Onion skin describes the story of a self-conscious Mexican young adult named Rolando who purposely injures himself to get time off from his boring and tedious job which he hates. In the process of trying to “find himself” and reclaim his youth, he meets an attractive young woman with a zest for life and a passion for cooking. Together they set off on a journey to establish a prosperous food truck business, which almost becomes a great success until they are targeted and fooled by a criminal motorcycle gang competitor.

This story is quite witty and uses a great mélange of English and Mexican language and imagery to show the characters’ emotions, their psychological frame of mind and the relative setting. The story’s time gaps, which constantly shift between past and present, may seem confusing for new graphic novel readers at first, but the engaging storyline and illustrations make it a really quick read that allows everything to come together by the end. One can easily read this through in one sitting and get to digest its full moral implications, that being to open one’s self to the many possibilities of experiences that life has to offer, in order to not get trapped in the mundane trivialities of convenient circumstances which life often times presents.

I can definitely see why this book would be the winner of Mexico’s first ever National Young Graphic Novel Award!

- N.R.