Graphic Novel Review: Mall Goth by Kate Leth

Posted on December 21, 2023 at 7:47 am by Gene Ambaum

Mall Goth by Kate Leth. Simon & Schuster, 2023. 9781534476950. 250pp.

Liv and her family just moved, and she’s starting at a new high school in Harbour City. She opts to wear a button on her backpack that identifies her as queer (she’s bi). As she meets other students, including Jake, his friend Aaron, and his girlfriend Layla, she worries their friendliness just indicates they’re going to be extra mean to her at some point. But Layla has a safe space: the mall. Her mom works in an office there, and she eventually gets a job there, too, but it’s one of those miserable jobs that requires her to wear a mascot uniform. Friendships develop. So does her crush on Jake, who has a girlfriend. And then things get creepy with Mr. Trent, her English teacher, as her friendships and her parents’ marriage start to change.

I loved the ordinary, everyday sense this book had, and it took me right back to high school in a way that most YA fiction fails to do, at least for me. (I was much more a bookstore guy than a mall dude back then, though in the 80s there were still bookstores in the mall.) Highly recommend for YA collections.