Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham

Lunar New Year Love Story is a terrific example of a graphic novel for mature teens: artistic, layered, and storied.

Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham. First Second, 2024. 352 pages.

• Reading Level: Teens, ages 15-18
• Recommended for: Ages 15 and up

Lunar New Year Love Story: The Book

Valentina Tran’s favorite holiday is Valentine’s Day. Since she was little, she’s celebrated the day by making handmade Valentine’s Day cards for everyone, but especially for her dad. She makes one for him that’s from her long-passed mom. She can tell he still misses her. Until one day, when she finds out the truth: her mother didn’t die! She left them!

Her grandmother tells her that their family is just unlucky in love. Val believes it. After all, her best friend seems to have no trouble falling in love… again and again and again. She’s with one new boyfriend after another. Val ends up making a deal with St. Valentine, a figure that’s appeared to her for years, that if she can make it a year without falling in love (proving her unlucky-in-love heritage), then she will give her heart to him.

One day, Val is passing by a Chinese lion dance studio. One thing leads to another, and soon Val is part of the lion dance troupe, all set to perform for a big Lunar New Year celebration. Even better? She’s officially an item with one of the lead dancers. But is this guy the real thing? Is she really in love?

Lunar New Year Love Story: The Themes

Like most rom-coms, readers will pick up on Val’s true love before she will. But that’s only a tiny part of this layered, multigenerational story. The real story is one of healthy and restored relationships: father to daughter, grandmother to grandmother, daughter to mother, friend to friend, and, yes, girlfriend to boyfriend.

Although cultural allusions to ancestor worship are frequent, both grandmothers are avid church goers and soon, Valentina joins them. The church (Catholic) is a source of both truth and comfort throughout. And at the end, it’s in the church that Valentina makes her hardest decision and chooses real love instead of giving her heart away in despair. St. Valentine’s presence throughout the story (mostly visual) indicates this growth: as his character ebbs and flows, Valentina’s does the reverse. As her love for her family, friends, and boyfriend grows richer, more nuanced and mature, St. Valentine’s selfishness renders him more and more hideous.

This is a textbook perfect graphic novel: gorgeous, layered art that fills in the sparse text in perfect harmony. The story is similarly gorgeous and layered, brimming with emotion just enough to fill a reader’s cup but not overflow into sentimentality. Thematic explorations of love across all relationships are so well done.

Lunar New Year Love Story: It’s Worth Reading

In today’s cultural climate, it is hard to find a book covering romance and relationships without a nod to same sex relationships. Lunar New Year Love Story is no different, but the lesbian couple serves as a brilliant plot point. The female owner of the lion dance studio becomes friends with Val’s single father. Val thinks: excellent! Dad can fall in love again! Turns out, that owner has a wife. After the one line indicating that, nothing more is said until the very end, when the two women are pictured together. However, the fact that the woman is in a lesbian relationship neatly removes her as the dad’s love interest. His relational healing involves being restored to right relationship with his daughter, his mother, and his former mother-in-law. I appreciate that his healing didn’t require a new love interest. Romantic relationships don’t fix us; they are lovely gifts from the Lord in spite of our mess.

All in all, I highly recommend this graphic novel even given the inclusion of the same sex couple and its ancestor worship. You will enjoy discussing the nature of true love (both romantic and platonic), the merits of true friendship and what that looks like, how we can heal from relational trauma, how we can celebrate the similarities and differences between cultures, and so much more. Read this one alongside your teens! And, without making it an opportunity to deliver a sermon, do point out that we are only right with one another when we are right with the Lord. And that’s only through Jesus!

Considerations:

• Worldview: Ancestor worship (part of the cultural expressions; see above); a lesbian couple (not overemphasized; see above).
• Sexuality: A few kisses (in boy-girl dating relationships). One scene depicts the silhouette of two dancers under their lion costumes; it’s clear that one is a girl and one isn’t, but it is truly just a silhouette. Another scene shows two lions “kissing” (which is impossible in reality, given the costumes), and a kid says, “I think I saw tongue” (again, impossible).
• Language: one “Thank God” and one “Oh My God.”

Bottom Line: Lunar New Year Love Story is a terrific example of a graphic novel for mature teens: artistic, layered, and storied. Look for it at your library!

Related Reading at Redeemed Reader:

• Review: For an utterly different, but no less thoughtful, romantic read appropriate for older teens, check out Charis in the World of Wonders
• Reviews: Three Fantasy Romance novels, each with cultural and historical overtones.
• Review: Though a picture book, Drawn Onward by Daniel Nayeri reads like a graphic novel and grapples with grief, much like Valentina does. It’s a good example of a picture book for older readers.
• Review: We’ve reviewed lots of graphic novels. Here’s another fun one to check out: Bea Wolf (a retelling of Beowulf, but so much more!)

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