In Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese, the three separate (yet colliding) stories of the Monkey King, Jin Wang, and Danny and Chin-Kee make the book appropriate for presentation as a graphic novel. Despite having three different stories in the one book, it does standalone. After all the tales come together in the end and you learn that Danny was really Jin who was trying to escape his Chinese heritage and Chin-Kee turned out to be the Monkey King, there is no need for further resolution. The story is able to stand on its own and the ending with Jin and Wei-Chen beginning to repair their friendship provides closure. The fact that the book tells three seemingly different stories that turn out to all combine proves that the story is innovative.
