David Yoon

Witty Coming of Age Story

After enjoying Frankly in Love last year, I anticipated that this book would also be a winner for me. Yoon once again gave me characters to fall in love with and a storyline and narrator voice that felt authentic. I enjoyed the message of finding your identity and trying to decide how much of your real self you want to show the world and what parts you want to keep hidden.

The story line tackled friendship drama, family relationships, and tough issues such as show more bullying. Although the motivation for Sunny to put on a false image was romance (a realistic reason people pretend to be something other than themselves), this was the weakest part of the book for me. I never really enjoyed Cirrus and Sunny together and would have preferred them to develop a strong friendship first or even instead of becoming romantically involved.

The surprise relationship for me turned out to be the sibling one between Gray and Sunny. I enjoyed how they worked through their feelings and renewed their strong bond that had been lost when Gray left home. This deepened the meaning of this book for me.

Another favorite part of this story was the male friendships Sunny, Milo, and Jamal formed. Unlike other novels with male friends, these boys broke the stereotypical male bonds--they dreamed together, worked together, supported each other, and best of all, shared their feelings and fears.

This book was overall a fun read that I never wanted to put down. Sunny's sarcastic humor and cynicism made me laugh out loud often (I appreciate more laughter in my life) and I am looking forward to reading the next book by Yoon. show less

"Asenior contends with first love and heartache in this spectacular debut.

Sensitive, smart Frank Li is under a lot of pressure. His Korean immigrant parents have toiled ceaselessly, running a convenience store in a mostly black and Latinx Southern California neighborhood, for their children’s futures. Frank’s older sister fulfilled their parents’ dreams—making it to Harvard—but when she married a black man, she was disowned. So when Frank falls in love with a white classmate, he show more concocts a scheme with Joy, the daughter of Korean American family friends, who is secretly seeing a Chinese American boy: Frank and Joy pretend to fall for each other while secretly sneaking around with their real dates. Through rich and complex characterization that rings completely true, the story highlights divisions within the Korean immigrant community and between communities of color in the U.S., cultural rifts separating immigrant parents and American-born teens, and the impact on high school peers of society’s entrenched biases. Yoon’s light hand with dialogue and deft use of illustrative anecdotes produce a story that illuminates weighty issues by putting a compassionate human face on struggles both universal and particular to certain identities. Frank’s best friend is black and his white girlfriend’s parents are vocal liberals; Yoon’s unpacking of the complexity of the racial dynamics at play is impressive—and notably, the novel succeeds equally well as pure romance.

A deeply moving account of love in its many forms. (Fiction. 14-adult)" www.kirkusreviews.com, A Kirkus Starred Review show less

This fictionalized account of the life of author David Yoon works, with its humor and short chapters,
as a great start for a brave new talent!

The introductory name lucky numbers will have readers checking their own to make adjustments
while the coverage of immigration and racism from so many conflicting perspectives is both smooth and original.

ODDITIES:

1. With the obvious connotation, the choosing of Q as a new name goes strangely uncommented on
either by high school classmates, sister, or any show more of the Limbos.
2. Similarly, with all the Q initiated touching and holding, his secret love is a secret only to the intended
and not to the readers.

3. FRANKLY IN LOVE was a totally exceptional 5 stars until Page 54.
'Lasers into live monkey brains' completely contradicts the mostly Be Kind message of the rest of the book. and, worse still,
there is no redemption by either Q or Frank Li. Very sad.

Is this what the newest YA generation still wants for humanity?
To kill animals for no reason when computers have already proven to be superior and cruelty free...?

4. None of the characters have pets. Is this why eating any kind of animal is seen as an adventure?
5. There's no mention of North and South Korea.

6. Enough with the fartphone. It was borderline funny the first time, then became increasingly tiresome:
just plain "phone" is just fine. show less

Frank Li is Korean-American, and he knows that whoever he dates must also be Korean-American to satisfy his parents. He knows, because his older sister Hanna married a black man, and their parents effectively disowned her. So when Frank falls for a white classmate, Brit, he develops a scheme with Joy Song, another "Limbo" at his family's Gatherings - a monthly meet-up of four Korean-American families that came to the U.S. around the same time. The Limbos - the children of immigrants - call show more themselves that because they're in-between; the parents all came to the U.S. for better opportunities, but they want their children to remain Korean, not become assimilated. Since Joy is (secretly) dating a Chinese boy at school, Wu, she and Frank decide to pretend to be dating; that way, they'll have the freedom to date who they choose.

But both Brit and Wu resent being kept at arms-length from Frank and Joy's families, and ultimately, both relationships break up as Frank and Joy fall for each other instead. Even that, however, doesn't solve all their problems. Frank still has to figure out how to deal with his parents' racism - not just over who he dates, but over his best friend, Q, who's black (and has a secret love interest that he won't divulge). There's pressure over SAT scores and college acceptances. And then Frank's dad gets shot at the family store.

Funny, introspective, full of code-switching and slang, this is a diverse, realistic teen romance.

See also: Picture Us in the Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert

Quotes

It's like talking out loud to ourselves, but in front of each other. (8)

Everyone has loveliness inside if you look carefully. Lots of the world is like this. (8)

There are too many worlds in my head...all with their own confusing laws of nature, gravitational strengths, and speeds of light, and really all I want to do is reach escape velocity, bust out into space, and form my own planet tweaked just how I want it. (69)

"I'm just so sick of what they want versus what I want." (Joy to Frank, 79)

"Humanity's greatest strength - and also the reason for its ultimate downfall - is its ability to normalize even the bizarre." (Brit to Frank, 135)

And who are Mom-n-Dad, really? What I see - the little I'm able to see - can't be the whole picture. There are depths to them I can't fathom yet. I probably never will. (188)

"I feel like everyone speaks a different language from everyone else." (Brit to Frank, 207)

People who let themselves learn new things are the best kind of people. (214)

She feels different. She feels like I'm about to leave her. And I feel different. Like a liar. (240)

Love is a belief mutually held. As soon as that belief fades on either end, then poof, the whole thing falls face-flat like a tug-of-war suddenly gone one-sided. (377) show less