Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Quill Tree Books for a free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Honestly, this was just a good book. I don’t know if it was the writing or the sweet story, but it was never far from my mind. I liked the representation of a queer kid trying to figure out their identity in an environment where it’s safe for them to do so; where they have queer and trans friends to turn to and family members who they know will support them. However, that’s not to say there isn’t transphobia and homophobia surrounding her, as most of the book centers on her local drag queen storytime becoming national news due to controversy and subsequently being canceled.
The way that the comic pages and art in the story show Mal exploring her identities as a queer Korean American child was really well done, and I love how the cover of the book connects back to this with her self-portrait in the story. Mal spends the majority of the story trying to be who everyone wants her to be to the point where she loses track of herself and feels a disconnect from how everyone perceives her. Mal screws up a lot, lies to a lot of people, and says the wrong stuff sometimes, but she does genuinely act like a middle schooler, and I feel like these are middle schooler things to do. This book was so middle school in a way that didn’t make me cringe, but was moreso funny and nostalgic to me. Her brothers were also so feral and funny. I feel like this author just understands children and tweens in a way that I don’t get from a lot of middle grade books, and I can’t really put my finger on why. I think it would be excellent for queer middle school kids read this book, and it makes me happy that this will surely happen. 
I think the main part that took me out of the story was the mom’s monologue in the end ending with her saying a line about Mallory being in “full color,” which struck me as a last ditch effort to include the title of the book in the book in a way that didn’t feel organic or natural. I do also think that the tag on NetGalley of this being a graphic novel threw me off because there are only graphic novel pages in between each chapter, so it’s basically a novel with illustrations, which is still cool.

There was also a friendship in the book (with Fiona maybe?) that never felt resolved other than Mal recognizing that she didn’t like how she acted around her and then I don’t think she really showed up again, which felt like a loose end, but wasn't too big of a deal.

I adored the book overall.