating books like this low because I recognize their importance but the truth is I just didn’t like it

[Danika at The Lesbrary]

The strength of this graphic novel was the same reason I had trouble getting into it: it’s painfully relatable. It’s about the messiness of everyday queerness. Ray and Bron tried to build an ideal life together, but they couldn’t outrun the underlying issues of living in a transphobic heterosexist world, especially when they formed the foundation of your early life. There are no easy answers, just humans tentatively reaching out to each other, finding both hurt and comfort.

(In case you missed it: this has a trans main character! It's still so rare to find books with queer trans women main characters.)

[Ashton · Rating 5 out of 5]

i tore through this in one afternoon and it was delightful. the art is super pleasing, the dialogue and characters are natural and relatable, the story is heart-wrenching and i was immediately invested. deals with heavy themes — religion and trauma, race, family, queerness, kids — in really delicate and tender ways. i love queer comics that tell a story in this particular way, with moodiness and love and delightful, flawed characters you can imagine as friends.

[Tomasz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prosta, ale wzruszająca opowieść o potrzebie akceptacji, o rodzinie, transpłciowości i więziach z innymi ludźmi. Specyficzna pod kątem graficznym, ale do mnie to trafia, zwłaszcza sposób przedstawienia początkowych zabaw z dzieckiem.

[haley ⊹ · Rating 2 out of 5]

gonna be honest, I didn't like this much at all. once I reached the end, I just thought to myself, "umm... okay?" because I'm not sure what I was supposed to take from this story. I think all of them need to go to therapy.

[Elizabeth☮ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bron and Ray are a queer couple that are fun aunties to Nessie (Bron’s niece). As the story opens, the three are engaged in a fun activity that requires imagination and spontaneity. The drawings are different when in this mode.

But Bron and Ray are a couple with things brewing under the surface. As the story unfolds, the tension becomes taut and the two separate.

The characters are complex as is the relationship. And not just the relationship between Bron and Ray, but the relationships the two have with their own families also. There are no easy answers - just like in real life.

I would like to know the meaning of the title.

[fer · Rating 4 out of 5]

QUE GRAPHIC NOVEL TRISTE UM CLIMA DE TRISTEZA DEPRESSAO

[Taco · Rating 1 out of 5]

How does a relationship five years long suddenly blow up? How is there no good memories to show for these two besides the time they spend with the little girl Nessie? How does this girl Bron just intentionally push everyone away and not recognize that it might be her fault? Her own doing? Ray says that Bron is very sweet, we never see her being sweet to Ray, who, I don't know, WAS HER GIRLFRIEND FOR FIVE YEARS???

This book is such a downer with no upside. Any positive value that Nessie could have is crushed by the fact that she is being raised and taken care of by three emotionally unhealthy women who don't have their shit together. There's a part in the book where while Amanda asserts that while she was crying for three weeks straight and her daughter witnessed it, at least she dressed her and fed her everyday. Um, NO? It's extremely selfish to knowingly put that pain on your child, and the written premise is so backwards. The summary says the book is at turns "joyful and heartbreaking." Where is the joy? Don't tell me it's the scenes where they're playing in the park, that shit lasts two seconds before the story tunes in to a whole book of depression. There's no hope or compassion or love demonstrated in this book, only someone addicted to her own misery while she rips apart all her relationships in the process, leaving everyone including a CHILD to pick up the pieces.

The only good qualities is the clever symbolism of the title, the art (kinda), and the symbolic imagery of being free with your emotions.

In short, this book is literally like "Hey, mental health issues exists, but there's no real solutions and you'll always be miserable and fuck you."

[metempsicoso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essere liberi e irrefrenabili richiede una certa mostruosità.
Questa graphic novel, con tocco gentile e colori tenui, rivela nelle sue tavole che la felicità si afferra quando si perde il controllo e si molla la presa.
Ma questa gioia la si deve apprezzare: va colta per quei pochi istanti miracolosi in cui essa è in grado di spalancare i flutti grevi della fatica del vivere. Van mostrate le zanne e si deve attaccare rapaci.

Essere queer ti impone giocoforza la stessa mostruosità, ma te lo impone in una società che non lo apprezza e la imbriglia. Per sopravvivere spesso ci si deve mascherare e questo distacco, per quanto sottile possa essere, impedisce ogni contatto con quella fatidica felicità.
Questa graphic novel, con i suoi personaggi taciturni ed isolati, rammenta che quella maschera ce la si deve togliere, che la mostruosità va abbracciata e che in qualche modo si deve soverchiare questo anestetico.
Ma questa temerarietà la si deve trovare: va cercata da qualche parte, in sé o in qualcun'altro, in una causa o in aspirazione. Ci si deve lanciare nel vuoto e afferrare pure coi denti.

Lee Lai introduce, con grazia, molti argomenti importanti: la malattia mentale, il retaggio culturale e quello religioso.
Tocca il suo apice, a mio modo di vedere le cose, nel momento in cui parla dei rapporti tra sorelle.
Una piccola chicca [3,5 stelle].

[Raina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't typically read a lot of books immediately after they're published. The practicalities of my job (which dictates my reading schedule) mean that I often read books that are at least a couple of years old.

So, in November 2021, when I was asked for my top 5 books published in 2021, I had a pretty short list to choose from. But this one was a no-brainer.

- I love the way that Lai draws bodies. There isn't a lot of variation, which would normally be a ding. But the default figure is sculptural, broad-shouldered, wide, and thick. There is hair on these bodies in places other than on heads. I relate to these bodies - feel connected to them - as a fat person, in a profound way that feels fresh and new. Most characters in graphic novels are drawn in a way that is not relatable to me.
- The incredibly obvious thing to point out about Lai's drawings here is the way they illustrate what comes over characters when they interact with nature. You can see it on the cover. Throughout most of the action, the human character's faces look like the two adults in the cover image. Small facial features on faces that feel... statuesque? Those facial features change very little through most of the book, even when it's clear that major emotions are happening. But then, when the characters let go, generally at a park, their features change. They become animalistic, textured, elongated.
In some scenes the entire bodies of the characters undertake this transformation. It's beautiful, scary, surprising. Precious.
- Most of the story is told in four square panels per page. Black and white with some grayscale. Lovely mix of fine-line and almost impressionistic, watercolor-like treatment.
- Ok, and we haven't even TALKED about the plot! I went into this knowing little other than that people I like liked it (cough cough Lucy cough cough), and it was queer and there were some stepparenting-adjacent themes. OMG. Loved the narrative. Loved the representation of a family member taking responsibility in raising a sibling's child. Loved the demonstration of how freaking complicated caretaking someone else's offspring can get. Loved the queer rep, obv. Predictably, the religion stuff was a little triggering for me.

Since I read it, this book has been recognized by those National Book people - I'm clearly not the only one who swooned.
Don't miss it.

[ReadingKumiko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stone fruit è la graphic novel di debutto della giovane australiana Lee Lai, pubblicata in Italia da Coconino Press, con una bellissima prefazione a cura di Jonathan Bazzi.

Stone fruit – Trama
Stone fruit è un racconto delicato, intimo e sincero di quello che accade tra due persone quando l’amore di uno non basta a curare le ferite personali dell’altro.

Ray è innamoratissima della sua compagna Bron, con cui ha una relazione e una convivenza da cinque anni. Il loro è un rapporto fatto di tenerezza e molto entusiasmo, soprattutto per quei preziosi momenti che riescono a condividere con la fantasiosa nipotina di Ray, Nessie, che ha sei anni e una vivacità e sensibilità fuori dall’ordinario. I pomeriggi spesi con la bambina in un bosco, a caccia di cani argentati e mostri di ogni tipo, rappresentano l’avventura personale e famigliare che le due donne si trovano a vivere con sempre rinnovato piacere. Come un arcobaleno che spunta due volte a settimana nella loro quotidianità.

A un certo punto, però, il rapporto tra Ray e Bron si incrina. C’è qualcosa in Bron di non risolto, che la porta ad allontanarsi dalle due persone che ama di più: Ray e Nessie. A quel punto, è tutto da ricostruire. Ray, rimasta sola e incapace di stare accanto a Bron (incapacità resa tale solo per la cocciutaggine di Bron), si avvicinerà a sua sorella, la madre di Nessie, cercando di ricostruire un rapporto pieno di crepe, ma non per questo privo d’amore. Allo stesso tempo, dovrà imparare a stare con la piccola Nessie senza la sua compagna Bron, l’unica capace di inventare le avventure che tanto piacciono alla bambina. Dall’altra parte, Bron tornerà dalla sua famiglia e cercherà, anche lei, di instaurare un rapporto con la sorella più piccola, che sente di aver abbandonato già una volta.

Perché leggerlo
Stone fruit ci regala una bellissima storia di umanità, di famiglia e di coppia, non tralasciando condizionamenti sociali e culturali, dubbi religiosi ed esistenziali, preconcetti e preoccupazioni; con due protagoniste alla ricerca della loro vera identità, in lotta con ferite e cicatrici nate dalle parole taciute delle rispettive famiglie. Perché a volte, il luogo d’amore per eccellenza, è il luogo dove si viene capiti meno. Una menzione importante va fatta anche ai disegni e ai colori: semplici, diretti, espressivi, poetici. Il connubio tra disegni tanto evocativi e parole così ben scelte, fanno di Stone fruit una lettura che arriva dritta al cuore.

La view fumettistica di Mirko
Un tempo, qualcuno mi disse che esistono alcune storie capaci di costruirti e distruggerti nel giro di un’ora o poco più. Lo tenni a mente, teorizzando che le graphic novels fossero proprio la congiunzione ideale di quelle forze opposte, talmente opposte da alimentarsi a vicenda e dare vita ad alcune delle opere d’arte più trascendentali e influenti della nostra “letteratura disegnata”.

Stone Fruit di Lee Lai si incastra con forza all’interno di quel pantheon speranzoso-quanto-doloroso, e lo fa con una semplicità disarmante, soprattutto per il fatto che questo è il debutto long form dell’autrice.

Il fumetto si presenta immediatamente con eleganza: basti osservare il design minimal/vignettistico dei personaggi (Lai è infatti famosa per aver realizzato alcune vignette per The New Yorker e altri magazine); lo stile preciso e diretto delle illustrazioni, composte da individui che si stagliano contro sfondi dipinti di grigio e blu; e la composizione delle pagine, sempre rigorosamente costituite da quattro vignette della stessa dimensione.

Questi tratti stilistici aiutano a definire l’atmosfera intima dei personaggi, fatti di infinite separazioni, battaglie interne invisibili, silenziose quasi sempre, eppure prepotentemente rumorose. Non è un caso che Craig Thompson (autore del fumetto “intimo” per eccellenza, Blankets) sia un fan del lavoro di Lai; c’è sicuramente un filo rosso che connette i cuori infranti di Stone Fruit a quell’umanità così delicatamente dipinta da lui nel suo capolavoro.

Nonostante scorra con grande facilità, la graphic novel porta con sé un gran numero di tematiche, mai affrontate faccia a faccia, ma sempre approfondite quanto basta da farle sembrare sussurrate nel subconscio del lettore. Lee Lai conferisce grande importanza a ogni singolo strato e gestisce il flow dell’opera in modo quasi impeccabile (ci sarebbe un minuscolo calo tra il secondo e il terzo atto, ma è qualcosa di perfettamente fisiologico), lavorando con profondità le dinamiche tra i personaggi e le loro psicologie. L’autrice lascia una coppia di donne correre nel bosco con loro nipote, una bambina di sei anni che le trasporta in un mondo fatto di magia, in cui tutte loro assumono la forma di creature mistiche. A intervalli regolari e metaforici, tornano alla realtà che le vede depresse senza via d’uscita, ad affrontare la fragilità dell’amore quando è sovrastato dal deterioramento della salute mentale; le sorelle che soffrono di una sofferenza irrisolvibile quanto la loro; una famiglia che non riesce a comprenderle; i così tanti membri della società che guardano una persona trans come se non fosse una persona. Ci vuole un’anima antica per gestire così tanti pesi narrativi, e Lee Lai sembra possederla.

Da lettore, attendevo con trepidazione questa graphic novel, perché aveva tutta l’impressione di poter essere uno di quei rari casi a cui facevo riferimento poco fa. Molto spesso, infatti, la lettura non giustifica del tutto l’hype, ma questo non è ciò che accade con Stone Fruit. Dopo essere stato distrutto e costruito, mi sento di dover aggiungere dell’hype, perché questo fumetto non è semplicemente bellissimo, ma è addirittura importante per l’arte sequenziale della nostra epoca contemporanea.

[Juan Naranjo]

STONE FRUIT cuenta una historia llena de verdad. Analiza con profundidad y realismo los campos de minas que pueden suponer las relaciones familiares y de pareja, y narra una historia contemporánea, llena de sentimientos complejos, tan amarga como el final del amor.

[Valentina | Hikarisshelf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quando l’amore non basta più

Cosa succede se una relazione è basata interamente sull’amore ma manca la consapevolezza di noi stessi e il benessere mentale? Si sgretola. “Non puoi amare gli altri se prima non ami te stesso” è la frase fatta più vecchia della storia ma alla fine è vera ed è anche il motivo per cui la relazione queer tra Bron e Ray è arrivata ad un punto di rottura. Avere una relazione queer in una società transfobica non è semplice, così come non lo è ignorare il giudizio e gli sguardi della gente, soprattutto se della propria famiglia.

Ray e Bron stanno insieme fin da giovani: Bron è scappata della sua famiglia cristiana e Ray le ha dedicato tutta la sua vita. Sono diventate l’una la famiglia e l'ancora dell’altra ritrovandosi sole al mondo ma cosa succede quando questo non basta più e gli unici momenti di felicità sono dati dal tempo passato a giocare con la piccola Nessie, nipote di Ray? Succede che la tenera quotidianità viene rimpiazzata da silenzi e piccole ferite invisibili e la relazione crolla.

Così la ricerca di se stessi, come il riallacciamento dei legami familiari con le rispettive sorelle, diventa per Ray e Bron la chiave per reimparare a vivere da sole, per riscoprirsi e amarsi.
Ray imparerà che non è importante essere sempre solare e spensierata ma che va bene anche stare male, che ogni emozione è valida; Bron capirà che sua sorella c'è e che l'accetta completamente, vorrebbe solo capirla e passare più tempo con lei.

Ho apprezzato la particolarità del tratto di Lee Lai che mette in contrapposizione la visione del mondo di una bambina ai problemi concreti da adulti alternando scene dove rappresenta le due con tratti animaleschi e selvaggi, facendocele vedere dal punto di vista della piccola Nessie per cui tutto è gioco e magia per poi sbatterci in faccia la dura realtà che quasi stride con tanta leggerezza.

L’uso dei toni del grigio e del blu contribuisce a creare una sensazione di intimità e delicatezza ma anche di freddezza, come a rappresentare due donne ormai sole che sia amano e hanno ancora molto da dirsi ma che stanno cercando di capire chi sono.

Questa graphic novel tocca temi importantissimi come quello della transessualità, dei condizionamenti religiosi e sociali, dell'accettazione e della depressione, tuttavia, nessuno di questi è veramente approfondito come avrei voluto; vengono più che altro sussurrati e lasciati intendere al lettore lasciandolo con tanto su cui riflettere.

Stone Fruit è una storia tutta al femminile tanto reale da far male dove le emozioni delle protagoniste arrivano dritte come un pugno nello stomaco. È una storia emozionante di quotidianità e di separazione che ci ricorda che la vita non è sempre una fiaba e lascia con una sensazione dolceamara in bocca.

[Aurora]

Che male e che bene tutto assieme

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Huh. This one, a library pickup. It's....hmm. The premise, straightforward: A Queer couple takes care of one of their nieces, a bright, energetic, imaginative girl. When the trans/gender non-conforming partner breaks down and leaves to find themselves, both of them struggle to come to terms with their families and their connection to the little girl.

On the one hand, it's blunt and honest and absolutely real. Every panel of Lai's work shows a deep grasp of the personal struggles between siblings, between children and parents, between partners, and within the self. Nothing parses as inauthentic.

On the other, oof. The depth of self-absorption and drama, the ur-adolescent anguishing and overtherapied solipsism? It's real, sure, because people do that. That doesn't make the graphic novel any less existentially claustrophobic. Coupled with Lai's intentionally drab color palette and lumpy, blockish character forms, the narrative is both authentic and dismal.

Did I like it? No, not really, in the way that I don't enjoy listening to a couple fighting in the booth next to mine at a restaurant. But I do appreciate it, and it does achieve what Lai set out to achieve.

[Sebastian Lönnlöv · Rating 4 out of 5]

En queer serieroman om kärlek och depression, gemenskap och ensamhet, magi och lek, trans och familj, identitet och religion. Med många bottnar och komplexiteter, tillika extremt snyggt tecknad. Rekommenderas varmt!

[Lune · Rating 5 out of 5]

incroyable, j'étais tellement émue à plein de moments, c'est très fort, les personnages sont bien écrits, l'histoire est subtile et sincère, j'ai adoré adoré adoré

[theboneseason · Rating 4 out of 5]

ça m’a prit la poitrine… stop

[disco · Rating 5 out of 5]

I guess you have to be down to really go there with her. And sometimes that’s somewhere sort of feral and screamy, and that’s great.

[Laura Sackton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read my full review of this book in my newsletter: https://booksandbakes.substack.com/p/...

I reread this a few months after reading it for the first time (for a review) and wow, it was even better the second time around.

This graphic novel is absolutely stunning--visually, thematically, emotionally. It's a beautiful story about family, sisterhood, parenting, queerness. It's quiet, sad, and ordinary in a way that really got into my heart. As in, Lai captures the cadences of ordinary queer life in a really lovely way. But the art is what took my breath away. I just wanted to stare at it forever. There's so much going on in every panel, but it's...subtle. There's a way the art flows with the story that's just magical. One thing I love about graphic novels is how they can say things that words can't, necessarily. And this book is a brilliant example of that.

I love books about queer found family but I really loved the way this engages with family of origin, and the blurry lines between found family and the family you're born into. It's a messy story about messy relationships, and it felt...expansive. One of those books that, when it's over, it feels like the story has just opened the door for a hundred more stories. Big recommend.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
It’s not pretty and it’s not supposed to be.
The story has heart though and how could one not love lil Nessie.

I love that Ray’s sister Amanda refuses to let Ray renege on her taking care of Nessie.

Excellent moments: “Do you know what down means?” & “Like the last time I saw you I was literally crying in my underwear on the street.”
The songs
Sisterly bonds

Didn’t like that Ray and Amanda’s relationship at first seems like the cliche ex.
And the art style got to me; due to all the lines everyone read as old, ragged, or unfortunate looking
________
2025 update: added this book to my banned shelves as it was removed from the Nimitz naval library

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really appreciated Stone Fruit's depth - I relate to both Ray and Bron, and this was a nuanced portrayal of a queer relationship. Nessie was also so cute - all of the supporting characters were interesting, even at the points when you hated them.

[Kasi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Are we supposed to like this book? Are we not supposed to think Bron is a wildly abusive, selfish, and manipulative character who blames all her problems on other people?

Like shit dude just go to a psychiatrist and get some meds then stop abusing your girlfriend, loser.

[Luke Spooner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn this was a little too real. TRIGGERED.

[Lesbioteka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wzruszająca powieść graficzna o rozstaniu i kochaniu. O skomplikowanych relacjach rodzinnych, ale też o godzeniu się ze stratą. Wszystko to w krótkiej, ale treściwej formie.