The contrast between these worlds is stark. Their home life is marked by silences and slamming doors. “I’m just wanting you to take care of me too,” Ray replies. “I can’t have you trying to fix me,” Bron says, in a beautifully drawn scene of uneasy domesticity. They fight about Bron’s depression, and Ray’s reaction to it. Their shared love for her masks the cracks in their relationship.

Outside of their magical afternoons with Nessie (“little islands of solace”), Ray and Bron struggle to connect and communicate. Lai literally draws transformation, and the feelings it evokes, onto the page. But it’s not merely a story told in smart dialogue and character growth. Transformation - the painful, non-linear, ongoing process of moving between worlds - is at the heart of the story. By the time she hangs up, she’s a human again: a young woman with obligations and fears, haunted by old hurts. But this sacred space snaps shut when Ray’s sister, Nessie’s mother Amanda, calls to tell Ray it’s time to bring Nessie home. They are creatures, free and wild, concerned only with each other and the joy of their surroundings: mud, wind, forest. Their long, loose limbs bend at odd angles, disappearing into the surrounding landscape. They have huge mouths full of snapping teeth. Lai introduces us to these characters as beautiful monsters. Ray, Bron, and Nessie are running through a park, singing, laughing, and chasing each other. The book opens with a breathtaking series of panels that invites readers into the magical world that queer couple Ray and Bron have created with their six-year-old niece, Nessie.

Found family and family of origin are not always easily distinguishable. Sisterhood eases wounds romance can’t touch. In this world, aunthood and motherhood hold different but equally profound meanings. Instead of a staid world of expected boundaries, she draws the messy, confounding world that queer people actually live in. In this quiet work of startling complexity, she examines how these myths play out in the lives of three women - and joyfully refutes them. Lee Lai’s debut graphic novel, Stone Fruit, is a remarkable contribution to this chorus of queer storytelling.

Queer and trans communities have been pushing back against these myths for generations. As children, we’re trained to believe that romantic love is the most noble love of all, that breakups are failures, and that being a mother is the purest way to love a child. Myths about romantic and familial love run rampant in our heteronormative, patriarchal culture.

Stone Fruit by Lee Lai