I listened to the audiobook version of this book loaned using Borrowbox through my local library #supportyourlocallibrary
Dates read: 21/10/21 to 02/11/2021
Star rating: ⭐
Word to describe: Immature
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
There are many things I noted whilst listening to this audiobook and, unfortunately, the majority of my thoughts pertaining to this book fall into the negative and critical reaction category. Starting as a promising young adult romance, filled with identity exploration and Korean-American representation, turned into a juvenile mashup of horrendous narration, unlikeable characters, and a constant spewing of racism, that is portrayed as acceptable just because that's how people are.
The adolescent tone of the book could have been forgiven if it wasn't for the horrifically boring main character. Frank's robotic voice, weird obsession with his girlfriend Brit's appearance, and complete lack of redeemability, regarding his acceptance of his parents' racism, make him, quite frankly, the worst character I have had the displeasure of reading about this year. He is supposedly aged between 17 and 18 years but continuously acts like a premature toddler. For the most part, the sentences formed in the narration of this character are so unhuman-like and lack the maturity needed for a young adult, that it is hard to believe this character could be aged any further than 12 years. I found myself taking off the headphones and sitting in complete disbelief every other chapter at this character. His selfishness and disregard for any other character in the story are continuously portrayed as the good-guy-trying-to-do-the-right-thing-the-wrong-way. This is just another copout letting characters continue to be trash with little to no actual repercussions for their actions.
"I stare back at her eternal ancient grey eyes looking all eternal and ancient and grey."- An actual sentence from this book.
I feel like the author became so focused on portraying his perception of the American-Korean experiencethat he completely forgot to make his characters relatable, likable, and most important actually human. If I had read this at 17-18 (the ages of the main characters), I would have been equally as irritated at the immature portrayal of the characters. With a vast amount of text speak, overuse of slang, and a general adolescent feel to the characters it is hard to understand how the author believed he had captured a young adult. Change the ages of these characters to 13-14 and this story would be at least 30% better, whilst still being able to encapsulate the experience of life as a child of immigration in America.
The one redeemable quality of this book is its BIPOC representation. But even then, it is completely overshadowed by the blatant racism from 60% of the characters. Even if Frank's aims are to not upset his parents, pretending to not be dating his white girlfriend just to appease his racist parents make him just as bad. Each of the characters feeds into this racism and, through their actions, only encourages behavior that should be erased and corrected. It is disappointing to read a book in 2021 where race plays a huge role in the character's identity and culture but is also used as an excuse to continue racism, with that's just what people are like being the reason for justifying this behavior.
So, overall, this book was a large disappointment and I can say with a passion that this story is one to avoid.
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