Skim

Skim is both beautiful and morose, a tale about a girl nicknamed after the thing she's not. It pulls no punches while exploring the loneliness of navigating coming into a queer identity alone, of being outcast, of the attempt to construct meaning out of a world that seems continuously cruel. If any of this recalls things for you, this dark and complex little story about being Goth and uncool and floundering is for you. Recommended By Cosima C., Powells.com

"Skim" is Kimberly Keiko Cameron, a not-slim, would-be Wiccan goth who goes to a private girls' school in the early '90s. When her classmate Katie Matthews is dumped by her boyfriend, who then kills himself and#151; possibly because he's (maybe) gay and#151; the entire school goes into mourning overdrive. It's a weird time to fall in love, but that's what happens to Skim when she starts meeting secretly with her neo-hippie English teacher, Ms. Archer. But then Ms. Archer abruptly leaves the school, and Skim has to cope with her confusion and isolation while her best friend, Lisa, tries to pull her into "real" life by setting up a hilarious double-date for the school's semi formal. Suicide, depression, love, homosexuality, crushes, cliques of popular, manipulative peers and#151; the whole gamut of teen life is explored in this poignant glimpse into the heartache of being 16.