Names and Faces

Who are you? What are you? And how does it feel to be you? Leise Hook was asked these intrusive questions so many times growing up that they haunted her like ghosts. Born to a Chinese mother and white American father, and growing up in Michigan, Tokyo, and Virginia, Leise Hook was never sure where she fit in. More white passing than her Chinese friends and family, but with the Mandarin skills of a native speaker, she was constantly exceeding some expectations while failing to meet others. From moving to Beijing, to dying her hair blonde, to exploring self portraiture, Hook struggles to figure out who she is and where she belongs. In the vein of Cathy Park Hong and Gene Luen Yang, Hook’s graphic memoir-in-essays rendered via her signature, award-winning style, explores what it means to come of age as a mixed-race woman, forging a singular identity in a world intent on putting her into ill-fitting boxes.

About the Author :
Leise Hook is a cartoonist and illustrator who grew up in college towns in Michigan and Virginia, and previously worked in art museums in New York City and Beijing. Her work has appeared in The Believer, The New Yorker, Catapult, and Spotlight PA and has been short-listed for a National Magazine Award and the Cartoonist Studio Prize. She is a graduate of the MFA program at the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont. She currently lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with her husband and tabby cat.

Review :

One of Publishers Weekly's Top 10 Spring 2026 Adult Comics

"Alternating structured panels with looser pages for emotional impact, this book works as both mirror and window. Every face, every name, has a story to tell. An erudite reflection on the experience of holding two cultures within oneself."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Names and Faces is a moving portrait of a young biracial woman claiming herself in wholeness, deftly dissecting the threads of her complex identity to forge a self that is more than the sum of her parts. This smart and tender memoir will help anyone navigating the question of where they belong."
--Tessa Hulls, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Feeding Ghosts

"What a gift Leise Hook has given us: a book tender and beating, inquisitive and quiet, bursting with guts and brains. I read it all in one long gulp, on a dreary afternoon turned magically lush by Hook's gorgeous, compassionate exploration of what it means to be a human being, multifaceted and messy and loved, within a world that demands uniformity. I can't wait to read it again."
--Kristen Radtke, author of Seek You

"With beautifully drawn panels and deftly created layouts, Leise Hook's deeply reflective memoir bridges personal identity, family history, and a wide range of cultures."
--Eddie Ahn, author of Advocate

"In this extraordinary memoir, Leise Hook tugs at the threads of her complicated relationship with identity, and unravels surprise after surprise in the process. Hook pulls us inwards and propels us outwards at the same time, on tangents that range from linguistics to ecology to the history of toys. She's a master of visual metaphors, weaving together the personal and the political, the highly specific and the universal."
-- Kathy MacLeod, author of Continental Drifter