Starfish
A half-Japanese teen grapples with social anxiety and her narcissist mother in the wake of a crushing rejection from art school in this debut novel.
Kiko Himura prefers to keep her head down, certain that once she makes it into her dream art school, Prism, her real life will begin. But when she gets rejected and her abusive uncle moves back in with the family, her life is turned upside down. So when she receives an invitation from a childhood friend to tour arts schools on the west coast, it’s a lifeline out of her situation. But Kiko must overcome her social anxiety in order to fully grasp this opportunity.