Twelve-year-old Marcine and her Lola (grandma) are obsessed with sanpaku, something about the whites of one's eyes indicating the body's imbalance. Marcine devotedly follows the sanpaku diet plan even after Lola passes away, but her faith wobbles in the wake of the murder of Tejano singer Selena and rumors about a revered nun being lesbian. Scenes in the book flow like teenage stream-of-consicousness reminding me of Lynda Barry's keen-eyed Marlys. Self-aware with moments of unexpected humor. ( )

Well, what a jumbled mess.

In this coming of age graphic novel, Marcine is a twelve-year-old Catholic Filipino American whose grandmother has told her about a goofy Japanese superstition based on how visible the whites of your eyes are around your iris. Realizing she has the bad amount of sclera showing, Marcine starts a macrobiotic diet recommended by a weird but real book called You Are All Sanpaku by George Ohsawa. (BTW, is anyone else having trouble using the Goodreads "Insert book/author" option?)

Gavino starts delving into Catholicism, the Philippines, and shoplifting, which was okay, but then the narrative takes a turn as it introduces the murder of pop star Selena and starts detailing a weird rivalry between Mexican Americans pushing for Selena's elevation to sainthood over the beatification of a fictional Filipino woman named Vilma Vielique de Santa Barbara. Vilma backers out Selena as a Jehovah's Witness, falsely claiming her death was due to her refusal of medical treatment. Then homophobia rears its head as Vilma is denounced as a lesbian by the Selena backers. And then the whole vile thing just kind of fizzles out.

Finally there is a school trip that doesn't go particularly well and the book ends. I think the protagonist has some revelations about her own sexuality and the pointlessness of superstitions and religion, but, then again, I'm not really sure and certainly don't care. ( )